By: Fred Groves, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Lakeshore News Reporter, Lakeshore News Reporter
Growing up in Kincardine, Steve Bell would voice the play-by-play action of neighbourhood street hockey games.
Fast forward to 2025, and the passion for the game has not wavered.
“I was kind of the mouthy kid doing the play-by-play,” said Bell, know throughout Windsor-Essex as ‘Beller’.
On November 8, ‘Beller’, a Tecumseh resident, will be inducted into the Windsor-Essex Spors Hall of Fame.
He will be joined by football official Bruce Carter and basketball coach Andy Kiss. In the athlete group is a roster of stars including football players Luke Wilson and Tyrome Crawford, track and field star Melissa Bishop, and Noelle Montcalm, boxer Kara Ro, wrestler Jordan Steen and Korissa Williams who was one of the best basketball players to hoop at the University of Windsor.
“I played a lot of sports and I was equally poor at all of them, but even to go in as a builder is an honour,” Beller recently told the Tecumseh Reporter.
By his own admission, the long-time voice of the Windsor Spitfires, is not a handyman around the house although he does help out with grass cutting and car washing. What he is known for is his humour and giving back in a very big way.
“I am prouder of what I’ve done in the community on a volunteer basis. I’ve never said no to a charity or a worthy cause.”
That includes being a guest speaker at numerous events, taking the microphone as an MC at guest tournaments and one of his biggest causes, In Honour of the Ones we Love, a charitable organization that assists cancer patients.
After working at the Bruce Nuclear Plant near his hometown, Beller went on to Humber and then to Fanshawe College before starting his radio career in Sudbury. He was there for less than six months, spinning records as a DJ before joining AM 580 CKWW in Windsor as the Sports Director.
“I wanted to be on the radio, I had an Ok voice.”
What sets local radio apart is it is just that, local. And while he covered major events in Detroit, such as the Indy races and was in the dressing room after the Red Wings won a Stanley Cup, Beller is very passionate about sports in his own area.
“You can find out the Blue Jays, Lions and Tigers score on your phone. You aren’t going to find out if the LaSalle Vipers beat Strathroy or that Brennan beat Riverside in a high school football game. We always thought local.”
For over 41 years Beller praised and boasted the strike outs, touchdowns and goals not only of the pros but everywhere in Windsor and Essex County he could talk about.
That is until February 3, 2021.
Working from home due to Covid, and preparing for his noon sports cast, he got a call telling him that after four plus decades, he was done, effective immediately.
“I was hurt, somewhat shocked. I didn’t think I’d be treated like that. It’s (Bell Media) a big company.”
It was not long before the Windsor Spitfires invited him to continue to be the play-by-play announcer which, ironically, would still be broadcast on AM 800.
Beller has had a relationship with the local Ontario Hockey League team since the late 1980’s and has high praise for the current owners, John Savage, Stephen Savage and Brian Schwab.
“I consider those guys friends, they are really good people. They are very generous in the community.”
Beller has got up at 3:30 a.m. to be part of the Spitfires broadcast team, which now includes Manny Paiva. He has taken those long bus rides up to Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury and even a bit farther.
“I remember the first year doing the play-by-play on my own back in 1987-88. The Spitfires were the best team in Canada the entire year and they did not win the championship. That was heartbreaking. I feel like I am part of the team.”
On November 8, he became a member of a much bigger—and perhaps even more prestigious—team than the Spitfires: the Windsor–Essex Sports Hall of Fame.
