Robitaille is one of 12 inductees to the Class of 2021, which will be honored at the annual induction dinner Oct. 13 in the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center. Tickets are available at Buffalosportshallfame.com and are discounted to $95 (or $850 for a table of 10) through Sept. 24.
Robitaille, who played seven seasons as an NHL defenseman with the Sabres and three other teams, joined the Sabres broadcast team in 1989 and stayed for the next 25 years. He’s most remembered for his role on Empire’s “Hockey Hotline,” the hugely popular postgame show on the network during the Sabres’ heyday in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and for his weekly radio appearances on “The Sharpshooters” with Jim Kelley, the late Hall of Fame columnist from The Buffalo News.
Empire became a giant on the Western New York sports scene in the 1990s and early 2000s before signing off in 2005.
“The guy that taught me some balance on my work was Jim Kelley. We talked a lot about that,” Robitaille said. “And I balanced my work out a little bit because of him. He said something to me I’ll never forget: ‘In God’s name, don’t sell out to anyone. Just be honest and be fair.’ “
Robitaille’s analysis was sharp-tongued, insightful and entertaining all at the same time. And many words or phrases were not in your average dictionary.
“I haven’t got a great formal education, so I had to do an awful lot of work in preparation and I’d have little trigger words I’d put down before,” he said. “Forechecking, backchecking, hitting, a lot of basic stuff. And I would be able to look down about certain things I want to talk about. I just pieced it off the pregame work.”
