Brian Sinclair was 12 the first time he ever announced a hockey game.

Because he'd hurt his knee playing bantam hockey, he was asked to handle the timekeeping at a game in northern Manitoba, and there was a PA (public address) microphone where he was working, so he picked it up and started talking.

"I did that as a joke, and somebody said later, you sound pretty good," Sinclair recalled.

He went on to move to B.C. where he took a communications media program course and worked as a DJ in nightclubs before he found his way back to PA work in 1995.

Now 69, the Langley City resident has just celebrated working 1,000 BCHL games as a grown-up PA announcer, most of them for the Langley Rivermen.

On Friday, Jan. 10, the team honoured Sinclair's milestone by having him drop the puck for the start of their game at George Preston and presenting him with a special plaque.

Among the 1,000 games that stick in his memory was a junior hockey season opener that went sideways in hilarious fashion, when the Langley Hornets, the BCHL team that played there from 1998 to 2006, tried something creative.

"The Hornets had a beautiful team bus," Sinclair recounted.

"It was really nice, all painted up. And they decided to drive it onto the ice through the [Zamboni entrance] and then stop and open the door and have the players, in uniform, in their skates, skate out of the bus one at a time as they reintroduced the team at the start of the year."

And then the bus stalled.

"They couldn't get it started. And they had to tow it off the ice with the Zamboni," Sinclair laughed.

"Most people were laughing, taking pictures."

Another memorable moment was when Austin Azurdia scored the winner for the Rivermen at Langley Events Centre with less than a second to go, "about as down to the wire as you can get."

Hockey isn't the only sport Sinclair has announced.

"I've done baseball. I've done, soccer, rugby, basketball," he listed, but his favourite remains hockey.

Sinclair favours a relatively laid-back style, in contrast to more excitable PA announcers.

"They scream and yell and, you know, you do want to emphasize the goal score, but some guys go way too far," Sinclair commented.

"I understand the game is not about me. It's about the the game and the players. I want to get the information out and sound as professional as possible. I want to make sure I do my best to see their [players'] names correct."

Which can be a challenge, sometimes.

"I did a pre-Olympic hockey game once between Kazakhstan and Finland," Sinclair. "It was like, could I buy a vowel, please?"

Sinclair praised the owners of the Rivermen, Dana Matheson and Jamie Schreder, for believing "what's more important than making good hockey players is making good young men, guys who'll be good in society."

He said if his wife Kelly and and sons Brandon and Taylor, weren't behind him, "there's no way I could have done this. They've been amazing."

His advice for anyone considering the profession is to "make sure you like the sport [you're announcing]. I would say to any young person today, I don't care what job you do. Make sure you like your job."