Public-address announcer Paul Morris was the voice of Maple Leaf Gardens

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To hockey fans of a certain generation, this quotation needs no attribution: “Toronto goal, scored by No. 8, Ellis. Assists to No. 4, Kelly, and No. 26, Stanley. The time: 6:25.”

To those in the arena and the many more watching on Hockey Night in Canada, the speaker can be none other than Paul Morris, the long-time public-address announcer at Maple Leaf Gardens.

The goal was scored on May 2, 1967, during the sixth and final game of the Stanley Cup finals. Ron Ellis opened the scoring with assists to Red Kelly and Allan Stanley. (In following seasons, Mr. Morris provided a player’s full name.) The victim was Montreal’s Lorne (Gump) Worsley, the Canadiens’ flip-flopping, roly-poly goalie. The Leafs went on to win the game, 3-1, and the series, 4-2, to claim the Stanley Cup in Canada’s Centennial Year of 1967.

Mr. Morris spent more than three decades behind the mic for NHL hockey games and is said to have never missed a Maple Leafs home game in his time as announcer. He also handled duties as a sound technician and announcer for other events at the Gardens.

Mr. Morris, who has died at 86, was a voice heard but not seen, providing a sound from the heavens, which earned comparison to the Wizard of Oz. He worked from an office aerie high in the northwest corner of the arena, where his tools included binoculars and a hotline telephone to the timekeeper and official scorer.

A distinctive, slightly nasal tenor announced goals, assists, penalties, and “last minute of play.” All were rendered without inflection, no matter how exciting the moment in a voice once described by sportswriter Jim Proudfoot as a “stately monotone.”

No matter how raucous the crowd, Mr. Morris delivered announcements in a measured and dispassionate tone, as though he were announcing nothing more exciting than a train schedule.

The announcer maintained his professional demeanour even when providing the details of unforgettable performances, including Darryl Sittler’s record-setting 10-point (six goals, four assists) game against the Boston Bruins at the Gardens on Feb. 7, 1976. The action on the ice might have been frantic, and the crowd in a frenzy, but Mr. Morris’s steady-as-she-goes diction was the same, night in and night out.

Over the years, his voice came to be repeated and parodied in bars and living-rooms, during road hockey scrimmages and beer-league hockey games.

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“I’ve done nothing to cultivate it,” he told Elliott Pap of the Vancouver Sun in 1994. “It’s just the way it comes out. I know people imitate me all the time. It doesn’t bother me. As a matter of fact, I heard one on the radio the other day that sounded pretty good.”

Mr. Morris took over the announcer’s job at the start of the 1964-65 season after his predecessor, Walter G. (Red) Barber, embarrassed Maple Leafs president Stafford Smythe. On Oct. 12, 1963, Mr. Smythe accompanied the prime minister on a red carpet at centre ice to present a trophy to Dave Keon. As they walked out, Mr. Barber mangled the prime minister’s name as “Lister Beer Person” before correcting himself.

(A sidenote: The first goal in that game was scored by Red Kelly, who had recently been elected as a Liberal member of Parliament for York West. Both Lester B. Pearson and Mr. Smythe were his boss.)

Mr. Morris had previously worked as an announcer at junior hockey games. He had practically grown up at the Gardens, learning to skate on the ice with the aid of a chair, while his electrician father worked elsewhere in the building, as he had done since the building was under construction in 1931.

The elder Morris was credited with many innovations at the Gardens, including an ice-resurfacing machine, ceiling baffling for better sound, the marquee hanging over the main entrance on Carlton Street, and an end-of-period light synchronized to cancel the goal light, ending disputes over late goals. The son dropped out of engineering studies at the Ryerson Institute of Technology (now Toronto Metropolitan University) to work at the Gardens.

Mr. Morris spent more than four decades handling sound and other technical duties. His first major task was to move into the Gardens a massive Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ from Shea’s Hippodrome, a vaudeville theatre facing the wrecking ball to make way for Nathan Phillips Square as part of the development of a new city hall. After a few seasons, the organ was put in storage to make room for more seats and can now be found in the Great Hall of Casa Loma.

Mr. Morris and Bob Wood collaborated on designing and building the four-sided score clock that hung 8.5-metres (28 feet) above centre ice. Mr. Morris ascended a slow elevator into the body of the clock before every game to replace lightbulbs (numbering 4,000) and to change signs naming the visiting team.

The announcer’s career ended as he worked the final game at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1999 and the first at the Air Canada Centre (now Scotiabank Arena). On occasion, a recording of his voice declaring the last minute of play is aired during Leafs home games.

On the day he retired, Mr. Morris was honoured with a ceremony at the Air Canada Centre, the club’s new home. He was presented his old microphone, which had been bronzed, by his favourite player, George Armstrong, who, incidentally, scored the final goal in the 1967 Stanley Cup final into an empty net, clinching the team’s most recent championship.

Mr. Morris ended his work that historic day by saying in his trademark voice, “Clarence Campbell, the president of the National Hockey League, will now present the Stanley Cup to the Toronto Maple Leafs.” No one has spoken similar words in more than 57 years and counting.

Paul Douglas Morris was born in Toronto on June 20, 1938, to the former Dorothy May Farewell and Douglas Harold Morris. He died on Feb. 6 at Lakeridge Health’s Oshawa Hospital after a lengthy illness. He leaves his wife of 52 years, the former Marion Price.

One of the many memorable games handled by Mr. Morris was Game 2 of the 1972 Summit Series pitting Team Canada against the Soviet Union. The 4-1 Team Canada victory was the only one they would enjoy in the four games played on Canadian ice.

Before the game, a former prime minister stepped onto the ice to present an award in his name to hockey player Jean Ratelle. In making the announcement, Mr. Morris announced Lester B. Pearson’s name flawlessly.

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