Duthie Article on the late Paul McLean
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From TSN.ca:
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Duthie: So long Big Booooooy
TSN.ca Staff
12/19/2005
"Hey Big Booooooooy!"
Paul McLean greeted all his good friends this way, and vise versa. It was like a secret fraternity handshake, a confirmation that you were one of Mac's guys.
And Mac had a lot of guys. (Mac had a lot of gals too, but that's another story.)
Almost every face you watch on TSN, especially during football and curling season, plus the countless people you don't see, are better because of Paul McLean.
Ask Glen Suitor and John Wells. They had Mac's calm, steady voice in their ears for the better part of a decade, guiding them through hundreds of CFL broadcasts.
Ask Matt Dunigan, who calls Mac his mentor.
Ask Vic Rauter or Ray Turnbull or Linda Moore, who watched a kid who knew jack-squat about curling become a passionate expert who helped turn the sport into a TV behemoth.
Ask Dave Randorf. Or Chris Schultz. Or Jock Climie. Or Gord Miller. Or Bob McKenzie. Or Rod Smith. Or Rod Black.
Heck, ask me.
When I was a TSN rookie, greener than Kermit, cutting my teeth hosting the CFL in 1998, Mac would call me every week. Sometime to offer encouragement, sometimes advice, sometimes just to be a friend to the New Guy.
And when he'd produce our show, and I'd use some lame line on the air, he'd always open his microphone key (the way producers talk to us) and laugh, so I'd feel like somebody thought it was funny. I'd later learn he did this for everyone. Our very own Ed McMahon.
But don't just ask the commentators. Ask his best friends.
Like producer Jon Hynes and director Paul Hemming, who became the best in the country at what they do, in large part because of Mac.
Like TSN V.P. Rick Chisholm, who trusted Mac so much, he eventually talked him out of his beloved position in the production truck to become TSN's Executive Producer of Events.
Executive Producer at TSN! Mac's Mom and Dad had never been more proud. Their little Woggy, an exec! (Woggy was Paul's childhood nickname, short for Pollywog. No one at TSN knew it, and it's a good thing because Mac would have never heard the end of it.)
Though in retrospect. It was his destiny.
After all, this was same little boy who loved sports from the beginning, begging Dad to take him to Maple Leaf Gardens every Saturday night to cheer for his hero Mike Palmateer.
This was the same ambitious kid who hosted a sports call-in show at Humber College that would get his Dad so riled up, he'd call in.
"Let's go to Line one...Go ahead...Umm...Dad?"
This was the same young man who, while at journalism school in California, had the onions to walk up to some CBS bigwig and convince him to let him do stats for their NFL broadcasts.
This was the same bright young producer who once came up with this really cool idea to help save the CFL. Something called 'Friday Night Football'.
What Mac did for the people he worked with, what he did for the network, made him great.
But what made him a legend, a guy they will talk about forever at TSN, was not how hard he worked, but how hard he played.
My Mac Baptism came at the 1998 Grey Cup in Winnipeg. Our first night in town, he called me in my room around 11:00pm, and asked if I wanted to go for a beer with a couple of the guys.
I wasn't keen. This was my first big assignment, and I wanted to be rested and ready.
"C'mon dude, we'll just go for one," he said. (If it wasn't "Big Booooy" with Mac, it was "dude".)
One? That sounded pretty harmless. Heck, I'd probably be back in bed in a hour!
I crawled home at five.
Turns out "Going for One" in the official Mac dictionary is: "It will be light out when you get home. Guaranteed."
You see Mac... Damn, how do I say this right... loved a good time almost as much as he loved making TV. Which was A TON.
It got him in trouble early on. Bob McKenzie remembers one World Junior Hockey Championship way back when Mac was still a young associate producer. Producer Paul Graham always held a morning meeting, and was a stickler about everyone arriving on time. Unfortunately that week, Mac rarely was.
Well, the morning of the final, the 10:00am meeting starts and Mac is nowhere to be seen. Finally, at 11:05, just as the meeting is breaking up, in walks Mac, acting like nothing is wrong.
"Where the hell have you been Mac?" says Graham.
"What? It's only 10:05!" Mac says, showing everyone his watch, which does indeed say 10:05.
(It is painfully clear to everyone in the room that Mac has moved his watch back an hour in a desperate, yet somehow admirable, attempt to save his ass after being out all night.)
"I don't know how this could have happened!" he continued incredulously. It was Oscar worthy.
