Lionel Duval
Canadian sportscaster
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lionel Duval, (February 11, 1933 – September 30, 2016) was a Canadian sports journalist and long time presenter at La Soirée du hockey.
Lionel Duval | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 11, 1933 |
| Died | September 30, 2016 (aged 83) Boucherville, Québec |
| Occupations | television and radio journalist, sports news presenter |
| Known for | host of La Soirée du hockey |
Biography
Born in the Estrie region of Québec, Lionel Duval graduated from École supérieure de Hull in the Outaouais region. He began his career as a radio broadcaster in the 1950s at CKCH.[1]
In the late 1950s, he was the play-by-play announcer for the Hull-Ottawa Canadiens hockey games.[2]
Duval was hired by Radio-Canada in 1961 in the Outaouais and Ottawa region. One of his first gigs was as the host of Hebdo Sports, a local sports television programme.[3]
In 1964, he was transferred to the Montréal Radio-Canada television station.[1] For close to 30 years he was presenter and interviewer of La Soirée du hockey, the weekly broadcast of the Montreal Canadiens games. He was a sports news presenter for Radio-Canada television as well.
For many of those years at La Soirée du hockey, he was a member of a broadcasting team with René Lecavalier, Richard Garneau and Gilles Tremblay.[1]
During his years at La Soirée du hockey, the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup 11 times,[2] which, according to Radio-Canada, is a record among ice hockey broadcasters.[3]
For Radio-Canada, Lionel Duval covered several Olympic Games, from Munich 1972 to Albertville '92.[1] At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montréal, he described cycling, rowing and canoeing.[1]
In the 1980s in Québec, he appeared as himself in a Pepsi commercial alongside comedian Claude Meunier.[2][4]
In 1990, the Québec's voting public award him a MetroStar as their favorite host of a sports programme.[1]
Lionel Duval, aged 60, retired in 1993, after more than 40 years in sports journalism, including 32 years at Radio-Canada. He died of complications from Parkinson's disease in 2016.[2]