Mr. Blue Jacket’s legacy reaches far beyond the ice
A champion of hockey and family, broadcaster and Buckeye captain Bill Davidge ’77 inspired people amid triumph and tragedy.
In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, May 20, 2026, Bill Davidge ’77 died. Cause of death? It might’ve been the cancer—multiple myeloma, nasty stuff that gets into your bones. Or it might’ve been the fact that, after 12 years of throwing haymakers at each other, both the cancer and the man were too exhausted to continue their epic battle.
Davidge was a hockey player/scholar-athlete at Ohio State, a coach/teacher at Miami University of Ohio and at the NHL level, and a broadcaster whose connection with the local pro team earned him the sobriquet “Mr. Blue Jacket.”
From 2000 to 2019, Jackets fans were imbued with the purity of his hope. “Oh, baby, you better believe it,” he used to call out to his audience. He’d say, “It doesn’t get any better than that.”
Davidge was born in the small town of Dunnville, Ontario. From his obituary, written by his family: “The son of a Canadian war hero and a homemaker, he was one of four siblings and excelled at several sports before focusing on hockey.” He was a good enough hockey player to earn a scholarship to Ohio State, where he had 45 goals and 101 assists in 141 games. He captained the Buckeyes his senior year, 1976–77.
Davidge met Leann Grimes ’78 at Ohio State. She was the daughter of Bob Grimes ’53, who played for Woody Hayes and was one of the greatest tight ends in Ohio State history. She was also a dominant women’s tennis player who set Ohio State records for wins in singles (68) and doubles (92) and won four Big Ten titles.
When Bill and Leann were married, she coached the tennis team at Miami University while he completed a postgraduate degree and helped found Miami’s Division I hockey program. It all changed in 1985 when, at the age of 28, Leann died in a car accident on her way home from a recruiting visit. Davidge became a single father to their 15-month-old son, Rob. “I tried to coach and raise our son and teach phys ed. After four years, something had to give,” Davidge told the magazine in 2011. He spent some time just teaching but missed hockey, so he got work as an NHL scout.
He was devoted to the sport, but family always came first. Davidge would go on to remarry and have another son, Willy J. To see him with his sons was to understand joy, especially when they were on a golf course. “He struck a really good balance of being that coach-parent-friend figure,” Rob Davidge says. “I didn’t have a mom, but he gave me such an incredible childhood.”
