Mike Emrick

Mike Emrick was an American sportscaster who did the play-by-play announcing for hundreds of ice hockey games, both on the national and international level, beginning in the early 1970s. Born and raised in Indiana, Emrick developed a love for ice hockey at a very young age. He played the sport with his friends throughout childhood, and seeing as Indiana did not have a professional team, he grew up cheering on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Since Emrick's love of ice hockey did not translate into any kind of remarkable athletic ability on the ice, he decided to stay relatively close to the sport by studying broadcasting and communications at Manchester University. Emrick received his Bachelor's from Manchester University, and soon continued his education by earning an M.A. from Miami University, as well as a PhD from Bowling Green. Emrick's first official job in ice hockey came in the early 1970s when he was covered the Pittsburgh Penguins as an unpaid correspondent for a Pennsylvania newspaper. Despite not receiving pay for his work, a few years later Emrick parlayed his experience into his first paying job as a play-by-play announcer for the now defunct International Hockey League. While working for the IHL, Emrick honed his broadcasting skills, and was given the nickname "Doc" due to his unusually high academic degree for a sportscaster. After a few years covering games for the IHL Emrick landed his big break in 1982 when he was asked to join the upstart New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League as the team's play-by-play announcer. For Emrick, a small town boy who grew up loving the NHL, the job was a dream come true. He stayed with the team as their official announcer for the next 30-plus years, and throughout the 80s, 90s and 2000s also called nationally-broadcast NHL games for various networks, including ESPN, ABC and NBC. In 1992 Emrick also added Olympics analyst to his already prolific body of work. He served as an analyst for his first Olympics in 1992, and continued in the role for four additional Olympics, including the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. Furthermore, In 2011 Emrick made history be becoming the first member of the media to be inducted into the National Hockey Hall of Fame.