Former CBC Sports exec producer Bob Moir dies at 87

Bob Moir, an executive producer and commentator who spent four decades with CBC Sports, died on Sunday at the age of 87.

The Winnipeg native was the executive producer of CBC Sports' coverage of the Summer Olympics in Montreal in 1976 and Seoul in 1988, as well as the Winter Games in Albertville, France in 1992.

Moir began his career with CBC in 1952, calling the Grey Cup in 1958 and earning induction into the CFL Hall of Fame in 1985. He would go on to serve as a commentator at the network's first Olympics in Tokyo in 1964 before transitioning to a production role.

"Over his more than 40 years with the network, Bob recruited and promoted many of the best-known commentators and analysts in Canadian broadcasting history and was an influential mentor to many production and technical staff," CBC Sports executive director Greg Stremlaw said in a release. "He was a tremendous talent and a valuable member of the CBC Sports family."

Moir was in Munich for the 1972 Olympics when terrorists took members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage and 11 were later killed. Moir, along with late CBC commentator Don Wittman, crawled under a fence into the Olympic Village to report across from the Israeli dormitory.

"We were privy to everything," Wittman told the Winnipeg Free Press in 2002.

Moir ended his CBC career as executive producer of the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, where he won multiple Gemini Awards.

He is survived by his wife, Edmee; brother David; children Karen, Bobby, Sandra and Dianne; as well as seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

'An honour' to work with Moir

"He was always quick to recognize the good things you had done as a broadcaster, a very generous person that way," CBC Sports broadcaster Scott Russell said. "But he was a demanding person, exacting in terms of the standards he required.

"To work for Bob Moir, and with Bob Moir — what an honour."

Russell first met Moir at the 1987 Canada Games in Cape Breton. Russell, who was there on his first network sports assignment, didn't own any clothing with the CBC Sports logo on it. So Moir, who was on site, lent him a white CBC Sports parka.

"By the end of the Canada Games, all of the varnish from the tripod [I was carrying] had bled all over the jacket, and [cameraman] Mike Varga and I took it to the laundromat in Cape North. We ran it through the laundromat — without a word of a lie — a dozen times and the varnish would not come out. I was scared that I was going to lose my job before it even began.

"I returned it to Bob Moir and he said, 'No problem, Scott. I can get one of those any day of the week.'"

Russell remembers Moir's passion for Olympic sports, particularly his fondness for figure skating. CBC Sports senior writer Mike Dennis recalls one instance of this from the 1992 Games in Albertville.

"We were preparing to go on air, and I turned to Bob and said, 'Bob, Kerrin Lee-Gartner just won a gold medal for Canada in downhill.'

"He said 'Yeah? Well, Kristi Yamaguchi just did a triple Axel in practice.' He was more excited about somebody landing a triple in practice than Canada winning a gold medal in downhill. So that just shows how much he loved figure skating."