May he rest in peace!!

Broadcast icon, Pat Marsden dead at 69
TORONTO (CP) – Pat Marsden changed the face of sports broadcast journalism and had a good time doing it. Marsden died Thursday at age 69 of lung cancer.
A colourful character who enjoyed a laugh, a drink, a flutter at the casino, friends and family, Marsden is perhaps best known for his play-by-play coverage of the Canadian Football League telecasts in the 1970s and 1980s. He also worked as host of the 1972 Canada-Soviet Union hockey summit series telecasts.
Marsden was inducted into the Canadian Football Reporters Hall of Fame in 1989.
Leif Pettersen worked with Marsden for five years on CTV’s football telecasts starting in 1982 and the two were also longtime friends.
“I have pictures of him all over my desk today,” Pettersen said.
“He brought so much enthusiasm to the broadcasts. Pat had great knowledge of all sports. He was a great technician of sports, knew them all, knew the personalities.”
Pettersen also recalled how Marsden loved a party.
“Oh gosh, I’ve got stories you cannot print,” Pettersen said. “The thing that hurt us more than anything in our whole football careers doing television was the invention of mini-bars in the hotel. When they put those in, the party never stopped.”
Marsden also spent eight years as morning host at the Toronto all-sports radio station The Fan 590, leaving in May 2004.
Marsden’s wife T.A. told the station that her husband died around 6 a.m. ET on Thursday. He was diagnosed in January and spent time at Sunnybook Hospital.
“He had to get out of here because he couldn’t get a rum and coke,” T.A. said.
Marsden was an Ottawa native, who started a career in radio as sports director of CKOY.
He went on to become the longtime sports director of CTV’s Toronto outlet, CFTO, returning to radio at CFRB after a stormy exchange with his boss.
“He was the host of the No. 1 sportscast in the country for a lot of years at CFTO,” said Ron Reusch, sports director at sister station CFCF in Montreal. “One thing I think Pat did that very few did at that time was express his opinion on a regular basis. He was very outspoken. He would put his own stamp on the shows.
“There weren’t many who did that in the country at that time. And I think Pat started something that a lot of us do now. He was more like a columnist than a sportscaster.”
Marsden was diagnosed after visiting his doctor about a pain in his lower back. Lung cancer was found and had spread into his bones.
“It’s over for me, I know that,” he told the Ottawa Sun in February. “I expect I’ll be gone sooner rather than later. I don’t think I’ll get more than six months. This is one you don’t beat. There’s no chance. Funny, eh? I’ve had every sickness known to man in my life except syphilis. I never thought I’d get this.”
Marsden said he had been a smoker since the age of four.
“But I have no regrets,” he told the Sun. “I’m 69 and I’ve had a good life with lots of laughs and lots of friends. Lots of great memories.”
After retiring and moving to Florida, Marsden returned to The Fan in Toronto, commuting from the U.S. for the first few years. He and his family eventually moved back to Toronto.
The station opted not to renew his contract in 2004.
“It happens,” he told the Sun. “If they don’t want you, they don’t want you. I’m finished with the business. It’s like you don’t matter anymore. That’s fine. No use worrying about it. You take what comes along in life.”
He is survived by his wife T.A., and his children Taylor, Connor, Mike, Patti-Lee and Ruth Mary.
The funeral was held Tuesday at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto.