From Rosetown to the Flames: Bart Dailley’s remarkable journey
By David McIver
Bart Dailley thinks he can still get the better of Gord Moore—if Dailley is playing goal.
Dailley, also known as Bart Warburton, is usually remembered here as the sports reporter for CKKR (later CJYM) radio and the radio voice of the senior Redwings from 1968 to 1973. He went on to become the first radio play-by-play announcer for the Calgary Flames, doing that in 1980–81.
That brings up his challenge to Moore, who wore No. 11 when he played for the Redwings.
“I played goal for the Flames at one practice and I told Gord Moore, ‘You can’t beat me in a long shot from the blue line. I was too quick for him,’” said Dailley, adding that Moore still can’t beat him.
Dailley came a long way from Toronto, where he was born and raised, and he’s gone far since his Rosetown days. He left Toronto in 1967 and went to a series of “whistle stops” for radio work: Yarmouth and then Amherst, both in Nova Scotia, followed by Kirkland Lake, Ont., and finally Rosetown.
He wasn’t always a sports reporter. In CJKL in Kirkland Lake, “I did everything,” including being a late-night rock-and-roll disc jockey.
“And I got a call from Rosetown. They needed a sportscaster. And that was my goal: to be a radio sportscaster.”
That was one of two reasons he moved here, said Dailley. The other was that he’d never been west of Detroit. “I wanted to go the first chance I got, and I didn’t care where it was.”
Dailley arrived on Feb. 8, 1968.
People wondered about his first impressions of Rosetown.
“Everybody asked me, ‘Well, I guess you can’t like it here, can you? You’re from Toronto… this is pretty small for you.’
“I loved it. It was the greatest five years of my life working at CKKR in Rosetown. I worked for the finest person I could ever work for. I met my girlfriend (Barbara Morris, middle daughter of Ed and Lillian Morris), who became my wife. Our first child was born there. I broadcast hockey, went coast to coast with the Rosetown Redwings. No, it was absolutely the greatest.
“I often think if I were to be frozen in time, where I would like to be, I figure 1970 Rosetown.”
The Redwings never won the Canadian intermediate hockey championship but reached the final series for three consecutive years, said Dailley. They lost to the Bathurst Alpine Paper Makers in Bathurst, N.B.; then to the Campbellton Tigers—also from New Brunswick—in Rosetown; and finally to the Saint John Moosehead Patriots in Saint John, N.B.
Dailley remembers playing alongside coach Byron McCrimmon (who died on July 10), sons Brad (who died in a tragic plane crash in Russia with the team he coached in 2011) and Kelly when they were “little guys,” and Redwings such as Moore, Jules Hrapchak, Denis Lemieux, goalie Ken Fensom, defenceman Danny Smith, captain Jim Foster, Denny Johnston, Ron Keogan from Biggar, Alfred “Gaff” Turner, “who was in his mid-40s when I arrived and played a little bit,” Stu Walker, and Ray Schultz, brother of former NHLer Dave Schultz.
At CKKR, he remembers owner Stan Solberg, who died in 2024; morning show host Pat O’Connor; engineer John Guppy; and other employees, including Danny Teed, Gary Barr, Ronnie White, Pat Hume, Paul Ouellette, and Phil Johnston (featured in a Sept. 22 Eagle article).
Before he was married, Dailley lived in a basement suite at 205 Little Flower Avenue; the Listoes lived upstairs. After their wedding, he, Barbara, and, later, Steven lived at 316 Sixth Avenue West, a block north of Guppy and his family.
In 1973, Dailley and his family left Rosetown, adding children Monica and Roger in subsequent years.
“I loved Rosetown, but there was no money to be made. It fed my ego, but once I had a child, I figured, ‘Well, I’ve got to start making some money,’ and decided to go for the big city. The first step was Welland, Ont.”
That was followed by radio sports jobs in Toronto, Montreal, and finally Calgary. While working for CHQR doing Calgary Flames broadcasts, Dailley met coach Al MacNeil, who died in January. “He became one of the greatest friends I ever had in sports,” he said.
Other people he encountered included general manager Cliff Fletcher, goalies Rejean Lemelin, Pat Riggin, and Daniel Bouchard (who got traded for Phil Russell), as well as players Don Lever and Kent Nilsson.
Among Dailley’s previous stops, Montreal was particularly memorable, especially one player with the Major League Baseball Expos. Andre Thornton came to the Expos from the Chicago Cubs in a mid-season trade in 1976. He played amid injuries and had only a .194 batting average. Thornton “didn’t distinguish himself and they (Expos management) gave up on him,” said Dailley.
With the Summer Olympics in Montreal that summer, Dailley’s radio station CJGM did its morning show live from Place Bonaventure and “spiced it up” each morning by bringing in different athletes to interview—Alouette football players Wally Buono and Carl Crennell one day, Canadiens Ken Dryden and Yvon Cournoyer another, and Expos Thornton, Woody Fryman, and Gary Carter another day.
Thornton had been with the club for only two weeks, and Dailley hadn’t met him yet, only remembering he was known as a Christian athlete, so he asked him about that. After a brief on-air talk, Thornton sat down with Dailley over coffee and “told me how he came to know the Lord. And I realized in July 1976 this is what I needed most in my life. (I) didn’t need it so badly that I made an instant decision, but He touched me.”
Thornton was traded that December to the Cleveland Indians (where he became one of the club’s all-time greats), around the same time Dailley got a job in Calgary, so he would never see Thornton again.
“And then tragedy struck a year later,” said Dailley. In 1977, a car accident took Thornton’s wife and daughter. He and their son survived injuries.
“I remember saying to the Lord, if you’re going to do this to one of your devout followers, I’m not going to follow you. I turned my back on the Lord,” he said.
In 1978, Air Canada issued direct flights from Calgary to Los Angeles and invited media along. Dailley was one of those invited. The Calgary media contingent planned to go to Disneyland, Universal Studios, and a ball game between the California Angels and the Cleveland Indians.
Dailley arrived at the ballpark very early, where there was a chapel service conducted by Thornton. Afterwards, they talked.
“How could this happen to you?” Dailley asked.
“He said, ‘I don’t know. But God will never put you through anything that you can’t get through.’ Right there and then, I made a 180-degree turn, brought the Lord into my life at a Billy Graham crusade in 1981, and (have been) walking with Him ever since.”
Dailley was replaced as Flames play-by-play announcer that same year. He worked in real estate and office equipment sales and made a brief comeback in radio at CKMX in Calgary from 1998 to 2003, doing sports and sales. He quit after he had a heart attack.
Dailley also began lay ministry work, which has included pastoral work at two churches in and near Calgary. That work started at a senior care home in Calgary called Trinity Lodge, which had daily chapel services. A pastor friend told the chaplain to invite Dailley to take part. He gave a devotion to the residents; the chaplain became his mentor, and when he died, Dailley replaced him.
He’s been chaplain at Trinity Lodge for 38 years, doing services, visiting, and even officiating at weddings. That will end on Dec. 31.
While Dailley, 82, spoke while having influenza, that’s not the reason for his retirement. He said he’d like not having to get up at 7 a.m. for work five days a week.
What does Dailley say to people who are lonely at Christmas?
“What I urge people to do is to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. That’s the reason for the season. If you didn’t make it in 2025, make 2026 the year you draw close to the Lord. If you draw close to Him, He will draw close to you.”