The host, journalist and columnist Jean-Paul Chartrand père, recognized as a describer of boxing and combat sports on RDS, died on Saturday.
“It is with a heart full of sadness that the large RDS family learned today of the death of Jean-Paul Chartrand, at the venerable age of 92,” the sports station declared in a press release.
“Jean-Paul was a real pillar during the launch of RDS in 1989. His good humor and his joie de vivre allowed him to share his passion for boxing with the RDS public until the age of 92,” writes the general director of RDS, Charles Perreault.
Because yes, Jean-Paul Chartrand was still describing boxing and other combat sports until very recently after more than 1600 episodes, preparing each time “with the same rigor as in his very beginnings”.
If it was in this role that he made his mark, Jean-Paul Chartrand was an essential media personality in the Quebec sports community after a career of more than 60 years in numerous daily newspapers, on the radio and on television, recalls the Quebec Sports Pantheon.
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Jean-Paul Chartrand, in 2016
A rich career
First employed by the City of Montreal, salesman, master of ceremonies and even doorman in bars, he began his career in the world of sports journalism in 1964, with the founding of the Montreal Journal, where he serves as director of the sports section. He will notably cover the Montreal Alouettes.
He added to his repertoire the coverage of the Montreal Canadiens in the early 1970s where he worked in particular at CKAC and the Montreal-Matin.
PHOTO JEAN-YVES LÉTOURNEAU, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Jean-Paul Chartrand, in 1973
After the closure of the daily newspaper in 1978, Jean-Paul Chartrand returned to radio, to CJMS then to CKVL and to Radio-Canada television, continuing to write for the weekly Sunday morningwhere he would eventually become athletic director.
He will also have been an in-house host at Montreal Junior games and an in-house announcer during Canadiens and Montreal Expos games at Jarry Park.
A booming sport
A great fan of boxing, both amateur and professional, he became an analyst in the early 1980s when the sport was booming in Quebec thanks to local stars such as the Hilton brothers, Mario Cusson, Alain Bonnamie and several others.
He finally joined RDS when the station opened in 1989 where he hosted football shows, but also cult hunting and fishing shows with his sidekick Jean Pagé.
“A seasoned host with an endearing and bon vivant personality, Jean-Paul Chartrand will have left his mark on the Quebec media community with his very own way of describing several of the biggest sporting events as well as the exploits of numerous legends,” recalls RDS on Sunday.