Jim McKenny

James Claude "Howie" McKenny (born December 1, 1946) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and broadcaster.

As a defenceman, McKenny played in the National Hockey League from 1966 to 1978, mostly for the Toronto Maple Leafs, in addition to a short tenure with the Minnesota North Stars. His nickname "Howie" is due to a resemblance to Howie Young. Known for witty one-liners, McKenny once said of professional ice hockey that "half the game is mental, the other half is being mental".

After retiring from playing hockey, McKenny settled in Toronto where he began a career in broadcasting, most notably working as a local television sports reporter on Citytv from 1984 until 2010.

Junior hockey career

Template:Expand section Born in Ottawa, Ontario, McKenny played with the Neil McNeil Maroons of the Metro Junior A league in 1962–63. When the league folded in 1963, McKenny transferred to the Ontario Hockey Association's Toronto Marlboros who won the Memorial Cup in 1964.

As a junior, McKenny was considered by many scouts as the second-best defenceman prospect after Bobby Orr.<ref name="players"/>

In later years, McKenny spoke openly of his personal life and career being negatively affected by periods of alcoholism developed during his teenage years.<ref name="players">Podnieks, pp. 567-568</ref><ref name="pessian">Template:Cite web</ref>

Pro hockey career

Drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the third round of the 1963 NHL amateur draft (17th overall), McKenny had difficulty staying in the NHL early in his career and often played forward instead of his usual position on defence. He was called up from the Marlboros to play two games with the Leafs in the 1965–66 season. He was given two other opportunities with the Leafs in 1966–67 and 1967–68 but only played a total of eleven games. However, on February 24, 1968, he scored the game-winning goal in a 1-0 win over Boston, which was the second goal of his NHL career.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He struggled to stick with the Maple Leafs for several years, attributed to a poor attitude, possibly his alcoholism<ref name="players"/> and his antipathy towards the high-pressure style of coach and general manager Punch Imlach.<ref>Cox, Damien & Stellick, Gord "'67:", 2004 p.260 Template:ISBN</ref> He played in the minor leagues for the Tulsa Oilers, Rochester Americans, and Vancouver Canucks of the Western Hockey League. Throughout the mid-1960s with the Rochester Americans, young McKenny and veteran Don Cherry were roommates when on the road.

McKenny finally became a full-time member of the Maple Leafs during the 1969–70 season and became one of the Leafs top defencemen for eight seasons. McKenny has the sixth-highest points total for Leafs defencemen, accumulating 327 points (81 goals, 246 assists) in 594 games, behind only Börje Salming, Tomáš Kaberle, Morgan Rielly, Tim Horton, and Ian Turnbull.<ref name="Hockey DB">Template:Cite web</ref> McKenny was paired frequently with former Marlboro team-mate Brian Glennie, with offensive skills complementing the hard-hitting, defence-oriented style of Glennie. In 1974, McKenny played in the NHL All-Star Game. In 1971, he also appeared in the movie Face-Off as the skating stand-in for Art Hindle.

Near the end of his career, McKenny was sent down to the Dallas Black Hawks Central Hockey League (CHL) for the 1977–78 season, and was subsequently named to the CHL's Second All-Star Team. On May 15, 1978, McKenny was traded to the Minnesota North Stars for cash and future considerations (the rights to Owen Lloyd), playing in only ten games before retiring from the NHL.

McKenny played the 1979-80 season in Europe—in Lyon, France and Rapperswil, Switzerland with SC Rapperswil–Jona—before retiring completely from hockey.

Post-hockey

After hockey, McKenny returned to Toronto and began attempting to break into the broadcasting industry, selling advertising and volunteering on the weekends at radio stations CHUM-AM and CHUM-FM. He soon landed a gig as a colour commentator for Canadian-Italian Hockey League (CIHL) games at St. Mike's Arena, working Friday nights alongside play-by-play announcer Brad Diamond on local station CFMT-TV branded as "Multilingual Television".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

He was then hired by Gary Slaight at the Slaight Communications-owned Q107 radio station to sell advertising and contribute on the microphone on a show with Scruff Connors and Gene Valaitis.<ref name="Howie-torontomike">Template:Cite news</ref>

Throughout this time, McKenny supplemented his income with modelling gigs.

Citytv

In 1984, after longtime Citytv sports anchor Jim Tatti left to launch Sportsline on the Canada-wide Global Television Network, 37-year-old McKenny was hired at Citytv. In addition to filing sports reports, McKenny began appearing as in-studio sports anchorman on the daily CityPulse 6p.m. and 11p.m. newscasts.<ref name="Howie-gord">Template:Cite news</ref> During their on-camera banter before and after the sports segments, lead anchorman Gord Martineau usually addressed McKenny by his nickname "Howie".<ref name="Howie-gord"/>

Over time, in addition to professional sports, McKenny devoted a significant portion of his CityPulse segments to covering local Toronto-area high school sports. During the high school sports season, this included the 'Athlete of the Week' feature celebrating a different high school athlete's exceptional performance; the segment eventually became somewhat of a signature for the reporter.<ref name="Howie-torontomike"/>

