In a throwaway world where most things today are easily replaced, you can’t replace Doug Jeffries.

The Kingston sports icon announced this week on Global News Kingston he was stepping aside and retiring on June 15th after an incredible run of 46-years of covering local sports.

Roland Billings, President of the Pete Petersen Basketball League, reflected in a Facebook post, “throughout his career, Doug has shown a passion for local sports unmatched anywhere. Countless hours of his own time have been spent shining a light on sports organizations, events, and individual athletes that are far from what would be considered mainstream. We have been fortunate to be the recipient of that beacon that is Doug Jeffries over the years and for that as an organization, we will be forever grateful.”

Doug’s passion for sports and giving back to his community came naturally.

Growing up in nearby Gananoque, he learned firsthand about hard work and giving back from his Dad – Lou Jeffries. Lou was a legendary sports volunteer in Gan where the town arena is aptly named after him.

It was in 1976 during the summer sailing Olympics in Kingston that CKLC radio hired Doug as a young sportscaster fresh out of Loyalist College in Belleville. He would be a fixture at CKLC/FLY-FM for the next 25-years handling both the early morning and afternoon radio sportscasts and even hosting Kingston’s first sports radio call-in show. He was the public address announcer for Queen’s football and Kingston Canadians OHL hockey during those years while giving tirelessly of his time to many local sports organizations.

He also went through a battle with cancer, yet still remained active and on far too many days when he was sick and should have been home recovering, he was behind the mic at CKLC.

In that era CKLC had an extraordinary and innovative radio newsroom for a city the size of Kingston, led by News Director Tony Orr. In the late 90s Toronto radio giant CHUM bought CKLC, major cuts eventually followed and two of its most prominent voices, Jeffries and Orr were among the casualties. Tony joined the new radio station in town, KRock, and Doug landed at CKWS initially doing radio news, but by 2002 he transitioned to CKWS-TV and was back covering local sports.

Kingston punches well above its weight in athletics, producing Olympic & Stanley Cup champions, provincial and national champs in so many different sports, but for Doug his real passion is for the grassroots athlete.

The high school kid who won a track & field meet, scored the winning goal in soccer or caught the game-winning touchdown pass. Those are the stories he loves to tell and there is no way to quantify what it means to a 15-or-16-year-old kid to see themselves on the six o’clock news with the whole community celebrating their achievements. Several generations of young athletes, their families, and friends have those memories – thanks to Doug.

Covering local sports for four-plus decades means building a network, finding stories, and showing up at games and practices. It’s also hard work, finishing your nightly TV broadcast, packing up the camera equipment and heading out to a local sports field, gym or arena to shoot a story. Doing the interviews, lugging the equipment back to the station to write and edit the story and when it airs you rewrite it to be posted to the website and on social media.

Doug has done a lot of this on his own time, away from his regular hours at the station covering local sports events. It’s a reflection of how much he cares about the athletes and their successes while sharing their stories with viewers across Eastern Ontario on the most-watched news program in this region.

Kingston viewer Shari Corbin noted in a social media post, “Doug’s passion for sports and his enthusiasm bring it to life. Particularly during Covid his reporting on past sports moments demonstrated what a truly class act he is. When it seemed there was nothing to report when everything was shut down, he breathed life back into sports. He is a true professional. I love his personal touch at the end of each broadcast, it is grounding and real.”

For over six decades Doug and the legendary Max Jackson have dominated sports broadcasting in Kingston.

Max was a fixture at CKWS from 1958 to 1982, while Doug’s run stretches from the mid-70s to today. His broadcasting career is twice as long as Max’s and he is a slam dunk to join Max in the local Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame.

I’ve been grateful to enjoy a long friendship with Doug, sharing the stage while emceeing events, relaxing over a beer, heading out to watch a Junior C hockey game together, or just talking sports. I know firsthand what a great person he is and his genuine passion for what he does.

In recent years newsrooms across the country have been gutted with significant staffing cuts to both broadcast and print media. Most dinner time TV newscasts in Canada no longer have a nightly local sportscast and that’s the likely scenario when Doug retires. As Roland Billings says, “On June 15th the light that Doug shone on the dimmer corners of the local sports community will go out. We will continue to operate as before, but the electricity that sweeps through the players at a gym, rink, or field when Doug walks in and sets up his camera will go out, and that will be a sad day for local sports.”

We will all be poorer for it. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Doug for the amazing work and dedication he has shown for 46-years and for making Kingston a better place. Thank you, Doug!

Mark Potter is a former Sports Director at CKWS-TV, honoured member of the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame and Past President of the Original Hockey Hall of Fame

2021 Video tribute on Doug’s 45th year on Global News https://globalnews.ca/video/7929220/global-kingstons-doug-jeffries-marking-a-sports-broadcasting-milestone?fbclid=IwAR3R9dd520jI_4yU6HfmiQ9Y6bYxpcpksq6ehSZjyNO_fgP3yY2gWcq-PhI