The only voice Edmonton Oilers radio broadcasts have ever had will soon go silent. Rod Phillips, who has broadcast the team’s games since the franchise came to being in the World Hockey Association in 1973, announced Friday that he is retiring.
However, he will call 10 games next season, part of a farewell tour the Oilers are calling “Rod’s Classics.”
Fans will get the opportunity to vote on which 10 games once the 2010-11 NHL schedule is released. “It’s hard to imagine that Rod is hanging up the mic,” Oilers president – and former player – Kevin Lowe said in a statement on the team’s website.
“There is only one Rod Phillips, and there will never be another like him in our city. He’s been the voice of this franchise and has called every single significant moment in Oilers history. He also left nothing on the table and cared as deeply about this team and this city as anyone ever has. To me, he’s an Oiler icon, a great Edmontonian and has left his mark on NHL hockey and Canadian hockey.”
Phillips, a 68-year-old native of Calmar, Alta., called more than 3,700 games in his career, including the Oilers five Stanley Cup championships between 1984 and 1990. In 2003, he was named the recipient of the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award, presented by the Hockey Hall of Fame.
