Hall of Fame hockey broadcaster Emrick exits after 50 years
Thinking back over 50 years in hockey, Mike Emrick can’t name one favorite memory or game, but one story sticks out.
Minutes after watching T. J. Oshie score four shootout goals to help the U. S. beat Russia at the Sochi Olympics, the camera panned to dejected Russian fans, and Emrick echoed 1980 gold medal coach Herb Brooks with his call: “They paid their rubles to see the home team win. But not this game. Not tonight.”
Emrick called more than 3,700 games but is done adding game days to his calendar for the first time since 1970. The Hall of Fame broadcaster who made hockey sound like art as the voice of the NHL in the United States announced his retirement Monday to a chorus of tears and admiration from all corners of the sports world.
The man affectionately known as “Doc” for his doctorate in communications spent the past 15 years as the voice of the NHL in the U. S. as NBC Sports’ lead play by play guy. Emrick, 74, called 22 Stanley Cup Finals and six Olympics since working his way up from the minors in the 1970s and did the most recent NHL playoffs remotely from his home in Michigan.
“As time passed, I became more comfortable with myself and the fact that I was flawed and there was no way I was ever going to do a perfect game and probably the mistake was to try to do it that way,” Emrick said. “I just enjoyed the fact that I was given a free seat, a good seat, and I got to work with some of the best athletes in the world and then twice a month I got something in the mail, and it was really good.”