Jiggs McDonald

John Kenneth "Jiggs" McDonald (born 1938) spent nearly forty years as an NHL play-by-play announcer. He called his 3,000th regular season game in November 2003, and is believed to have called the most NHL games of any broadcaster. He was the original voice of both the Los Angeles Kings, where owner Jack Kent Cooke once wanted to pair him with Al Michaels, and the Atlanta Flames, where he was partnered for several seasons with Bernie Geoffrion.

When the Flames moved to Calgary in 1980, McDonald replaced Steve Albert as the New York Islanders play-by-play voice. Teamed with former team captain Ed Westfall, McDonald called Islander games for fifteen seasons, including three Stanley Cup campaigns. Including national work, as well as work for other teams, McDonald called the play-by-play of over 200 NHL playoff games.

He later handled play-by-play for both the Toronto Maple Leafs, on television, and for the Florida Panthers, on radio. McDonald retired after the 2003–04 season, but substituted for Dave Strader when the latter was on "NHL on NBC" assignments on Panther telecasts during the 2005–06 season. Since 2006–07 season, he has returned to the Islanders television booth, filling in occasionally for Howie Rose.

McDonald, who worked three Winter Olympics for ABC and TNT, was SportsChannel America's voice of the NHL when that network held the NHL television contract between 1988 and 1992. He also did national telecast work for several other networks at various times.

A versatile broadcaster, McDonald also called New York Mets baseball games in by|1982 and Olympic basketball for CTV in 1992.

Although he wasn't the announcer for the first (1980) Stanley Cup championship team, McDonald hosted the New York Islanders' 25th anniversary celebration in 2006.

McDonald was named the Foster Hewitt Award winner in 1990 and is honored as a broadcaster at the Hockey Hall of Fame.