John Badham

John Badham (April 1, 1937 – December 8, 2016) was a Canadian sportscaster and radio announcer. He did play-by-play commentary for five Canadian Football League teams for 22 seasons and announced at 24 Grey Cups. He also covered the 1976 Summer Olympics and 1984 Winter Olympics for CBC Sports, and later worked for radio stations in Peterborough, Ontario from 1988 to 2016. He was inducted into the media section of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1995.

Early career in Saskatchewan John Badham was born on April 1, 1937, in Brock, Saskatchewan, and was the son of an Anglican priest. His family moved around to several locations in Saskatchewan, then settled in Weyburn where he finished high school. He then worked at the Weyburn Mental Hospital and met his future wife, Dorothy Issac, who was a nurse. He and his wife had four children.

Badham began his sports career doing radio broadcasts for the Weyburn Beavers senior ice hockey team during the 1957–58 season. He then did play-by-play commentary for Saskatchewan Roughriders games in the Canadian Football League from 1959 to 1969, while working for CKCK-FM based in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Middle career across Canada Badham moved to Toronto in 1969, and did play-by-play for the Toronto Argonauts, including three tenures on three separate radio stations.

While working for CBC Sports, Badham covered the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. For his commentary at the canoe and kayak events, neither he nor the director knew anything about the sport and relied on fellow commentator Marjorie Homer-Dixon who represented Canada in kayak events at the Summer Olympic Games in 1968 and 1972.

Badham became the play-by-play announcer for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on CJJD-AM in 1978. He later moved to Vancouver to be the play-by-play announcer on CFUN for the BC Lions until the 1983 season.

Badham covered the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo for CBC Sports. He also covered the Commonwealth Games, a Super Bowl, and Canadian and World Curling Championships. but resigned after a few games to remain as a journalist for the team.

Badham returned to radio part-time in 2013 as host of the show The Regulars on Extra 90.5 until early in 2016, He was inducted into the media section of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1995.