Hockey Ping!
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Posted on 10/19/2020 7:59:41 AM PDT by EdnaMode
After a 47-year broadcasting career, Mike ‘Doc’ Emrick is hanging up the mic.
Emrick announced his retirement Monday after calling hockey for three decades, including 22 Stanley Cup Finals, 45 Stanley Cup Playoffs/Final Game 7s, six Olympics, NHL Winter Classics and All-Star Games. He has spent the last 15 years as the lead play-by-play voice for NBC Sports’ NHL coverage.
“It was 50 years ago this fall, with pen and pad in hand at old Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, I got my first chance to cover the National Hockey League. Gordie Howe was a Red Wing, Bobby Hull was a Blackhawk, Bobby Orr was a Bruin,” said Emrick. “A time like this makes me recall that we have seen a lot together. The biggest crowd ever, 105,000 at Michigan Stadium. A gold medal game that required overtime between the two North American powers in Vancouver.
Things change over 50 years, but much of what I love is unchanged from then to now and into the years ahead. I still get chills seeing the Stanley Cup. I especially love when the horn sounds, and one team has won and another team hasn’t, all hostility can dissolve into the timeless great display of sportsmanship – the handshake line. I leave you with sincere thanks.”
A member of seven Halls of Fame, Emrick has won eight career Sports Emmy Awards for Outstanding Sports Personality – Play-by-Play, including an unprecedented seven consecutive wins from 2014-2020. He will remain a member of the NBC Sports family “by occasionally writing and narrating video essays for its NHL coverage in the future.”
“Mike ‘Doc’ Emrick is a national treasure – simply put, he’s one of the best ever to put on a headset in the history of sports broadcasting,” said Sam Flood, Executive Producer and President, Production, NBC and NBCSN.
He did a good job on the Stars-Bolts series.
For me, his voice is the voice of the NHL playoffs.
Just the right amount of banter with the color-commentary guys, good play-calling, and he’s an encyclopedia of hockey history.
He will be missed.
Happy Retirement, Doc! You have long been one of hockey’s most knowledgeable class acts.
I just hope your announcement is not health related.
I liked him, as I prefer watching the Sunday afternoon games on NBC as opposed to the Ron MacLean Show on CBC on Saturday nights.
For those who don’t know he’s called “Doc” because he at one time taught Broadcast Communications at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, PA.
Oh no. Gonna be hard to imagine the NHL without him on the call. His book comes out tomorrow, guess that was a sign. Thanks to all the weirdness this year he got to call hockey on his birthday. Bet he never saw that coming.
It’s cause he has a PHD in communication. He really is a Dr.
He should do some commenting on live feeds of riots in his spare time.
(let me know if you want on or off the ping list)
He told a funny story about teaching a class during the Vietnam War. At the time you had to hold a basic FCC license to even touch the microphone at a radio station. So he took his class to the Federal Building in Downtown Pittsburgh to take the test.
Building security saw a professor leading a bunch of college kids towards the Federal Building and thought they had a protest on their hands. Doc was able to talk his way out of that.
74 years old . . . really sneaks up on ya!
Even before his stint nationally he was the voice of the NJ Devils and I NEVER heard him have a bad game.
Right up there with some of the legends of NY . . . Marty Glickman, Bob Murphy, Jiggs McDonalald, Marv . . . NY was blessed with play by play men over the decades.
He’s also a methodist deacon (and part of the silent majority)
Who’d he offend?
Doc was one of the good ones. Will miss him.
His tandem with Chico Resch doing commentary was epic!
And getting those FCC licenses was HARD. Not like now, throw some money at them and boom. That test included stuff about how the broadcast antenna worked, like your wattage to range and all kinds of technical stuff. Just to be on the mic.
We’re still gonna get video essays from him. So not gone completely. But it’s gonna be weird. For me the NHL season never really starts until I get a game called by Doc. He’s as much a part of the sound of the game as the swish of skates and thud-rattle of a good board check.
Father Time remains undefeated. 50 years is a long run.
I had a few light conversations with “Doc” when I worked security at the Meadowlands. He always stopped to say hello unlike a lot of people of his status. Yogi and Carmen Berra would also stop to say hello. They were (are) great people. They made the job much more enjoyable.
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