Frontenacs radio voice Jim Gilchrist calls 3,000th game

It was a big night in Kingston on Friday as long-time Frontenacs radio play-by-play voice Jim Gilchrist called his 3,000th career OHL contest. The Fronts came through on the scoreboard, defeating the Barrie Colts 4-2.

Gilchrist, who got his start with the Oshawa Generals back in 1972, has been covering the Frontenacs franchise since 1980 when names such as Bernie Nicholls, Scott Howson and Rik Wilson starred for the then-Kingston Canadians. He took a seven-year hiatus beginning in 1993 to take on some different responsibilities in the CKWS news department, but returned to the broadcast booth in 2001.

GIlchrist has seen an abundance of prominent names come through Kingston, both on the ice and behind the bench and took some time to share some of his favourite stories with Jan Murphy of The Kingston Whig-Standard. He cites favourite moments such as calling the longest game in OHL history, a four-overtime contest between the Frontenacs and rival Belleville Bulls on March 20, 1990. He also cites calling a scoreless tie, along with the first goal ever scored by a goaltender in Canadian Hockey League history when Chris Clifford did so on January 7, 1986.

“I just love doing it. And working with all these people,” he told Murphy. “I figure if I hadn’t missed those seven years, then the one year of the pandemic, I would have been over 4,000 or close to it. Maybe another couple of hundred or so, 3,500 maybe,” he speculated when asked what he has left in him. “The radio contract here has a three-year deal, so I’ll see at the end of it, (but a) couple more seasons if they want me.”

You can read the entire feature at thewhig.com.

Several of Jim Gilchrist’s colleagues shared congratulatory messages on the occasion of his 3,000th career OHL game