TSN's Gord Miller Fought City Hall in 1979, and Won

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TSN's Gord Miller Fought City Hall in 1979, and Won

Postby jon » Fri Feb 14, 2014 9:05 am

Feb. 14, 1979: TSN sportscaster fought city curfew bylaw as a teen
By Chris Zdeb, Edmonton Journal
February 14, 2014 5:59 AM

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Gord Miller fought city hall before becoming a Hall of Fame broadcaster.

He’s a hotshot TSN sportscaster who was inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame last year for his contributions as a broadcaster, but when Gord Miller was a teenager, he was fighting city hall.

As a 14-year-old McKernan Junior High School student, he spent eight hours sitting in city council chambers waiting for a discussion of a proposed curfew bylaw. Shortly after it started about 10 p.m., chief curfew proponent Ald. Ron Hayter launched into a lengthy and fervent speech urging the need to prohibit children under 16 from being out after 10 p.m.

“The bylaw would not be an intrusion on youth — it will be for their own good,” said Hayter. “Children under age 16 do not have the same maturity ...”

Miller shook his head, scowling, then, sighing, he dropped his face into his hands.

When he lifted his head again, his eyes were red and he wiped them with his ski jacket.

The teenager and a few friends had worked hard to rally opposition to the bylaw, collecting 3,000 names on a petition in five days.

During the dinner hour, Miller approached the late Ald. Percy Wickman for support. An impressed Wickman championed the teen’s cause when he spoke to the motion to give the bylaw first reading.

“Gordon Miller should be at home,” groused Hayter in response.

Said Wickman: “Under the curfew he would be home, but if you talked to him at suppertime, you’d find he made more sense than some people here.”

A happy Miller left City Hall after council voted not to give the curfew bylaw first reading.

On graduating from Strathcona Composite High School, the deep-voiced Miller briefly became Wickman’s executive assistant. He was also the PA announcer for the Edmonton Trappers baseball team and for the University of Alberta Golden Bears, and worked weekends for the CBC.

He enrolled in the Radio and Television Arts program at NAIT, but was hired by CBC Television [in Edmonton] before completing the program.

Miller joined TSN as a reporter in 1990 and began calling hockey games three years later.
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