The Raider Radio broadcasting team on CKBI, colour commentator Martin Ring (left) and play-by-play announcer Trevor Redden hold up the Ed Chynoweth Cup after the Raiders won it on May 13, 2019. (Twitter/Martin Ring)

By Jeff D'Andrea

Do you believe in miracles? "Yes!"

Redden’s championship call has a nice ‘Ring’ to it; reliving the call a year later

May 13, 2020 | 4:49 PM

Exactly a year ago today on May 13, 2019, voice of the Raiders Trevor Redden excitedly proclaimed that Dante Hannoun scored and the Prince Albert Raiders won the WHL Championship in overtime over the Vancouver Giants.

While he was doing that, Redden’s colour commentator Martin Ring makes a short but equally memorable appearance.

Ring can be heard on the call blurting out a ‘yes,’ something that Ring’s joked about on his social media, as well as with Redden and other fans. As much as Ring takes his job of telling Raider fans what’s going on with the games, he proudly threw his analyst cap out the window for the Hannoun hero goal.

“I was as much of a fan as anybody else in the building right at that moment,” Ring said.

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But there was a lot that went into that brief, unplanned moment for Ring. He’s been the Raiders’ colour commentator for three play-by-play announcers over 20 years, but his involvement to the Raiders goes well beyond that.

Ring, or better known at the rink simply as ‘Marty,’ has been a part of the Raiders since the team’s inception back in 1971. His parents Ralph and Carol signed up to be billets, meaning Ring got to be billet brothers with some of the best Raiders of all time—including Mike Modano. Ralph eventually became the team’s president in 1989, and Carol is still billeting and routinely singing the national anthems before games.

Ring also played the organ in the Art Hauser Centre, giving some live music to the local fans during the games. Then Ring ended up getting on Raiders Radio with CKBI, where he’s been for the last two decades and where he’ll be until somebody tells him his time on the microphone is over.

So when Ring sat in the radio booth at the Art Hauser Centre on May 13, 2019 and saw Hannoun score ‘the goal,’ there was that sheer excitement that led to the now-famous “yes.” But by the time he shared a glance with his play-by-play guy, Ring’s feelings already started to evolve.

“It was more emotional than I expected it to be. I remember looking at Trevor Redden when Dante scored the goal. I could hear myself in the headset yelling out ‘yes’ when Dante scored,” Ring said. “I looked at Trevor and he looked at me, and he knew he wasn’t going to be able to flip it to me for a few comments for a little bit because I did, I got wrapped up emotionally in it. It was a high, it was probably the most exciting thing that I’ve been involved in, as a colour commentator for sure.”

As much as there was to absorb and tell his listenership what was going on in one of the most pivotal moments in Raider history, Redden will not soon forget that exchange he had with Ring.

“I remember that glance as distinctively as it was yesterday. The goal went in, just like everybody else in the building, it was just excitement. Then I looked over and you could just see it,” Redden said. “It came to me a little bit later, I was locked in the moment. As the play-by-play guy, you don’t really have time to think as much, you’re just calling what happens, but as a colour guy, you’re taking it in a little bit more. Marty’s been with the Raiders forever, his whole life has been with the Raiders organization, so it did mean a lot.”

It was Redden’s second season with the Raiders, after taking over for Drew Wilson.

Wilson didn’t have the opportunity to make a grand championship announcement for the Raiders [although he had some absolute dandies when the Prince Albert Mintos won their three Telus Cups], Redden hit it out of the park in his first try.

“The boys of ’85 no longer stand alone. A new generation just brought the cup home.”

It’s a great goal call and there’s a good reason for that, Redden had about three games to think about.

The Raiders could have won the whole thing in Game 5 on the road. After the Giants won that, the Raiders flew back home to the Art Hauser Centre for Game 6 that Sunday, then Game 7 for the rubbermatch on the Monday.

Redden doesn’t usually script out what he’s going to say, even going as far as saying he sometimes repeats things during the games because “he’s not that smart to come up with the things to say.”

But before Game 5, he got a text from a co-worker, asking what his Raiders championship call would sound like. When Redden said he hadn’t thought about it at all, he heard a wise piece of advice that would completely change his mind.

“’Well just remember, whatever you say is going to be on every highlight reel and will be replayed from years and years to come.’ I was like ‘huh, maybe I should.’ Because in that moment, you don’t want your brain to freeze and say something stupid,” Redden said.

So that’s how the call came to be. Check out how Game 7 between the Raiders and Giants came to be tonight at 7 p.m. on the Raiders’ YouTube channel.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW