All-Black announcing team to do Kraken games
The Seattle Kraken say they will make NHL history during Thursday night’s game against Winnipeg when play-byplay announcer Everett Fitzhugh and analyst JT Brown team up to form the first allBlack television broadcast crew to call an NHL game, The Associated Press reports.
Fitzhugh and Brown will appear on ROOT Sports Northwest. Fitzhugh is Seattle’s radio play-by-play announcer but will be moving over to the television side for one night while regular TV announcer John Forslund works the national broadcasts for Vegas and Colorado on TNT.
Katie Townsend, Seattle’s senior vice president of marketing and communications, said the team had planned for Forslund to miss a small number of games for national broadcast duties during the season and have Fitzhugh step in. She said having Fitzhugh and Brown team up during Black History Month adds even more significance.
“We are fortunate to have an incredibly talented broadcast team. Everett and JT moved into NHL broadcasting this season, worked hard and have made an immediate connection with our fans,” Townsend said.
Fitzhugh was Seattle’s first broadcast hire in the summer of 2020 after working in the ECHL.
Brown retired after playing parts of seven seasons with Tampa Bay, Anaheim and Minnesota. He last played during the 2018-19 season.
Trivia question
On this date in 1972, Wilt Chamberlain scored his 30,000th career point. Six others have since passed him. Who are they?
No Snoop?
Country music star Trace Adkins will sing the national anthem prior to Sunday’s sold-out Daytona 500, NASCAR announced Tuesday. Snoop Dogg must have been unavailable. Daytona International Speedway is back to full capacity a year after the pandemic limited attendance to roughly 30,000 fans in a facility that usually packs in more than 100,000.
Trivia answer
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387), Karl Malone (36,928), LeBron James (36,526), Kobe Bryant (33,643), Michael Jordan (32,292) and Dirk Nowitzki (31,560). Chamberlain finished with 31,419 points. The Lakers have 24 games remaining this season. If James scores his season average of 29 and plays in every remaining game, he’d end this season with 37,222, passing Malone.