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Jim Robson was the best of us.

TheVancouver Canucks’ first play-by-play man — upon their entry into the NHL in 1970 until his retirement in 1999 — remains the benchmark voice of the franchise, the soundtrack for generations of hockey fans in B.C.

His play-by-play is a part of the team lexicon, like when a wounded and weary Trevor Linden was making his way off the ice in the waning moments of the 1994 Stanley Cup Final Game 6 win over the New York Rangers that extended the series that had Robson explaining: “We hope they can patch Linden up and get him into that one. He will play. You know he’ll play. He’ll play on crutches.”

He was as good at broadcasting hockey action as anyone who’s ever done it in this country.

He was also a guy who wanted to raise up others in the sports media, who wanted to cheer you on and make you better. You would routinely get emails from Robson about a story he liked or how important your work was, and you would think that he was the last guy in the world who probably needed to do that.

He did it. All the time. With lots of us. There’s the old line about someone being really good at their job but even better as a person. It’s so cliche, but cliches always come out of something and, as Don Taylor so richly put it Tuesday, “that cliche probably started with Jim Robson.”

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Robson died Monday night at his care home in Vancouver. He was undergoing cancer treatment. He was 91.

“I’d be reporting on games back in the day, and Jim Robson would come over to you in the press box and say, ‘Saw that story … you guys did a wonderful job’ or, ’Bit of a tough show last night … don’t you worry about it … learn from it and move ahead … ,” and it always meant the world to me,” said Burnaby’s Taylor, a staple from the much-celebrated Sports Page show who’s still going strong on Donnie and Dhali on CHEK-TV.

“The press box at thePacific Coliseum was intimidating. It was a bunch of old crusty guys and it was scary to walk in there as a young guy, but Jim was always the guy above all that. He always, always made you feel good.”

He’s the gold standard of play by play. That goes for being a human being too.

“He put us all to shame in that regard too,” said John Shorthouse, the Canucks’ current TV play-by-play caller who did his first game in 1998 filling in for Robson. “I strive to be as even-keeled and friendly and supportive with everyone as Jim was, but that’s always a lofty goal.”

There’s been a great run of play-by-play callers come out of B.C. — Shorthouse, Jim Hughson, Dave Randorf, Brendan Batchelor, Rick Ball — and they all readily talk about how they studied Robson and borrowed from him.

Robson called Canucks games on TV until 1999, but retired from the radio in 1994 and was succeeded by Hughson, a Fort St. John native.

Hughson said in a Postmedia News story last March that he so loved Robson’s call of Greg Adams’s double overtime winner against the Toronto Maple Leafs in that 1994 Western Conference final that pushed Vancouver into the series against the Rangers — “Adams shoots … scores … Greg Adams, Greg Adams … Adams gets the winner 14 seconds into the second overtime … theVancouver Canucks are going to the Stanley Cup Final” — that he used a “direct imitation” when he called Kevin Bieksa’s stanchion goal against the San Jose Sharks that propelled Vancouver into the 2011 Cup Final.

Randorf, a North Delta native who calls Tampa Bay Lightning games now, explained by text Tuesday that he could recite the Linden call word for word to this day. He also had a photograph of the two of them together stored in his phone. That’s the connection Robson had with people.

“To many Canucks fans, Jim Robson meant as much as many of the players on the ice. He certainly did for me,” Randorf messaged.

Shorthouse, who grew up in Vancouver, added: “There were some lean years here with the team. There was never a lean year for the broadcast or for Jim. I just felt like often times — not every time but often — he was the thing we could be proudest of.”

It’s easy to reflect on his talents in the booth. His want to give back to others does keep shining through, though. Brendan Batchelor is the Canucks’ radio play-by-play voice, calling games on Sportsnet 650. He was doing Vancouver Giants games on radio a decade ago when Robson passed along word through a team executive that he liked Batchelor’s work.

“And then he just reached out and invited me to go to a Canuck game with him and I got to go to a Canuck game with Jim Robson and watch it with him,” Batchelor, who’s originally from Coquitlam, continued. “Then I got the Canuck job and he invited me over to his home and showed me his old notes and gave me words of advice on the job and the role. That’s who he was. In a competitive industry where people don’t want to pull for somebody else, he would be in your corner.”

Greg Douglas was a newspaper reporter covering Vancouver Mounties baseball games in 1966 when he met Robson, who was also calling those games back then. Douglas was the Canucks media relations director for their first seven seasons as well, and remained tight with Robson.

They went for a drive to the University of B.C. after Robson’s cancer treatment Thursday. Douglas was part of a group of 17 that Robson got together for an Olympic hockey pool at a Friday lunch at a White Spot on South West Marine Drive.

“What did he mean to the market? He meant everything,” Douglas said Tuesday. “He was a legend. We use that expression all the time now, but everywhere he went people would stop him for selfies and autographs and just to talk hockey.

“We had coffee sessions every week with a bunch of us and it was the highlight of his week and he didn’t ever realize what it meant just being in his presence.

“People would stop him on the street to ask him a question and you’d be there for 10 minutes while he answered. He had a great personality and he spread it around. He was like a Pied Piper. People loved him.”

Robson’s wife Bea died in September. She was 91. They had been married since 1957. They’re survived by four children.

sewen@postmedia.com

Do you have fond memories of the late Jim Robson? Share your stories with us atvantips@postmedia.com or in the comments below.

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