When Ryerson introduced the sport media program to the school of radio and television arts in 2014, there was a bit of mystery to the program. But in March of 2014, Sportsnet gifted Ryerson with close to $750,000 to build upon the program. It truly was the future of the industry.
Enter Victor Findlay, a fourth-year Ryerson sport media student who has become the exact student the school was hoping to create.
At an early age, Findlay came to a realization that playing professional sports, like many kids’ dreams, wasn’t going to happen.
Working in professional sports? That’s a different story.
“For me, I always wanted to get into sports. Probably from the time I was 10 years old, I wanted to become a play-by-play commentator,” Findlay said.
To get his feet wet, Findlay started volunteering for RogersTV in Oshawa, getting experience covering the Oshawa Generals of the OHL and other teams in the area.
Findlay always had Ryerson on the radar, specifically the RTA program. It wasn’t until the 2014-15 school year, however, that Ryerson began offering a sport media program under the RTA banner, something that instantly caught his attention.
Findlay is part of the first graduating class for a sport media program that has seen work plastered over mainstream sports outlets all over the country.
While he’s more known for being Ryerson’s play-by-play commentator during his tenure at the school, Findlay has worked for various other publications in the past. Some of his other ventures include Yahoo, Junior Hockey Magazine and The Canadian University Sports Network, where he currently acts as the lead commentator.
What makes Findlay notable is his ability to grab information from coaches and teams before anyone else. He’s known as a hockey “insider,” tweeting news about the U Sports hockey world to his thousands of followers. In some cases, he knows what’s going on before the players involved do.
“That happens more than you think,” Findlay said.
It was never the game plan to become an insider. After doing camera work for the Generals broadcasts for three years, Findlay decided to make the jump to commentary at the U Sports level.
Findlay used his play-by-play work as a way in to the industry, and then started to do more than he ever expected. He quickly became the Ryerson Rams’ hockey insider, something that had not really been done at the school before.
“It got to the point where my interest was piqued in the rest of the league.”
In March of 2016, Findlay’s passion led him to Halifax for the U Sports national hockey championships. From there, he was able to talk to a coach about some new recruits coming to the team a year later, something he had heard from a Ryerson source.
Findlay would go on to break the news before anyone else.
Of course, not everyone is willing to give out their information to Findlay.
“I take pride in being fair, so I have a very good relationship with just about every coach in the league,” Findlay said.
When asked about what events he’d love to cover in the future, he stated that covering the Stanley Cup Final is any hockey sportscaster’s dream. However, one event in particular stands out most to the Oshawa native.
“I’d love to cover the Daytona 500,” said Findlay, an avid NASCAR fan. “I mean, it’s the crown jewel of auto racing.”
For now, Findlay hopes to only go up from here. His future is looking strong, but he said he can never stop working hard to meet his goals.
Just like a professional hockey player.
Ryersonian's sports editor. Steven has hosted the television show, The Hockey House, under three different television networks, LeafsTV, RogersTV and TVCogeco. Steven has covered hockey for various publications since 2011 and has covered NASCAR in Canada in 2017.