Ron Oakes, 73; voice of San Diego hockey, ambassador of sport
wazzzy
Professional ice hockey and Ron Oakes arrived in San Diego at the same
time in 1966.
Hockey was still an unfamiliar sport to many people in the region, but
the Canadian-born, play-by-play announcer of the San Diego Gulls made
it his mission to introduce it locally.
"Ron was a terrific promoter of the sport," said sportscaster Bob
Chandler. "The entire Gulls organization was trying to make an
impression on San Diego, and Ron and a Gulls player would go out to
any school that requested it and do a program on hockey."
For the next six years, Mr. Oakes broadcast Gulls games on the radio.
Mr. Oakes died Tuesday at his San Diego home from complications of
progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare neurological disease he had
suffered from since 2001. He was 73.
"He was the voice of hockey in San Diego," Chandler said. "He's the
guy who taught us what the blue line was, what the red line was and
what body checks were."
Willie O'Ree, the first black player in the National Hockey League and
a member of the Gulls from 1967 to 1974, called Mr. Oakes one of the
sport's greatest announcers.
"I would put him right up there with the best," said O'Ree, a La Mesa
resident who now heads the NHL's youth diversity program. "He just had
a way of making the game so exciting.
"We would be playing and look up in the crowd and see people listening
to his broadcast on the radio. They could see the game, but they
wanted to hear Ron's voice because that made the game better."
During Mr. Oakes' tenure with the Gulls, attendance at the San Diego
Sports Arena was often 9,000 or 10,000. The team led the World Hockey
League in attendance for five of its first six years.
"Ron was more than just an announcer," O'Ree said. "He was the voice
of the Gulls."
After he left the Gulls in 1972, Mr. Oakes continued to live in San
Diego while he broadcast games for the Vancouver Blazers, Los Angeles
Kings, St. Louis Blues, Chicago Blackhawks, the Canadian Football
League's Ottawa Blue Bombers and the San Diego Mariners.
Mr. Oakes was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he got his start
broadcasting minor-league hockey games and the Blue Bombers. He later
would do radio sports reporting for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
Mr. Oakes retired from broadcasting in the mid-1990s and spent several
years as a tour director for cruises and other specialty travel trips
for seniors.
His illness forced him to abandon that job several years ago, and he
was bedridden for the last years of his life.
Mr. Oakes is survived by his wife, Jean; daughters, Karen Sprigle of
Carlsbad, Diane Oakes of Vista, Laura Oakes of San Diego, Roberta
Clark of Encinitas and Valerie Hollenbeck of Colorado Springs, Colo.;
and six grandchildren.
A memorial service is planned for 2 p.m. Monday at El Camino Memorial
Park in Sorrento Valley.
The family suggests donations to the Society for Progressive
Supranuclear Palsy, 11350 McCormick Road, Suite 906, Hunt Valley, MD
21031.
By Michael Kinsman
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER