I'm not really much of a hockey guy, but I do love sports and wanted to get involved with play-by-play when I got to college. All the upperclassmen had all the meaningful work on the football broadcasts locked down, so I decided to work on the hockey team.
To set about learning about hockey, I listened and re listened (recorded on a cassette recorder -- it was 1980), to Bob Wilson call hockey games. Every game at least twice. If Bob Wilson wasn't the best I'd ever heard in any sport, I'm not sure who is/was*. I consciously thought to myself during our broadcasts, "how would Bob Wilson describe this?"
Interestingly, while I emerged out of all that listening as a big Bob Wilson fan, I didn't become some massive Bruins fan. I like the laundry and all, but it's not a passion. And it dawns on me this morning it's because Wilson really was all about the action on the ice, not homerism. There's a place for homerism of course, but for what I wanted Wilson was the perfect man.
Wrote him a letter describing his unknowing role in my announcing tutelage, and got a long handwritten response and an invitation to join him in the Garden press room before a game. We had a Coke and a five minute conversation -- he had notes to review -- but it was a highlight of my college years.
* -- Doc Emrick is exceptional too. So interesting that when I'm trying to think of great announcers, two hockey guys come to mind. (Okay, Vin Scully too)
