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Pierre Houde is more than just a play-by-play announcer for Canadiens games on RDS.

He’s also a French teacher.

Houde has been the play-by-play voice for RDS since the network acquired the French-language TV rights for the Canadiens in 1989. But francophones aren’t the only ones who watch Canadiens games on RDS and Houde has certainly helped many anglophones in Montreal and across Canada learn at least some French by watching the games.

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“I’ve got an amazing, heartwarming support from the English community in Montreal,” Houde said in a phone interview Monday. “I think all my years on radio with Terry (doing a morning segment on CHOM-FM with Terry DiMonte) probably helped to establish that bond. I guess it also has a bit to do with me being I think the only francophone to call a game on TSN in English Canada.

“A lot of people who come to live here — the nouveaux arrivants as we say in French — immigrants, some of them who have been here for a while say they were looking for something to hook to when they came here and they were looking for sports and to be following the main thing in sports here. Of course, they end up following hockey and they become hockey fans. And some of them say that I helped them to learn the basics of the French language through hockey games. That’s pretty fantastic.”

It’s also pretty fantastic that Houde was officially announced last Friday as this year’s recipient of the Hall of Fame’s Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for outstanding contributions as a hockey broadcaster. It’s always nice when good things happen to good people and Houde is the epitome of a gentleman.

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Houde first learned he was this year’s award winner on May 14 when he received a phone call from Chuck Kaiton, president of the NHL Broadcasters’ Association. The first person Houde thought about was his older brother Paul, who died unexpectedly on March 2 at age 69 due to a complication following surgery to remove a mass from his brain.

“The first thing that came to my mind was to thank my late brother, who passed a couple of months ago,” said Houde, who grew up in St-Laurent. “He was a very vocal promoter of me deserving eventually this honour. His unexpected passing is still so fresh and so recent that I had some sort of an emotional thought for him and then I thanked Chuck and the selection committee.”

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It was because of his brother that Houde, 66, got into the media business — first in radio — as an 18-year-old. Paul, who was already well known for his impersonations of famous Quebecers like Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau and Canadiens players Henri Richard and Jean Béliveau, had been doing an overnight shift at CKAC before leaving for another radio job in the Outaouais region. Houde called the CKAC program director and asked if he could replace his brother. That led to an audition and a couple of weekend trials before he got the job.

Houde was studying to become a chartered accountant and looked at the radio work as nothing more than a good student job. But his passion for broadcasting grew and he eventually graduated from Université de Montréal with a degree in marketing instead of accounting, which he felt would help him more in the broadcasting world. He ended up getting some freelance jobs in sports and got his first big break in 1984 when he was hired by Radio-Canada as a freelancer to do play-by-play at the Los Angeles Olympics for canoeing, rowing and kayaking.

Houde’s marketing degree and his experience in broadcasting and sports would later help him land the job as general manager of the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix for two years, in 1985 and 1986.

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Guy Des Ormeaux was the executive producer for Radio-Canada when Houde worked at the Los Angeles Olympics. Des Ormeaux was then hired as vice-president and executive producer for the launch of RDS in 1989. Des Ormeaux was impressed by the job Houde did at the Los Angeles Olympics and decided to hire him as the Canadiens’ play-by-play man for RDS. Since 1993, Houde has also called Formula One races on RDS. He will cover this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve and later this summer will work his 13th Olympics as the prime-time RDS studio host for the Paris Games.

Houde is a man who enjoys his life and has no plans to retire any time soon. RDS has two more seasons left on its regional rights-holder deal with the Canadiens and Houde says it’s uncertain what new platforms might arise by then for coverage of games. He was inspired by Richard Garneau and Bob Cole, who both worked as broadcasters well into their 80s.

“I’m not saying I want to go that far … I’m not saying I don’t want to go that far,” Houde said. “But I guess as far as reasonable and possible, I don’t see myself stopping.

“I’m still as passionate as I was 50 years ago,” he added. “I’m starting my 50th year in broadcasting in September.”

Félicitations, Pierre!

[email protected]

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