by Tyler Kula for the Sarnia Observer

(2015) A long-time Sarnia broadcaster, former voice of the Sarnia Imperials and Golden Bears, and founder of the Sarnia Historical Society has died.

George Ludgate had a broadcast voice right up until the last few months of his life, said Al Braekevelt, a long-time friend and fellow instructor with Ludgate for years at Baker College in Port Huron.

Ludgate died Tuesday. He was 87.

“When he was speaking, people listened,” said Braekevelt.

“Certainly you could hear him, but also because he had substance to what he had to say.

Ludgate’s death is a loss to the community, he said.

Detroit-born and raised in Kingston, according to the Sarnia Historical Society, Ludgate arrived in Sarnia in the 1950s to call play-by-play for the Imperials, renamed the Golden Bears in 1955.

He later became a program director at the radio station CHOK, going on to host the area’s first call-in sports show with late broadcaster Murray Vosburgh, said retired radio broadcaster Larry Gordon.

“He was a storyteller,” Gordon said, also calling Ludgate opinionated, outspoken and strong-willed.

“You may not have appreciated some of the things he said until later when you got thinking about it,” he said. “And he was usually right.”

He was “the ultimate fan. Not just of football, but any sport,” said Gordon.

“He lived and breathed with the Detroit franchise teams.”

Ludgate also did broadcast work in New York, and was a board member with the National Football Foundation’s Los Angeles Chapter, when he lived in Los Angeles from 2006 to 2010, according to the chapter.

“He was a very multifaceted individual,” said Braekevelt. “He did get himself a PhD when he was 75 years old, and he used that for the benefit of the students in Port Huron” where he taught communication and advertising.

“I don’t believe he was an athlete himself, at least not that he ever told me, but he recognized talent and I believe he was very instrumental in some people getting scholarships into the United States” to play football, Braekevelt said, naming former CFL player Dave Cranmer as one.

Ludgate was also president of the Sarnia Softball Association, and a past president of the Sarnia Imperial/Golden Bear Quarterback Club, as noted when he was named to Sarnia’s annual Mayor’s Honour List in 2011.

A memorial service is being planned, Braekevelt said.