© Sylvain Simard

It was in two grocery-store aisles north of Montreal a dozen or so years ago that Pierre Houde truly learned his impact on listeners.

The hugely popular French-language voice of the Montreal Canadiens is still looking for the words to express his appreciation for being named recipient of the 2024 Foster Hewitt Memorial Award.

Named for the hockey broadcast pioneer, the Hewitt Award has since 1984 been presented annually by the Hockey Hall of Fame, selected by the NHL Broadcasters Association, to a member of the radio and television industry who has made outstanding contributions to their business and the game.

A broadcaster for a half-century, Houde has called Canadiens games on French-language RDS since 1989, when the network acquired the team’s television rights. Some 3,500 hockey games into his career, by his estimate, his voice is one of the most recognizable in his native province, Catholicism and the Canadiens — perhaps even in that order — regarded as Quebec’s two most important religions.

But it was away from the microphone that Houde recalls a moment that will forever be burned into his heart.

“I was on the phone in a grocery store, near a woman with her young son in her basket,” Houde said. “She walked by and when my call was finished, she came back to ask, ‘Are you Pierre Houde? I don’t know you but my son knows your voice.’”

Houde is often recognized for his baritone, so for the moment, this greeting wasn’t uncommon. He was pleased to stop, thankful for a mother’s kindness.

© Pierre Houde

Play-by-play announcer Pierre Houde (center) with analyst Yvon Pedneault (left) and host Denis Caron in the RDS studios on Oct. 15, 1989. This was the day before the fledgling network’s first hockey telecast, a 4-3 overtime win for the visiting Washington Capitals against the Montreal Canadiens.

“And then I looked at the boy, who was maybe 5, very small, and noticed that he wasn’t really looking anywhere,” he said. “I realized that he was blind. He didn’t know me by sight, but by my voice. I spoke to him and his mother told me, ‘This is such an amazing comfort to him.’ I was almost on the verge of tears.

“A couple of aisles after, I bumped into them again. I asked the boy, ‘Would you like me to do a hockey call and you’re the star player?’ He had a huge smile on his face and his mother was ecstatic. So I built up a play from the defensive end to the goalie, and the young boy scored a beautiful goal. I could see the light in his eyes.”

This off-the-radar moment illustrates, in part, why Houde is revered in Quebec, well beyond his play-by-play call of the Canadiens.

Fluently bilingual, the genial, gentlemanly 67-year-old is perhaps equally popular with English hockey fans, thousands tuning to the French broadcasts for his energetic style, exhaustive knowledge and his signature “Et le buuuuut!”, a drawn-out crescendo call of a Canadiens goal.

For years, in English, Houde had a regular spot with Montreal’s CHOM-FM morning host Terry DiMonte. He was must-listening for his thoughtful opinions on hockey, motorsport and more.

“I’m very proud that I have a lot of support from the English community,” he said. “It’s a great bond.”

© Sylvain Simard

Pierre Houde (left) with analyst Marc Denis in the RDS Bell Centre broadcast booth on Oct. 17, 2024.

Houde’s career began in Montreal radio at the age of 18, alongside his late brother, Paul, a giant in Quebec broadcasting three years his senior who was lost this past March following complications from brain surgery.

A planned career as a chartered accountant changed course to a degree in marketing. Working a music-radio job on weekends, talking sports between songs, Houde caught the ear of a producer with Radio-Canada. He was tapped by the French-language national TV network to call play-by-play of rowing, canoe and kayak events at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Houde was a revelation, more interested in telling human-interest stories than merely calling races and relating statistics. His skills did not go unnoticed and in 1989, he was hired by RDS when the French equivalent to TSN first signed on.

Throughout a career which is still going strong, Houde has called dozens of Stanley Cup Playoff rounds and the Stanley Cup Final 12 times. Since 1993, he has also called Formula 1 racing for RDS and has broadcast 13 Olympic Games, most recently this summer in Paris as the network’s prime-time studio host.

It was Olympic hockey that has provided Houde with his greatest thrill as a broadcaster, the gold medal-winning “Golden Goal” of Team Canada’s Sidney Crosby at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

“As much as I’d like to have memories of that magnitude of the Canadiens that would even come close, and there are a bunch of Habs games I could talk about, Vancouver was so big for so many reasons,” he said.

“When I called Sidney’s goal, I stopped talking because I wanted people in their living rooms to enjoy the moment without my interruption. It’s the ultimate moment that comes to my mind.”

Houde sees a common denominator in all sports that he calls, winter or summer.

© Francois Laplante/FreestylePhoto/Getty Images

Pierre Houde with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman at Montreal’s Bonaventure Hotel on Nov. 17, 2017, during a business community question-and-answer session as part of the League’s 100th anniversary celebration.

“The foundation always is, ‘Where’s the drama, the human factor, what’s the reality?’ It all starts with human beings competing live, trying to be the best at what they do. Hockey is a thing that gets you to be a half a second ahead of whatever is going to happen or you’re already going to be late.”

Houde is the 45th recipient of the Hewitt Award, the seventh who has called the Canadiens his “home” team, even though his work has stretched far beyond Montreal. He is immensely proud of joining six Quebec-based broadcast legends who have gone before him: in French: Rene Lecavalier, Richard Garneau and Gilles Tremblay; in English: Danny Gallivan, Doug Smith and Dick Irvin Jr.

The French broadcasters honored before him, all gone now, were friends and mentors, inspirations and teachers. Irvin Jr., 92, a dear friend, sent warm wishes last May upon hearing the 2024 Hewitt announcement.

Humbled to be included in the full roster, Houde is fiercely proud of his friendship with the late Bob Cole, the 1996 Hewitt Award recipient, in the twilight of the Hockey Night in Canada icon’s life.

Houde shares his award with the many who helped pave his road into broadcasting, and throughout his career. Paul Houde championed his younger brother at every turn, and Pierre views the Hewitt Award “as a big gift from Paul, who was always a big promoter of mine.

“There are so many who have been involved in this. You don’t feel undeserving, but you feel extra humbled by it. I feel smaller in a way, small to be a piece of this amazingly exclusive reality.

“Rene Lecavalier gave me the best advice. Translated from French, it was, ‘Never lose your sense of wonder. It will be your main ingredient in a long career.’

“I’ve always just wanted to do my job to the best of my ability and be respectful of the game and my audience. You want to enjoy your passion every day.”

Top photo: Pierre Houde in the RDS Bell Centre broadcast booth on Oct. 17, 2024.