He had a similar problem while working under producer Keith Pelley (now the Toronto Argonauts President) at the Scott Tournament of Hearts one year.
Mac was out late every night, and making mistake after mistake on the broadcast. Pelley called him aside and told him he'd give him one more chance at the Brier, and if he didn't get his act together, he'd be gone.
At the Brier, Mac was brilliant.
When the last broadcast was over, he approached Pelley and asked how he did.
"You were perfect, Mac," said Pelley. "You nailed it."
Mac said thanks, then just as he was going to walk away, he added proudly: "By the way...Two hours sleep a night, tops."
This would continue, even as he climbed the ladder at TSN.
You know that men's body-spray commercial where everyone is leaving their building for work, and one guy is just getting home?
That's Mac.
"Good morning Mr. Smith... Good morning Ms. Johnson… Good Night Mr. Mclean."
And yet somehow, it never affected his work.
Matt Dunigan compares Mac to Kenny Stabler, who studied his playbook by the light of the jukebox, but always showed up on game day, ready to lead his team to victory.
Once Mac really did lead us to victory. At that Grey Cup in Winnipeg, he made the single greatest catch I've ever seen: A full-out one-handed diving grab of a 50-yard Glen Suitor bomb...In the middle of a downtown street in Winnipeg - at three in the morning - to give TSN a dramatic victory over Sportsnet in an impromptu touch football game.
Where's NFL Films when you need 'em?
There are countless more stories. Most unprintable.
We told them over and over this weekend, as we said goodbye to Mac.
He died in his sleep last Wednesday, after giving melanoma one hell of a two-year scrap.
Paul David McLean was technically 39. Though if you go strictly by "hours awake", I figure he lived the equivalent of a 60 year-old.
His funeral was held in a church that sits right next to a beer store.
We're guessing this was no coincidence.
Mac is survived by his mother Noreen, father Ken, sister Sheila, and his beloved little niece Jessie, who woke up in the middle of the night this weekend crying: "I am not finished playing with him yet!"
We feel the same way.
So long Big Booooooy.
I don't know which games they show Up There. But they just got one damn good producer.
And I don't know where they go after the games. But it better be open late.
-------------
An excellent send off for one of those unsung heros who worked behind the scenes.
From TSN.ca:
--------
Duthie: So long Big Booooooy
TSN.ca Staff
12/19/2005
"Hey Big Booooooooy!"
Paul McLean greeted all his good friends this way, and vise versa. It was like a secret fraternity handshake, a confirmation that you were one of Mac's guys.
And Mac had a lot of guys. (Mac had a lot of gals too, but that's another story.)
Almost every face you watch on TSN, especially during football and curling season, plus the countless people you don't see, are better because of Paul McLean.
Ask Glen Suitor and John Wells. They had Mac's calm, steady voice in their ears for the better part of a decade, guiding them through hundreds of CFL broadcasts.
Ask Matt Dunigan, who calls Mac his mentor.
Ask Vic Rauter or Ray Turnbull or Linda Moore, who watched a kid who knew jack-squat about curling become a passionate expert who helped turn the sport into a TV behemoth.
Ask Dave Randorf. Or Chris Schultz. Or Jock Climie. Or Gord Miller. Or Bob McKenzie. Or Rod Smith. Or Rod Black.
Heck, ask me.
When I was a TSN rookie, greener than Kermit, cutting my teeth hosting the CFL in 1998, Mac would call me every week. Sometime to offer encouragement, sometimes advice, sometimes just to be a friend to the New Guy.
And when he'd produce our show, and I'd use some lame line on the air, he'd always open his microphone key (the way producers talk to us) and laugh, so I'd feel like somebody thought it was funny. I'd later learn he did this for everyone. Our very own Ed McMahon.
But don't just ask the commentators. Ask his best friends.
Like producer Jon Hynes and director Paul Hemming, who became the best in the country at what they do, in large part because of Mac.
Like TSN V.P. Rick Chisholm, who trusted Mac so much, he eventually talked him out of his beloved position in the production truck to become TSN's Executive Producer of Events.
Executive Producer at TSN! Mac's Mom and Dad had never been more proud. Their little Woggy, an exec! (Woggy was Paul's childhood nickname, short for Pollywog. No one at TSN knew it, and it's a good thing because Mac would have never heard the end of it.)
Though in retrospect. It was his destiny.
After all, this was same little boy who loved sports from the beginning, begging Dad to take him to Maple Leaf Gardens every Saturday night to cheer for his hero Mike Palmateer.
