Gallagher: R.I.P. Jamie Bramburger, community star in Pembroke, Ont.

Well-known Pembroke, Ont., sports personality and author Jamie Bramburger died suddenly on March 11.

March 19, 2025

By Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

Jamie Bramburger loved his Boston Red Sox and he loved covering the Ottawa Valley Baseball League and the Greater Ottawa Fastball League.

His full-time job was with Algonquin College in the Upper Ottawa Valley town of Pembroke but he didn’t adhere to banker’s hours and go home.

He cared about his community. That's why some people called him Mr. Pembroke. He was all over the place, here, there and everywhere. Work days of 12-to-15 hours were not uncommon for him, much of it on a volunteer basis.

He felt a sense of duty to do as much as he could for his hometown and surrounding area.

He was the TV voice of the Pembroke Lumber Kings junior hockey team and produced a book about the team's history called Go Kings Go. He also wrote a book titled Sudden Impact about the 1942 Almonte train wreck near Ottawa.

When he died suddenly on March 11 at age 58, Hockey Night in Canada paid tribute to him after the first period of a Maple Leafs' game on March 15 when Ron MacLean made a note of his passing. 

Jennifer Botterill, one of MacLean's panelists on the telecast, had been scheduled to participate virtually as part of Bramburger's Algonquin College Speaker Series on the night of March 11 but that was the day he died. Thus, the event was sadly cancelled.

A week prior to his death in his last post on Twitter/X, Bramburger showed an interview he did with Botterill for YOURTVOV, the cable television station in Pembroke.   

Bramburger would often go to OVBL games at Riverside Park in Pembroke where each of the teams played all their games -- and file stories for the Pembroke Observer and News and its managing editor Anthony Dixon. He also went many times to Micksburg located 20 minutes from Pembroke to cover the Micksburg Twins of the GOFL.

"When I think of Jamie and sports, I'm not just thinking Lumber Kings,'' Dixon told me. "I equally associate him with Fellowes Falcons football and particularly with Micksburg Twins, and in recent years, the Ottawa Valley Baseball League.

"Jamie gave of his own precious time to write up and send in results and photos from both leagues. In early summer, you could just feel his enthusiasm for the diamond ramping up in his pre-season stories to make sure people knew when and where games were happening.

"He wanted to share his love for baseball and fastball with his community -- and that's exactly what he did. He didn't have to. He wanted to, because he loved it.''

1970s Renfrew Red Sox senior baseball player Terry Fleurie, who has been writing for the Eganville Leader for close to 30 years, remembers Bramburger as not only a lover of baseball and fastball but revealed he umpired frequently in the old Upper Ottawa Valley Men's Fastball League.

Fleurie was a pitcher for Stricklands in the fastball league and when he saw Bramburger putting the umpire's gear on, he knew he "was going to get a very well umpired ball game'' all the time.

"Jamie knew the rules, he was unbiased, he had a very consistent strike zone and he knew his role was to officiate the game and not grandstand as some officials do,'' Fleurie said in an interview.

One night, Fleurie took 13-year-old son Noah to a Twins’ game while on duty for the Leader, and he saw Bramburger doing a broadcast of the game. Bramburger knew of Noah’s potential as a pitcher and brought him in to do guest commentary for one inning.

“It meant the world to Noah. He will never forget that gesture,’’ Fleurie said. “I remember Jamie telling me afterward that he was asking Noah what pitches he might throw in certain situations and Jamie said Noah picked exactly almost every pitch what the pitchers had thrown.’’

Bramburger was the major force behind convincing the Ottawa-based Algonquin College to build a campus on Pembroke’s waterfront years ago. He was the mastermind behind improving the waterfront, period.

As befitting his stature in the Pembroke district, Bramburger's wake was held March 17 from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Pembroke Memorial Centre, the home of the Lumber Kings. It was akin to a lying-in-state ceremony because he was such a beloved public figure, somebody who had attended Lumber Kings’ games for over 50 years.

The Malcolm, Deavitt and Binhammer Funeral Home wouldn't have been able to accommodate the large gathering of mourners who attended his visitation.

Dixon, who knew his friend for about 30 years, joined the lineup at 3 p.m. and said he was told the procession was busy all day.

"Over the course of the day, there had to be thousands of people that came through,'' Dixon said.

An extraordinary display of affection and support for a fallen hero.