Hockey fans know from listening to him that not only is Mike Emrick a terrific play-by-play voice, but he also is an uncommon man with a deep perspective on life.
Yet people who know him best even were struck by what Emrick said during his acceptance speech for winning best play-by-play at the Sports Emmys in May.
“Only Doc,” said an associate.
I talked more to Emrick about it and did a story for USA Today. Here is an excerpt:
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The Stanley Cup playoffs are the busiest time of year for Mike Emrick. Yet he added something to his routine this spring that has nothing to do with hockey.
NBC’s lead NHL play-by-play man is writing a letter every day to a person who had an impact on his life. The recipients of the daily notes range from longtime producers and analysts to long-ago high school classmates, neighbors and people from his early jobs in the business.
“There’s so much that people did for you along the way that they probably thought was nothing at all,” Emrick said. “I wanted to tell them what it meant to me. It seemed like something that needed to be done.”
Emrick plans to continue his letter writing during the Stanley Cup Final. However, the death of his father-in-law will force him to miss Game 1 of the New York Rangers-Los Angeles Kings series on Wednesday night. He will return for Saturday’s Game 2 on NBC.
Emrick, 67, stresses the thank-you notes aren’t a veiled signal that he is in declining health. In fact, he starts most letters by saying, “For no particular reason …”
“I don’t want people getting the wrong idea,” Emrick said.
Emrick said the inspiration came in part from his brother, Dan. His parents were both school teachers, and in the later years of their lives, Dan arranged for their former students to send them letters that Emrick says “showed they made a difference.”
“As you get older, you realize you see people leave, and you didn’t get a chance to talk to them before they left,” Emrick said.
Doesn’t surprise me that Doc runs deep. Emrick has never been a “typical” play-by-play announcer — he does it his way. Maybe it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but even his critics would have to admire his enthusiasm and knowledge of the game. I really missed him and Eddie Olczyk in the Kings-Blackhawks series.
Doc defines an absolute first class role model.
NJ Devil fans have known for years how lucky & proud we were to call him our own Doc. It almost made you not want to attend a game, because then you could stay home & listen to the legend. In these times now when most of the “heroes” kids look up to are banned or arrested for something, it’s a shame more kids don’t know about Doc.