For every fan of the great sport of hockey, there is always a memory stored safely in their minds of when their love for this great game began. For some of us it was our first trip to the old Boston Garden, or a pickup game on the pond. For others, namely recent converts, maybe it was when a close friend sat them down and made them watch game six of last year's playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens, the most important game in the great Hub of Hockey in over a decade.
For Jack Edwards, play-by-play announcer for the Boston Bruins, it all began with a transistor radio.
The Beginning
"I'd sneak this transistor radio under my pillow, although I'm sure my parents knew." Jack began, recounting his early childhood. As Jack shifted the dial one night, he stumbled upon longtime Bruins' play-by-play announcer Bob Wilson, whom he would later refer to in our conversation as the greatest play-by-play man in the history of sports. "I was fascinated, simply by his tone of voice and his incredible passion for the game. That's what drew me into hockey."
Jack had yet to even attend a hockey game when the legendary Wilson infiltrated his ears and gave birth to the die-hard hockey fan within him. "I went to a few hockey games a little bit later in my youth and I was hooked. I was hooked forever."
Jack credits Wilson for inspiring him to stick to his guns when pressured to dumb things down during a broadcast, citing that Wilson always spoke to his core audience and never over-simplified things in hopes of reaching a broader crowd. "He wasn't going to insult a hockey fan by explaining what offsides was, cause that was just going to waste time and take away from the enjoyment of the game for the hardcore hockey fan, his core audience."
UNH
"For a while I thought I was going to be a professional soccer player." Jack told me, noting that a professional club in England showed interest in him while he was attending the University of New Hampshire. But a leg injury suffered between Edwards' sophomore and junior seasons, putting him in a variety of casts for over six months, forced him to expend his energy in another direction. "Knowing what I know now, and looking at my capabilities back then, I don't think I ever could have made it as a professional in England." Edwards confessed.
Jack turned his focus to a class in writing broadcast news. "I really threw myself into it with all my passion." Jack recounted. From there he scored an internship with a local station, WGIR. Also joining Jack as an intern with the station was Walt Perkins, recently tabbed by WBZ to replace legendary sports anchor Gil Santos.
Jack kept busy around campus, serving as the play-by-play announcer for the school's hockey team. During his senior year in 1979, the Wildcats won the ECAC tournament and made it to the Frozen Four, only to lose to Herb Brooks' Minnesota squad, a roster chock-full of future members of the revered 1980 "Miracle On Ice" team. At the end of the season he informed legendary UNH Hockey Coach Charlie Holt that he had plans of going into broadcasting.
"It's really important to set long term goals. No matter how over the horizon they seem, they are pulling you toward a destiny." Holt told the young and eager Edwards. From there Jack set three goals for himself coming out of college: to work an Olympic Winter Games, to call play-by-play for a World Cup Final on American network television, and to call play-by-play for the Boston Bruins.
Early Broadcasting Career
Jack began his broadcasting career with WGIR, the station for which he interned during his time at UNH. "They offered me a job right out college." Edwards said. "So that was the beginning of the long climb."
After tours of duty with WGIR and WMUR, Jack departed the Granite State. From there he spent time at WRKO, a radio station in Boston, and later as a weekend anchor at WJAR-TV down in Providence. Edwards returned to the Boston area, serving as the sports anchor for WCVB-TV and WHDH-TV.
In 1988 Jack was able to cross off one of his three goals he'd set coming out of college. Edwards made his way to Calgary for the Winter Olympics, taking on the role of announcer for the alpine skiing portion of the games.
This Is Sportscenter
In 1991 Edwards made his way to Bristol, CT, home of ESPN. He wore many hats during his tenure there. Aside from being a Sportscenter anchor, Jack covered hockey, sumo wrestling, little league baseball, and a sport he was very familiar with already: soccer.
"There's five times the action in hockey as there is in soccer, which is not to say soccer is devoid of action. There's plenty going on in a soccer match." Jack told me when asked to compare doing play-by-play for both sports. "In soccer, there's plenty of chess match happening on the field. But hockey is just so much more intense, so much more compressed. Since the rule changes coming out of the lockout, the action is non-stop. There is always something really exciting going on, on the ice. You rarely go more than 15 seconds without something of note happening, and that's different from any other game in the world."
Jack credited his on-field experience and the similarities in principal and premise between soccer and hockey for helping give him a better angle of the latter from the broadcast booth. "The principals of defense and the principals of attack have a lot in common when you boil them down to their most common denominators, and that translated in a very interesting way for me."
In the mid '90s, the legendary Fred Cusick decided to call it a career, opening the position Edwards had long dreamed of: play-by-play announcer for the beloved B's. "I figured that the only way Fred Cusick was gonna leave the job was horizontally." Jack mused. Bound by contract with ESPN, Edwards approached network executives and requested permission to be let out of his contract if he got the job. They refused to budge and Edwards never interviewed for the spot. Dale Arnold was awarded the position shortly thereafter. "That's fine." Edwards said of ESPN's denial. "I signed a contract and I've always honored every contract I've ever signed. My word is my bond."
