Porcupine Plain's mayor pays tribute to Darren Dutchyshen, who has passed away at the age of 57. (Submitted photo/Bell Media)

By Cam Lee

Dutchy tribute

Porcupine Plain mourning the loss of native son Darren Dutchyshen

May 16, 2024 | 1:00 PM

A community in northeast Saskatchewan is paying tribute to a legend in the sports broadcasting industry.

Longtime TSN anchor Darren Dutchyshen passed away after a battle with prostate cancer. He was just 57 years old.

Dutchyshen began his broadcasting career by attending Western Academy Broadcasting College (WABC) before going to different broadcasting jobs in Edmonton and Dauphin, Man. ‘Dutchy’ was later hired by TSN, often anchoring SportsDesk, later known as SportsCentre for decades.

“The community of Porcupine Plain is very sad to hear (of Dutchyshen’s passing),” Mayor Nick Wood told northeastNOW.

“Dutchyshen was a local boy who made it big,” said Wood, noting that he was on the sign coming into town. He showed “You can live the small-town life, you can have all that, you can grow up here and you can still achieve your dreams, be whatever you want to be,” Wood said.

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Despite being a nationally recognized figure, Dutchyshen never forgot where he came from, and always made sure people knew he was from Saskatchewan, and Porcupine Plain specifically.

“He was very proud of where he (came) from, you can’t appreciate that enough,” said Wood. “We can’t claim him, but we can definitely say we raised him.”

A former colleague echoed Wood’s thoughts about Dutchyshen’s pride in being from Porcupine Plain.

Wray Morrison, a veteran broadcaster who runs HuskieFAN.ca, worked with Dutchyshen at STV and TSN. He told northeastNOW that Dutchyshen was someone people wanted to be around.

“You saw that when he was on television. Even people who didn’t know him, you kind of gravitated to him when he was on television in the 1990s and 2000s.”

Morrison called Dutchyshen a “proud Saskatchewanian”, and said the last time he saw him was, perhaps appropriately, on the field celebrating the Saskatchewan Roughriders Grey Cup victory at home in 2013.

“He just loved being from this province, loved being from Porcupine Plain, and he’s definitely going to be missed.”

Morrison said many young Saskatchewan broadcasters got into the business because of Dutchyshen and were encouraged after he “blazed the trail” to Toronto and TSN. He added that Dutchyshen was always accommodating of his time and advice to young broadcasters, especially those from this province.

“When you lose one of those people that are not only talented but have a great personality and are great people, it’s always a little bit of an added shock, and I think that’s kind of what the province is going through here today.”

A special tribute to Dutchyshen will air on TSN’s SportsCentre at 6 p.m. ET (4 p.m. Saskatchewan time).

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Cam.lee@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @northeastNOW_SK