While on vacation in Montego Bay, Jamaica during November 2002, 55-year-old McKenny suffered a heart attack following a workout.<ref name="Howie-heart">Template:Cite news</ref> After being taken to Half Moon Clinic in Jamaica, he was transported by air ambulance to South Miami Hospital where he underwent angioplasty.<ref name="Howie-heart"/> He has since been able to make a full recovery.<ref name="players"/> In later interviews, McKenny talked about having to borrow US$70,000 from friends in order to immediately cover the U.S. airlift and hospital costs due to not having his Canadian medical insurance information on him.<ref name="Howie-torontomike"/>

The December 27, 2009 broadcast of CityPulse Tonight (11p.m. air time) was McKenny's last with Citytv as the station refocused its sports coverage solely around the younger anchor Kathryn Humphreys.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Howie-torontomike"/> McKenny agreed to a deal to continue anchoring the sports package on the weekend newscasts for another year due to Humphreys' unwillingness to work the weekends.<ref name="Howie-torontomike"/>

McKenny, at the age of 64, did not pursue further jobs in broadcasting after leaving Citytv, and instead counselled alcohol addicts.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2013, McKenney was inducted into the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref>

Personal

Family

McKenny and his wife Christine have two children, a son and a daughter. His daughter died in a car accident in 2013.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Alcoholism

McKenny struggled with alcoholism for much of his career in hockey and television, starting during his late teens and continuing well into his forties. He has been sober for over two decades.<ref name="pessian" /> He now helps other addicts by working as a counsellor at the Canadian Centre for Addictions, based in Port Hope, Ontario.<ref name="pessian" /><ref>Canadian Centre for Addictions</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

				Regular season						Playoffs
Season	Team	League		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1962–63	Toronto Neil McNeil Maroons	MetJHL		37	5	12	17	43		10	3	3	6	10
1962–63	Toronto Neil McNeil Maroons	M-Cup		—	—	—	—	—		6	1	1	2	8
1963–64	Toronto Marlboros	OHA		56	7	31	38	102		9	2	0	2	22
1963–64	Toronto Marlboros	M-Cup		—	—	—	—	—		12	1	7	8	22
1964–65	Toronto Marlboros	OHA		52	7	41	48	117		19	4	15	19	43
1965–66	Toronto Marlboros	OHA		42	14	26	40	78		14	3	10	13	38
1965–66	Rochester Americans	AHL		1	0	1	1	0		—	—	—	—	—
1965–66	Toronto Maple Leafs	NHL		2	0	0	0	2		—	—	—	—	—
1965–66	Tulsa Oilers	CPHL		—	—	—	—	—		4	2	2	4	2
1966–67	Toronto Maple Leafs	NHL		6	1	0	1	0		—	—	—	—	—
1966–67	Tulsa Oilers	CPHL		45	9	19	28	29		—	—	—	—	—
1966–67	Rochester Americans	AHL		19	3	6	9	10		7	0	0	0	2
1967–68	Toronto Maple Leafs	NHL		5	1	0	1	0		—	—	—	—	—
1967–68	Rochester Americans	AHL		46	10	22	32	33		11	2	2	4	4
1968–69	Toronto Maple Leafs	NHL		7	0	0	0	2		—	—	—	—	—
1968–69	Rochester Americans	AHL		47	19	31	50	22		—	—	—	—	—
1968–69	Vancouver Canucks	WHL		18	7	14	21	4		8	5	5	10	6
1969–70	Toronto Maple Leafs	NHL		73	11	33	44	34		—	—	—	—	—
1970–71	Toronto Maple Leafs	NHL		68	4	26	30	42		6	2	1	3	2
1971–72	Toronto Maple Leafs	NHL		76	5	31	36	27		5	3	0	3	2
1972–73	Toronto Maple Leafs	NHL		77	11	41	52	55		—	—	—	—	—
1973–74	Toronto Maple Leafs	NHL		77	14	28	42	36		4	0	2	2	0
1974–75	Toronto Maple Leafs	NHL		66	8	35	43	31		7	0	1	1	2
1975–76	Toronto Maple Leafs	NHL		46	10	19	29	19		6	2	3	5	2
1976–77	Toronto Maple Leafs	NHL		76	14	31	45	36		9	0	2	2	2
1977–78	Toronto Maple Leafs	NHL		15	2	2	4	8		—	—	—	—	—
1977–78	Dallas Black Hawks	CHL		55	21	31	52	45		13	1	6	7	8
1978–79	Minnesota North Stars	NHL		10	1	1	2	2		—	—	—	—	—
1978–79	Oklahoma City Stars	CHL		33	11	23	34	10		—	—	—	—	—
1979–80	SC Rapperswil-Jona	NLB		—	—	—	—	—		—	—	—	—	—
AHL totals				113	32	60	92	65		18	2	2	4	6
NHL totals				604	82	247	329	294		37	7	9	16	10

References

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External links

• Template:Icehockeystats