By 2002, Jack was 2/3rds of the way through the checklist he'd set out before beginning his broadcasting career. He served as the main announcer for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, during which the US team made a memorable, unexpected run to the quarterfinals.
Post-ESPN Career
Near the end of Edwards' tenure at ESPN, the network decided they weren't so keen on hockey anymore. In 2003 he decided to leave Bristol. "At the end of my ESPN experience, the games themselves were really fun, being on the air. But the rest of it was really a lot like factory work because of the scale and approach of that network." Jack said of his departure.
Edwards returned to his soccer roots, signing on as the play-by-play announcer for the MLS' Chicago Fire. "It was really cool. It was the first time I'd worked local telecasts for a team since college. I had forgotten how much I loved being part of a team. And not just being an ancillary part of the professional sports team, but being part of a broadcast team that was the same for every single game." Jack said, later naming Chicago as his favorite NHL road city.
Edwards joined HDNet for the 2003-2004 hockey season, hitting the road for 60+ games for the station. "It was a great experience, I got to see the whole league. It increased my depth of knowledge of the NHL." Jack said of his first season on the job. "Then the lockout happened. Coming out of the lockout I was gonna do another deal with HDNet. I was actually down to the final short strokes of the contract and I read in the Boston Globe that Dave Shea wasn't going to come back as the road voice of the Bruins."
Just 48 hours shy of signing up for another season with HDNet, Edwards overnighted all of his stuff and dashed to Boston.
Landing the Dream Job
With his wealth of experience and unbridled passion for the sport of hockey, Edwards won the Bruins over and was appointed as the team's road play-by-play announcer. After the 2006-2007 season, Dale Arnold ended his twelve year run with the Black and Gold and NESN tabbed Edwards as their full time announcer, ending his two year run of serving exclusively on the road.
"It's the job of my dreams." Jack told me, saying he's thrilled out of his mind to be where he is now. "It literally is the job of my dreams. Target your dreams, cause you never know how far along they'll pull you."
Teaming Up with Brick
"There's no one doing hockey, or any sport for that matter, that's better than Andy Brickley." Jack told me when asked if there's a better commentator out there in the NHL today. "Andy Brickley is the best commentator on television today. And the reason that I can say that, without any fear of having to equivocate somewhere down the line, is that he teaches the way your favorite teacher taught when you were in school. He makes it fascinating to the student who is completely tuned in and going way overboard in his homework, and he simultaneously makes it interesting, and most of the time even funny, to the burnout who never does his homework and couldn't care less about the class. That is what a brilliant teacher does."
Jack continued to sing Brick's praises, telling me that "He is brilliant with the language, one of the wittiest guys I've ever known in my life. He is a genuinely funny man and has first hand experience. I've never seen anybody with more depth of knowledge, love of the game or interest in hockey than Andy Brickley."
Jack admitted that despite his wealth of experience, he felt like he needed to prove himself to not only the NESN audience but his partner in the broadcast booth. "He gave me enough space to make a few mistakes and to grow. When I felt a trust building between the two of us it was extraordinarily rewarding." Edwards said, noting that he and Brickley genuinely trust each other both on and off the air.
The Routine
"My alarm goes off at quarter past six, I wake up and make myself an egg white omelet, usually with some cheddar cheese and tomatoes." Jack says of how his usual game day begins. With breakfast cooking he takes his time to hop online and study the statistics for each team, taking note of the latest numbers while jotting down info on each individual player to utilize during the broadcast.
After taking in the morning skate he heads back to his Beacon Hill apartment and watches about a half hour of video of the upcoming opponent for the B's. From there it's onto Cambridge St. for an hour long workout, then back home to shower and shave and head back to the Garden.
By 5:00pm, Jack makes his way to the Press Room on level three, meeting with producers and other NESN colleagues. "Naoko Funayama almost always has something really interesting to say, a really good piece of information I didn't know." Edwards says of the newcomer to the broadcast team this season."She's just been unbelievable. She's got rookie of the year sewn up."
By 6:00pm, Edwards is upstairs on level nine, going over his notes and filming any necessary teasers for the game. "From the moment I wake up til about 9:30 at night, it's pretty close to scheduled to the minute." Jack says of his strict routine. "It's like any ritual, I find comfort in it."
Sends It Down the River
"That actually came spontaneously during a broadcast on ESPN2." Jack told me, unveiling the origin of one of his famous quirky catchphrases. "For some reason it just flashed into my mind. I used to play river hockey on the Oyster River in Durham, NH, and at that particular point of the river the current wasn't very fast. But a little bit farther down, the current sped up, and the ice got dangerously thin. And when you'd be playing keep away and finally get it away from some guy who was really good, and you were out of wind, and out of luck, you'd just pound that sucker down the river." Edwards said, telling me the maneuver would imply to his opponents that they could be the ones to go chase it down and take their chances on the thin ice.
