The roster of the Windsor Spitfires’ hockey team changes with each passing season. One constant for almost four decades has been ‘the voice of the Windsor Spitfires’ in Steve Bell.

Given that it’s hockey and everyone gets a nickname, he’s better known in rinks around the Ontario Hockey League as “Beller.”

Bell took over play-by-play of Spitfires’ games from former AM800 Sports Director Dave Quinn in the fall of 1987.

Through the years, he’s described the big hits, big goals and big plays of the likes of Adam Graves, Ed Jovanovski, Steve Ott, Taylor Hall, Adam Henrique, Jason Spezza, Mikhail Sergachev, Wyatt Johnson and Jalen Chatfield, all of whom moved on to the National Hockey League.

Bell’s genuine enthusiasm for the game and the players allowed him to coax some thoughtful answers out of nervous 16-year-olds in pre- or post-game interviews.

His radio broadcasts are a must tune-in for diehard junior hockey fans when the Spits are on the road.

Through the years there were some lean seasons but Bell also got the thrill of covering talented teams that appeared in four Memorial Cup finals, winning three of them.

A fascination with radio goes back to Bell’s childhood in Kincardine where he was known to do a little play-by-play of the neighborhood street hockey game. He and his siblings grew up listening to Windsor’s CKLW Big 8 with larger-than-life voices of Tom Shannon, Byron MacGregor and others.

Bell’s own career started as an evening DJ in Sudbury in March 1980 but just six months later he was hired by AM800 in Windsor. He served as the station’s Sports Director until restructuring eliminated the position in 2021. Spits’ ownership was quick to ensure he would not be silenced as their own play-by-play man.

Bell now takes his rightful place in  the builders’ category of the Windsor-Essex County Sports Hall of Fame.