Two old hockey friends meet up
It was 1980 and Paul Hendrick was a rookie sportscaster with CKCY Radio-TV in Sault Ste. Marie and Ken Porteous was a rookie goalie with the Soo Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League.
As part of his job covering the Greyhounds, Hendrick interviewed the affable Porteous, who was part of a three-goalie system with the Greyhounds that also included future National Hockey Leaguers John Vanbiesbrouck and Marc D’Amour.
The 1980-1981 season ended, Porteous was traded to the Belleville Bulls — where he would team up with another future NHL goalie, Darren Pang — and Hendrick would also move on, to continue his broadcasting career in southern Ontario.
Years later, Porteous and Hendrick re-connected via Twitter and earlier this week, the two met up again face-to-face in Calgary.
Porteous, now a building contractor in Calgary, arranged the meeting with Hendrick, who is in his 19th season covering the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs as part of the Leafs TV broadcast team.
While in Calgary traveling with the Maple Leafs, Hendrick told HockeyNewsNorth.com that “after 36 years, it was great to meet up again” with Porteous, who by the way, has undergone two hip-replacement surgeries as a fallout from his playing days, of which at the major junior level began when he was the first goalie picked at the 1980 OHL draft.
PHOTO: Former Soo broadcaster Paul Hendrick with former Soo Greyhounds goalie Ken Porteous, earlier this week in Calgary.