Tom Lapointe – A Journalist Who Lived a Thousand Lives in One
If you ever needed a perfect example of someone who lived life headfirst, full throttle, no seatbelt, then Tom Lapointe was your man. When I talk about Tom, I’m talking about someone who didn’t just report on the game—he played one of his own, every single day. Whether it was chasing down breaking news, working a source at a bar past midnight, or organizing a celebrity softball game just for the thrill of it, Tom was relentless. He said it himself in his final days: all he ever wanted was to be remembered as a guy who tried. And my God, he did.
Tom’s journey didn’t start in the spotlight. He wasn’t some Ivy League grad with a press pass handed to him. No diploma. No roadmap. Just guts and a raw instinct for a good story. He started in the minors—L’Artisan, later called L’Hebdo du Nord—and clawed his way up to La Patrie, then Montreal-Matin, and finally landed at Le Journal de Montréal , where many came to know his name.
He didn’t just cover hockey. He lived hockey. He was there, up close with legends like Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Guy Lafleur. He wasn’t just reporting—he was part of the fabric. He broke the story of Gretzky’s earth-shattering trade to the LA Kings. He had the scoop on Lafleur’s return to the NHL. Those were career-defining moments, but for Tom, they were just part of the ride.
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And when he moved to radio, whether it was at CKVL or CKAC, he brought the same fire. He wasn't just a broadcaster—he was an experience. He had the charisma to put Gretzky on the mound at the Olympic Stadium in a CKVL jersey, just because he could . That was Tom.
But his life wasn’t all prime-time and headlines. He faced some brutal lows. At one point, he fled to France, broke and homeless, sleeping on park benches. But even there, people believed in him—Gilbert Rozon, Marcel Béliveau—gave him a lifeline. He didn’t hide these chapters. He wrote about them in his autobiography Mes mille et une vies . And that says a lot about the man. He owned his story. Every success, every fall.
The final chapter came with a devastating diagnosis—stage 4 prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. That was January 2024. He fought, because of course he did. But even the toughest go down eventually. He passed away at 73 in a palliative care center in Saint-Jérôme.
But you know what? Tom Lapointe didn’t lose. Not really. Because when you live that hard, love your craft that deeply, and leave behind a legacy of stories, connections, and unforgettable moments—you don’t just die. You echo.
So, here’s to Tom. A dreamer. A scrapper. A man who didn’t just chase stories—he became one.
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