After being wooed by various publishers for years, veteran sports play-by-play broadcaster Jim Robson, at 69, agreed to allow Jason Farris, a 38-year-old software businessman, to compile his memorabilia for Hockey Play-by-Play: Around the NHL with Jim Robson ($99; $44.95), a scrapbook-styled coffee table book. A member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, the much-loved Robson, known for his "message to hospital patients and shut-ins" and other people who couldn't get out to the games, retired from radio in 1999 and last called a hockey game on CKNW radio when the Vancouver Canucks lost game seven to the New York Islanders in the 1994 Stanley Cup final series. Although he was the voice of the Vancouver Canucks for 25 years, long-time British Columbians fondly remember Jim Robson as the voice of the Vancouver Mounties baseball team in the Pacific Coast League. Robson lives in Kitsilano with a summer home on Galiano Island. "The business has changed quite a bit," Robson told Iain MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun. "It's entertainment now and I was never an entertainer... I think the kids today would find [my broadcasts] dull."
Jason Farris' follow-up project is Hockey Play-by-Play: Canuck Captains with Jim Robson ($16.95), a 32-page program-style book that features memorabilia and recollections from Hockey Hall of Fame broadcaster Jim Robson and the next 'voice of the Canucks', John Shorthouse. In commemoration of the Canucks' 40-year anniversary, this publication chronicles and celebrates the first ten captains who have led the NHL's Vancouver Canucks, from Orland Kurtenbach to Roberto Luongo. The book recalls ten great games, with examples of Jim's and John's hand-written game notes and hockey memorabilia. Canuck captains like Trevor Linden, Stan Smyl and Don Lever recall memorable nights wearing the 'C' and what it takes to be a captain in the NHL. The book is available for purchase via the author's website. 978-0-9739016-3-4
As Brad Pitt's recent movie Moneyball makes clear, general managers of sports franchises are as much responsible for victory or defeat as players and coaches. In 84 years of NHL history, only 32 general managers have won the Stanley Cup as a GM. "I believe that the NHL's general managers have been the brains and the conscience of the game since the league opened for business in 1917," says Brian Burke, who won the cup with the Anaheim Ducks in 2007. Jason Farris reportedly took 18 months and 60,000 kms of travelling to create Behind the Moves: NHL General Managers Tell How Winners Are Built ($99.95), a 252-page coffee table book based on his in-person interviews with every living NHL GM who has taken a team to the Stanley Cup final. Collectively these 35 GMs represent over 500 seasons of GM experience. It is touted as part history book, part encyclopedia and part manual for would-be managers.
BOOKS:
Hockey Play-by-Play: Around the NHL with Jim Robson (Vancouver: 2005, $44.95).
Hail Cesare: Trail through the NHL by Jason Farris (Vancouver: 2007, $44.95)
Hockey Play-by-Play: Canuck Captains with Jim Robson (Vancouver: 2010) $16.95 978-0-9739016-3-4
Behind the Moves: NHL General Managers Tell How Winners Are Built (Vancouver: 2012, $99.95)
[BCBW 2012] "Sports" "Journalism"
[Robson Hockey Book, 1437 Kings Avenue, West Vancouver, BC V7T 2C7]
Jason Farris' follow-up project is Hockey Play-by-Play: Canuck Captains with Jim Robson ($16.95), a 32-page program-style book that features memorabilia and recollections from Hockey Hall of Fame broadcaster Jim Robson and the next 'voice of the Canucks', John Shorthouse. In commemoration of the Canucks' 40-year anniversary, this publication chronicles and celebrates the first ten captains who have led the NHL's Vancouver Canucks, from Orland Kurtenbach to Roberto Luongo. The book recalls ten great games, with examples of Jim's and John's hand-written game notes and hockey memorabilia. Canuck captains like Trevor Linden, Stan Smyl and Don Lever recall memorable nights wearing the 'C' and what it takes to be a captain in the NHL. The book is available for purchase via the author's website. 978-0-9739016-3-4
As Brad Pitt's recent movie Moneyball makes clear, general managers of sports franchises are as much responsible for victory or defeat as players and coaches. In 84 years of NHL history, only 32 general managers have won the Stanley Cup as a GM. "I believe that the NHL's general managers have been the brains and the conscience of the game since the league opened for business in 1917," says Brian Burke, who won the cup with the Anaheim Ducks in 2007. Jason Farris reportedly took 18 months and 60,000 kms of travelling to create Behind the Moves: NHL General Managers Tell How Winners Are Built ($99.95), a 252-page coffee table book based on his in-person interviews with every living NHL GM who has taken a team to the Stanley Cup final. Collectively these 35 GMs represent over 500 seasons of GM experience. It is touted as part history book, part encyclopedia and part manual for would-be managers.
BOOKS:
Hockey Play-by-Play: Around the NHL with Jim Robson (Vancouver: 2005, $44.95).
Hail Cesare: Trail through the NHL by Jason Farris (Vancouver: 2007, $44.95)
Hockey Play-by-Play: Canuck Captains with Jim Robson (Vancouver: 2010) $16.95 978-0-9739016-3-4
Behind the Moves: NHL General Managers Tell How Winners Are Built (Vancouver: 2012, $99.95)
[BCBW 2012] "Sports" "Journalism"
[Robson Hockey Book, 1437 Kings Avenue, West Vancouver, BC V7T 2C7]
Articles: 2 Articles for this author
Behind the Moves
Publisher's Promo (2012)
Promo material from Brian Burke:
By now you've already heard about a book that I am truly excited about, Behind the Moves: NHL General Managers Tell how Winners are Built. Finally, a book has been compiled about the National Hockey League's general managers, and by an author for whom I have great respect.
Behind the Moves is part encyclopedia, part history book, part manual for would-be managers. And it's your ticket to the general manager's office, where you'll find out all about the trades, the championships, the negotiations with agents, and the day-to-day dealing with owners and the media. You'll enjoy it, and you'll learn a lot, too.
NHL GMs are busy guys, but I and 34 of the top GMs all-time have personally invested significant time, energy, and materials into the making of this book, giving you totally unique insight into pro hockey. Behind the Moves is not an outsiders account, it's an insider's view of what's truly involved in being an NHL GM! For me, it has been a true honor to be associated with so many iconic hockey personalities through the making of Behind the Moves ― friends and colleagues like Glen Sather, Pat Quinn, and George McPhee, but also legends whom I was fortunate enough to overlap with like Bill Torrey, Emile Francis, and Sam Pollock. Like each of them, I am proud of our game's history and tradition and the men who shaped the teams that have excited fans over the years. And because I was so impressed with the concept of Behind the Moves, I jumped in and wrote the book's Foreword.
I believe that the NHL's general managers have been the brains and the conscience of the game since the league opened for business in 1917. Yet, surprisingly, little has been written about them. But is there a more important job on the team than the guy who puts the team together?
Like you, I've always been interested in knowing what other managers thought, so I could maybe learn to emulate certain types and avoid the other kinds. Behind the Moves is that playbook for all managers and those aspiring to get into, or move up in, the game. You'll hear directly from the GMs who all share an undying passion for the game ― past managers, current managers, champions, tenured veterans, innovators, old-schoolers, educated men and men with diplomas marked "Original Six."
Brian Burke
President & General Manager, Toronto Maple Leafs
Hail Cesare: Trail through the NHL by Jason Farris
Info
Hail Cesare ($44.95) follows Cesare Maniago's career as one of only five NHL goalies who played 150 games in the 1960s and 250 games in the 1970s for the Maple Leafs, Canadiens, Rangers, Minnesota North Stars and the Vancouver Canucks. 0-9739016-2-4