Brian Smith (hockey player)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brian Smith (September 6, 1940-August 2, 1995) was a Canadian athlete and sportscaster.
Brian Smith was born in Ottawa, Ontario. He was the brother of former professional hockey goaltender Gary Smith.
Smith was a professional hockey player from 1960 to 1973. He began his career in the EPHL, and then played in the AHL from 1964 to 1967. The following season, he played for the Los Angeles Kings in the National Hockey League. In the following season, he played for the Phoenix Roadrunners of the Western Hockey League and the Memphis South Stars of the CHL. He then returned to the NHL with the Minnesota North Stars in 1968-69, and finished his career with the WHA Houston Aeros.
In 1973, Smith joined Ottawa television station CJOH as the station's 6 p.m. sports anchor, a position he held until his death.
On August 1, 1995, Smith was shot in CJOH's parking lot, just minutes after the end of the station's 6 p.m. newscast. He died about 18 hours later on August 2 in an Ottawa hospital, just shy of his 55th birthday. The gunman, Jeffrey Arenburg, was an escaped mental patient who had gone to CJOH because he thought the station was broadcasting messages in his head. Smith was not the intended target, but was the first broadcast personality that Arenburg saw and recognized coming out of the building.
The incident led to renewed controversy in Canada regarding the effectiveness of federal gun control legislation.
Smith's widow, Ottawa Citizen journalist Alana Kainz, established a scholarship fund in Smith's memory. She later remarried Canadian software magnate Michael Potter, the CEO of Cognos, in 1999.
[edit] External links
Categories: 1940 births | 1995 deaths | Hamilton Tiger Cubs alumni | Canadian sports announcers | Canadian television personalities | Canadian ice hockey players | Canadian murder victims | Murdered journalists | Minnesota North Stars players | Los Angeles Kings players | Ontario sportspeople | CJOH people | People from Ottawa