When Bob Duff was a baby, he cried when he couldn't see the hockey game on television from his crib, according to his mother.

    It was a fitting start for a hockey writer with a passion for Canada's favourite game.

    Duff (BA '83) says hockey has always been his first love. "My mother claims I made her teach me to read when I was four years old ­ just so I could follow the hockey scores."

    Duff has written about hockey for 15 years, and has been on the hockey beat for The Windsor Star since 1991.

    Hockey is a controversial topic in Windsor, a border town with divided loyalties between supporters of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the nearby Detroit Red Wings. Fans often scrutinize Duff's articles and phone to accuse him of bias, especially during the playoffs. "I do love the game, but I don't have a loyalty to one team," Duff said. "When you cover it every day as a journalist, you become detached."

    Duff also does hockey writing for other publications. He researched and wrote several chapters for a new, 3,000-page book, Total Hockey. He did historical research on the NHL's first era, from 1917 to 1926, both for Total Hockey and for a statistical organization compiling reports for every game in NHL history.

    Duff's hockey knowledge earned him a spot on a panel of experts invited to choose the top 50 NHL players of all time for The Hockey News. The panel included many famous hockey coaches and general managers, such as renowned Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman and Harry Sinden, general manager of the Boston Bruins. Duff was one of the few hockey writers asked to join. "That was the biggest honour I've ever been given as a journalist," he says.

    But Duff says sports writing is not all fun. "Like any job, it has a downside. Being on the road so much takes its toll. Hotel rooms, delayed flights, and lost luggage gets tiring. Still, I enjoy the game so much that I prefer this over an office job. If I weren't doing this, I'd probably have to get a real job!"

Photo: Grant Black