This was the same ambitious kid who hosted a sports call-in show at Humber College that would get his Dad so riled up, he'd call in.
"Let's go to Line one...Go ahead...Umm...Dad?"
This was the same young man who, while at journalism school in California, had the onions to walk up to some CBS bigwig and convince him to let him do stats for their NFL broadcasts.
This was the same bright young producer who once came up with this really cool idea to help save the CFL. Something called 'Friday Night Football'.
What Mac did for the people he worked with, what he did for the network, made him great.
But what made him a legend, a guy they will talk about forever at TSN, was not how hard he worked, but how hard he played.
My Mac Baptism came at the 1998 Grey Cup in Winnipeg. Our first night in town, he called me in my room around 11:00pm, and asked if I wanted to go for a beer with a couple of the guys.
I wasn't keen. This was my first big assignment, and I wanted to be rested and ready.
"C'mon dude, we'll just go for one," he said. (If it wasn't "Big Booooy" with Mac, it was "dude".)
One? That sounded pretty harmless. Heck, I'd probably be back in bed in a hour!
I crawled home at five.
Turns out "Going for One" in the official Mac dictionary is: "It will be light out when you get home. Guaranteed."
You see Mac... Damn, how do I say this right... loved a good time almost as much as he loved making TV. Which was A TON.
It got him in trouble early on. Bob McKenzie remembers one World Junior Hockey Championship way back when Mac was still a young associate producer. Producer Paul Graham always held a morning meeting, and was a stickler about everyone arriving on time. Unfortunately that week, Mac rarely was.
Well, the morning of the final, the 10:00am meeting starts and Mac is nowhere to be seen. Finally, at 11:05, just as the meeting is breaking up, in walks Mac, acting like nothing is wrong.
"Where the hell have you been Mac?" says Graham.
"What? It's only 10:05!" Mac says, showing everyone his watch, which does indeed say 10:05.
(It is painfully clear to everyone in the room that Mac has moved his watch back an hour in a desperate, yet somehow admirable, attempt to save his ass after being out all night.)
"I don't know how this could have happened!" he continued incredulously. It was Oscar worthy.
He had a similar problem while working under producer Keith Pelley (now the Toronto Argonauts President) at the Scott Tournament of Hearts one year.
Mac was out late every night, and making mistake after mistake on the broadcast. Pelley called him aside and told him he'd give him one more chance at the Brier, and if he didn't get his act together, he'd be gone.
At the Brier, Mac was brilliant.
When the last broadcast was over, he approached Pelley and asked how he did.
"You were perfect, Mac," said Pelley. "You nailed it."
Mac said thanks, then just as he was going to walk away, he added proudly: "By the way...Two hours sleep a night, tops."
This would continue, even as he climbed the ladder at TSN.
You know that men's body-spray commercial where everyone is leaving their building for work, and one guy is just getting home?
That's Mac.
"Good morning Mr. Smith... Good morning Ms. Johnson… Good Night Mr. Mclean."
And yet somehow, it never affected his work.
Matt Dunigan compares Mac to Kenny Stabler, who studied his playbook by the light of the jukebox, but always showed up on game day, ready to lead his team to victory.
Once Mac really did lead us to victory. At that Grey Cup in Winnipeg, he made the single greatest catch I've ever seen: A full-out one-handed diving grab of a 50-yard Glen Suitor bomb...In the middle of a downtown street in Winnipeg - at three in the morning - to give TSN a dramatic victory over Sportsnet in an impromptu touch football game.
Where's NFL Films when you need 'em?
There are countless more stories. Most unprintable.
We told them over and over this weekend, as we said goodbye to Mac.
He died in his sleep last Wednesday, after giving melanoma one hell of a two-year scrap.
Paul David McLean was technically 39. Though if you go strictly by "hours awake", I figure he lived the equivalent of a 60 year-old.
His funeral was held in a church that sits right next to a beer store.
We're guessing this was no coincidence.
Mac is survived by his mother Noreen, father Ken, sister Sheila, and his beloved little niece Jessie, who woke up in the middle of the night this weekend crying: "I am not finished playing with him yet!"
We feel the same way.
So long Big Booooooy.
I don't know which games they show Up There. But they just got one damn good producer.
And I don't know where they go after the games. But it better be open late.
-------------
An excellent send off for one of those unsung heros who worked behind the scenes.
...didn't know of the guy, but if he came up with FNF, then props to him.
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