Darren Dutchyshen: Remembering the “class clown” from Porcupine Plain

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Darren Dutchyshen had no broadcasting idols while he grew up in Porcupine Plain, where the family TV set pulled in, at most, a station or two.

But he had a big personality — “I was always kind of a class clown, jerk-around, hyper, vocal kid,” he told the Edmonton Journal in 1990 — and he turned an instinctual knack for front-of-camera cheek into a big, big career.

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Dutchyshen, TSN’s longtime sports anchor, died Wednesday at age 57 after a fight with cancer. Great broadcasters carry one definable mark: You feel like you know them, even if you never met them. Dutchy, as they called him, was one of those broadcasters.

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Kevin Jesus never met the man, but he’s worth hearing from today because of the way two lives and broadcast careers intersected from afar.

“I grew up idolizing the guy,” begins Jesus, a long-time sportscaster who is currently a senior news producer with Edmonton’s Global Television.

“He was a star here in Edmonton, at ITV News, doing Sports Night. For a young sports-lover like myself growing up, he influenced my career path. He influenced the rest of my life, quite frankly; because of him and people like Rod Phillips, I knew my calling was sports broadcasting.

“And to me, it was so cool — it was such a special moment — to become a sports broadcaster, and to get my start at Global Saskatoon, STV, where he got his start. And then years later, I came to Global Edmonton and walked the same hallways, in the same newsroom, in the same studio he was in.

“There will be so many people,” he adds, “that will have great Dutchyshen stories, people who have known him. For someone who didn’t get a chance to meet him … I felt like I did, in many ways, just by watching him over the years. He had an impact on my career trajectory. And in my personal case, the fact that I got to do sports in Saskatoon, where he started. The fact I did sports, in Edmonton, where he made a name for himself. And I’m still here in the building where he walked the halls.”

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Dutchyshen was an acquired taste when he first got started — rough around the edges, unabashedly carrying small-town verbiage and mannerisms into the studio. Ann Stark, his boss at Edmonton’s ITV (which later became Global), told the Journal in that same 1990 article: “Darren was very different from the really staid, suit-and-tie types. We opted for his sort of vibrant personality just to get everybody’s attention.”

And by that point, at age 23, with 34 years of life ahead of him, Dutchy already had a plan.

“I’d like to go national,” he said. “That would be great. A national sports show. I wouldn’t mind doing colour, play-by-play, or hosting hockey …”

Talk about a dream coming true. He became one of Canada’s pre-eminent sports voices. Every word he spoke, whether from TSN’s SportsCentre anchor desk or out in the field, reflected the joy he took in his job. And he loved sports — its story-lines, its in-play nuances, its personalities.

He kept Saskatchewan, and Porcupine Plain, close. Football fans munching bacon and hash browns during the University of Saskatchewan Huskies’ annual fundraising Dogs’ Breakfast, for example, would often be treated to Dutchyshen doing a top-10 list for them from his anchor desk in Toronto — a bright and entertaining little broadcast, just for the people in that room. Their shared little in-joke.

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“Just his voice is iconic in Canada,” Huskies head coach Scott Flory said Thursday.

Flory, from Regina, spent 15 years on the Montreal Alouettes’ offensive line and is an inductee in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Every so often, he and Dutchyshen would cross paths, and there was always an instant geographic meld.

“Grey Cups, whatever, every time you saw the guy … us Saskatchewan guys all know each other. There’s an instant connection,” Flory said.

“It’s really sad. A guy too young. A guy who was proud of where he was from, and he let people know that.”

Porcupine Plain is one of those interesting little towns with its own mascot — Quilly Willy, a 13-foot porcupine that serves as a local landmark. The place was first settled by returning Great War veterans who saw promise in its forested terrain, and Dutchyshen moved there with his family in Grade 6.

“You can be a sportscaster from a town of 900 people,” he told the Regina Leader-Post in 2012. “You can be a doctor or a lawyer. You can be a business leader. You can be the premier of the province. You can be the prime minister of the country. I’m a firm believer that you can do pretty much anything you want, if you’re motivated.

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“That’s one thing I love about Porcupine Plain. Everybody works there. It’s a hard-working town. I do have a western work ethic. A lot of Canadians work hard, but I’m kind of proud of the fact that we’re from Saskatchewan.”

And so Dutchyshen lived a portion of his life behind a camera, his face and voice chatting sports for the masses, making it feel like he was talking just to you in Porcupine Plain, and to you in Red Deer, and to you in Thunder Bay.

The man from Porcupine Plain influenced a kid from Edmonton to become a sports broadcaster, and today, Kevin Jesus is glad that he invited Darren Dutchyshen into his living room night after night after night.

“A friend of mine sent me a message this morning,” Jesus remarks. “He said, ‘I never knew the guy, but I felt like I did.’ Honestly, you can’t think of a better compliment for someone in broadcasting than that. Darren Dutchyshen made you feel like you were sitting across the table from him, having a drink and enjoying just talking sports. He just did it so differently. He was a pioneer of sorts.

“Now you see all the personalities and stuff like that, but Dutchy was the groundbreaker. He took sports highlights and made it fun and interesting and something anyone can enjoy. You didn’t have to be the hardcore sports fan who knew all the Xs and Os. You could be a generic, general sports fan and really enjoy what was coming across, because he had that personality and that quick wit. He could make anyone smile. He could make anyone laugh. And he knew his stuff.”

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Dutchyshen leaves behind a family, friends, co-workers — and, just like a good broadcaster should, people who never met him but feel punched in the gut by the passing of an always-welcome visitor.

kemitchell@postmedia.com

twitter.com/kmitchsp

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