Courtesy Kelowna.com

(October 29, 2009) For more than 50 years, Bryan Hall has been a staple in not only the Edmonton sports community, but the entire city, which the veteran sportscaster and Eskimos play-by-play announcer proudly calls home.

About to broadcast his final football home game, the 75-year-old reflected on his play-by-play career, which began back in the mid-1960s. He spoke before being honoured by the Canadian Football League club at its 46th annual dinner on Wednesday night.

“It’s the 46th, and I’ve been to all of them,” Hall said, laughing, before going into a 84-second explanation of how the affair first started as a fundraiser under then-general manager Norm Kimball.

“But hey, a dinner is a dinner, and a meal is a meal, and I like to eat.”

The Eskimos honoured Hall by naming the Commonwealth Stadium media centre after him, and that’s where he will call his final Eskimos home game on Friday night against the B.C. Lions.

Hall won’t admit to it, but it will be an emotional evening for him, just like it was on Wednesday night at the sold-out reception.

“For me, you mean? I’m thinking of the football team winning and getting into the playoffs. That’s what I’m thinking about. I’m not thinking about me,” he said jokingly with media prior to the gala.

“I’ll be honest with you. I don’t have any different feeling going into this game, seriously, than I have for any other game. I’m not dying, I’m not leaving the broadcast business, and I’m not going to be not around the Eskimos. I’m just simply not going to be doing the games anymore,” said Hall, who began calling games in 1965 and has worked them all except for three years in which his good friend, Wes Montgomery, handled the duties.

“That’s 18 days out of 365. The rest of the year is pretty good, too, if you know what I mean.

“I’m a broadcaster. I’m a human being. I have a lot of other things in my life besides sports,” said the jazz aficionado, who is also a big tennis fan. “There are a lot of other things in sport besides football, a lot of things in football besides broadcasting games. It’s been one facet that has been particularly nice for me and I’ve enjoyed it immensely. I just won’t be doing games anymore, that’s all.

“You won’t get rid of my mug in the press box. I’ll still be around asking questions. Sometimes people get a little mad at me, but that’s OK. It doesn’t matter.”

Now he’ll be in the Bryan Hall Media Centre, which carries a nice ring to it.

“Isn’t that nice,” he said with a smile. “I was really caught up in that when it was announced that this is what they had done. I think it’s a huge honour, I really do, and that’s all I can say about it. It’s a very special thing for me. It really is.”

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