When Louie DeBrusk launched his career as a radio colour analyst with the Phoenix Coyotes, in 2005, he was not the only member of his family to receive security clearance at the arena. His son, Jake, also got an all-access pass.
He turned nine that season, and he was turned loose on Glendale Arena. The security guards knew him, watching him wander the arena in search of fun or snacks or both. When the Pittsburgh Penguins rolled into town, Jake took some of his hockey cards into the visiting dressing room to meet a young Sidney Crosby.
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“I’ll never forget it: In that big scrum, the first with Sid in Phoenix, he’s right there beside him, looking up at him,” Louie said with a chuckle. “It’s one of the perks.”
Louie DeBrusk is working in Canada now, as an analyst with Sportsnet, and his son just completed his fourth season as a forward with the Boston Bruins. Jake had already started playing hockey by the time his father was on the radio, and he had already professed his desire to become an NHL player.
His father was asked: What role might that press pass have played in his child’s career path?
“I’ve never had anybody ever ask about that,” said Louie. “But I’ve always said I believe it was hugely instrumental in just continuing his love of the game.”
In the relatively small sphere of Canadian sports broadcasting, children of many on-air personalities are succeeding in high-level sport. That success is not only limited to hockey either, with familiar surnames popping up in the NBA and, most recently, in the Major League Baseball draft.
Several parents were professional athletes in a previous life — Louie DeBrusk was a gritty forward for more than 400 regular-season NHL games — but other broadcasters never climbed much further than the recreational level.
Tyler Black, the eldest son of veteran Canadian sportscaster Rod Black, was selected 33rd overall by the Milwaukee Brewers in this month’s MLB Draft. His brother Brody is an outfielder with Dawson Community College, in Glendive, Mont.
“That’s probably the common denominator: The kids are around it,” said Rod Black. “I think you’re not as intimidated from the environment, perhaps. Or not even that: I think you get inspired, when you see the other athletes around and you say, ‘Hey, I want to do that.’”
Sam Rautins has been mingling with players and executives at NBA games in Toronto for as long as he can remember. His father, Leo, is a long-time analyst for Raptors broadcasts, and always made an effort to bring his children to work.
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“It was a really cool thing,” said Sam. “I think the coolest thing for me was just being able to be around such high-level guys all the time.”
His father tells a story of a time when he left Sam near the scorer’s table before a game. Leo had to run to the media room for a moment. When he returned, Leo noticed then-Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo nearby.
He asked his son if he had said hello.
Colangelo told him that not only had they exchanged pleasantries, but that had also been talking about basketball for 20 minutes.
“You never know what could happen,” said Sam. “You never know who’s going to pop out on the court. Everybody’s always talking with everybody. I’ve always thought that was the coolest part of everything.
“I enjoyed that more than the actual game, you know?”
Sam played basketball for Canisius College, an NCAA Division-I program in Buffalo, N.Y., before the pandemic. His older brother Andy played for Syracuse University and was selected by the New York Knicks in the second round (38th overall) of the 2010 NBA Draft.
“It’s one of the perks of what we do,” said Leo. “Because in many ways, we’re absentee dads, right? We try to make up for it as much as we can. We miss a lot. We’re on the road a lot. We do our best to get to as much as we can, but even then, we’re gone.”
There are other perks, he said. When Sam had questions about the college recruiting process, he found a mentor on set. Jack Armstrong, the Raptors colour voice who was also a Division-I basketball coach, went over to the family home to help.
“He stayed up until three in the morning,” said Leo, “having a glass of wine and talking to Sammy about recruiting.”
Leo Rautins also had a perspective on the game, as a former star at Syracuse who, in 1983, became the first Canadian taken in the first round of the NBA Draft. (He went 17th overall, to the Philadelphia 76ers.)
Ray Ferraro also played the game before picking up a microphone and, in 2015, he got to interview his son Landon while he made his debut with the Bruins in a game against the Maple Leafs. (“Well,” Ray said to start the intermission interview, “this is strange.”)
Rod Black still plays recreational hockey whenever he can, but he never played professionally. Sports just became part of family life. His wife, Nancy, still plays hockey. Her late father, Bill Knibbs, was a forward with the Bruins for 53 games in the 1960s.
They have four children, and all four play sports. Tyler (20) and Brody (19) played triple-A hockey at the same time. Jesse (17) and Sienna (15) are both active in athletics.
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Their father said he would take them into work so often that, when their school held actual take-your-child-to-work days, the children would go into work with another adult, just for something new: “They know what I do, and they’d been there and done that.”
Matt Devlin moved his family to Toronto when he took a play-by-play job with the Raptors in 2008, relocating north from Charlotte. There was already plenty of basketball in the family. His wife, Erin, has two brothers serving as coaches in the NCAA (Ed Conroy, Vanderbilt; Duffy Conroy, Louisiana Tech.)
None of their children could skate when they arrived in Canada. All three — Jack, Ian and Luke — played as many sports as they could when they arrived. There was baseball, soccer, basketball and rugby. They also showed an early interest in hockey.
Ian, the middle son, is playing Junior A in the British Columbia Hockey League, with the Coquitlam Express. Luke, the youngest, has committed to playing at Cornell University, and will represent the United States at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup next month in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Jack, the eldest, is a student manager with the men’s basketball team at the University of Iowa. (And he has a knack for hitting half-court shots when the camera is rolling, too.)
Even though two-thirds of his offspring eventually focused on a sport different than the one he worked, Matt Devlin said there is a universality that translates from the court to the ice. He — and by extension his children — could see the work Kyle Lowry or DeMar DeRozan put into their craft away from the television lights.
“Those stories are something that you share,” said Matt. “Fred VanVleet’s story – which we all know — that’s something that is relatable, it’s something that’s transferable: Even when obstacles are placed in your way, you keep going.”
There were no obstacles in the view Andy Frost secured for his son at Maple Leafs games. Frost spent more than 15 years as the public address announcer at Scotiabank Arena. For four or five games every season, he would bring his son, Morgan, to work with him.
Beginning when Morgan was about 10 years old, he would sit in press row, just below his father, right up in the arena rafters. Sometimes, his father would look down and see his son scribbling on the paper in front of him — sometimes doodles, sometimes notes.
“What he really liked,” said Andy, “was that he could get free ice cream in the press box.”
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In 2017, the Philadelphia Flyers took Morgan with the 27th pick of the NHL Draft. He has since appeared in 22 regular-season games, including two last season.
After games in Toronto, Andy would invite Morgan into a booth, where he fielded calls from Leafs fans — win or lose — for a live show on AM640.
“I’d give him a headset so he could hear the crazy Leaf fan callers and what they’d say,” Andy said with a chuckle. “I guess it was exciting for him. For me, it was about having my kid along for the ride.”
Louie and Jake DeBrusk saw their careers intersect in 2018, when Jake was invited onto the “Hockey Night in Canada” postgame show with host Scott Oake seated on one side, and his father on the other.
Louie has another intersection hanging on the wall in his office. It is a photograph taken during a game in Vancouver. Louie was stationed between the benches, working on the broadcast, and Jake was just a few feet away, following the play from the end of the bench.
“I love it,” the father said proudly. “I look at that picture all the time.”
(Top photo of Jake and Louie DeBrusk: Jeff Vinnick / NHLI via Getty Images)