In the world of Detroit sports, some voices are simply unforgettable. Pat Caputo was one of them.
When my colleague Bob Duff and I drove to Grand Rapids last Friday to watch the Red Wings' AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, clinch a playoff spot against the Manitoba Moose, we had a long list of topics to discuss. Chief among them: what the Detroit Red Wings should—or can—do this summer to turn around a team that hasn't seen playoff hockey since the Obama administration. That alone could have filled the entire ride.
But instead, our conversation kept circling back to Pat Caputo, the longtime Detroit journalist and radio personality who passed away this week after a brief battle with cancer. Bob and I had both known him for decades. Bob recalled how welcoming Pat was when he first started covering the Detroit Tigers in the late 1980s—a small gesture that left a lasting impression.
You meet a lot of people in this business, but very few leave a mark like Pat. With his bombastic radio presence and sharp columns in the Oakland Press, he was a force of nature. His sports knowledge was encyclopedic, his opinions explosive and plentiful, and his verbal sparring matches with callers were the stuff of legend.
But what Bob and I really talked about was the man behind the mic. Pat was genuinely kind, endlessly entertaining, and always up for a good hockey debate. Even though I spent more than three decades as USA TODAY's hockey columnist, I also covered Detroit Lions home games and enough Tigers games to know every face in the press box. Pat was one of my favorites.
His death is a huge loss—not just for those who knew him, but for every sports fan who tuned in. Before the NFL draft, Pat would dive deep into prospect analysis. You didn't just listen to him; you learned from him. I always made a point to catch his draft coverage because I trusted his take on players. He worked hard at his craft, and it showed.
We'll all miss Pat's voice in the Detroit sports landscape, especially hockey fans. But for those of us who knew him, we'll remember the man who always had time for a good Red Wings conversation—even when the drive to Grand Rapids was long and the topics were many.