"I could guarantee if you had a snorkel and enough patience, you could find dozens of pucks down near Pickerel Point on the Oyster River." Jack said. He then told me most of his other on-air terms are derived from Bob Wilson, the voice that originally attracted him to the sport of hockey.
The Bruins' Turnaround
"Last year's team should not have made the playoffs." Edwards said, giving an enormous amount of credit to Claude Julien, and the team unity that began to form in the early portion of the 2007-2008 season and only grew stronger as the year went on. "They know what they are. They reconnected with their heritage, which is to bring a full effort to every shift, hit anything that moves with the puck, and to give that quality effort that separates very good teams from good teams." Jack said of the resurgence that began last year. "They renewed the faith in the faithful last spring, in the way they played against Montreal and the way they fought for each other and for themselves."
Jack then said he's all but certain Julien will be nominated for the Jack Adams Award this season, one he felt the B's Head Coach should have been nominated for and favored to win last year when you consider everything the team accomplished. "If you look at losing Bergeron, developing David Krejci, the quality of play he got out of Vladimir Sobotka, turning Ference into a guy who is a legitimate top four defenseman in the NHL, giving Chara the structure with which he could excel: all those things have been extended to that next abstract this year." Jack said.
Edwards then compared the job Julien did in comparison to Mike Babcock of the Red Wings, one of the three nominees for the Jack Adams Award last season. "You're telling me that the Detroit Red Wings were one of the three best coached teams last year in the NHL? I'm not saying they weren't great last year, they were. But how many rabbits did Mike Babcock have to pull out of a hat last year?" Jack said, alluding to all the hurdles Julien had to climb to help Boston to squeak into the playoffs. "How about none!"
So what would Jack say to those responsible for deciding on the three nominees? "I mean come on guys, use a little imagination. You've gotta do a little more homework than that! You're telling me Mike Babcock was that much better of a coach than Claude Julien?" Edwards said, implying that both Babcock's and Guy Carbonneau's nominations were far too safe. "That's just silly."
With the trade deadline looming I decided to ask Jack, were he the GM and responsible for ensuring a lengthy playoff run, who his top target would be. "Chris Pronger." he told me, without hesitation. "Hey, if you're gonna dream, dream big."
"If they could somehow do the subtraction and stay under the cap, and they could roll out Chara on one shift and Pronger on another, what forward would wanna play against either of those guys? That's just so scary it's unbelievable." Edwards said.
"I wouldn't want to see them give up Matt Hunwick who has a very bright future. I know Johnny Boychuk has free agent rights at the end of this year, I don't want to see them give him up. But if you're gonna see them give somebody up, and they're gonna make a trade like that, it could be a real good prospect, a player and a prospect, or a first round draft choice or any combination thereof. Anaheim isn't going to give up Pronger for nothing. There's going to be plenty of bidders. That's what I'd like to see for the Bruins but with that said, they've gotta do a lot of math to make it work."
Commissioner Edwards
If it isn't evident enough by now, Jack is a man that states his opinions and stands by them. I tried to incorporate three particular topics of conversation he's been vocal about this season and proposed this scenario: You get on a bus and there's three empty seats. You have the choice of sitting next to Sean Avery, Steve Ott, or the inventor of composite sticks. What do you do?
"Well I would talk to the inventor of the composite sticks, cause there's no chance of talking sense into the other two." Jack said. "I would go right at the guy."
"There's no financial incentive for the stick companies to make sticks more durable. If they break...you've gotta get a new one." Edwards said, discussing his greatest pet peeve. "If I were commissioner, I'd insist on a rule that all sticks be made of wood. Period."
Jack then told me about a playoff game early on in the decade when St. Louis' Al MacInnis, with a wooden stick, fired one on net from the blueline. The puck dinged off the crossbar and soared 25 feet high back toward the Blues defenseman, landing in the faceoff dot just outside the blueline. "If Al was gonna do that with wood, nobody needs composite. Nobody. It's just ridiculous."
Edwards would be glad to take on anyone in an argument on the topic of composite sticks, and whether or not they've helped or harmed the game of hockey. "I would submit that the composite stick has sped up shots and that is the total limit of it's contributions to improving hockey." Jack said. "It's gone, you can't un-ring that bell, and that was a gigantic mistake on the part of organized hockey to not see it for what it was going to be and to allow that technological change."
This Building Is Vibrating!
"That was a tribute to Bob Wilson. I called him the next day." Edwards said, referring to a call Wilson made on a Jean Ratelle playoff goal in overtime against the Habs decades earlier. Wilson implied that the building was moving, a response to the raucous reaction in the Garden after Ratelle's tally. "I just wanted you to know that was a conscious and direct tribute to you." Edwards told his idol.
I prompted Jack to begin snickering when I asked him how much money he would have if he was paid $1 every time his famous quote from game six was heard at the Garden, on NESN, or on YouTube. "Almost enough for the financial bailout." he said.
"That was a really fun series to call. The Bruins playing the Canadiens just added to the richness of it. It means so much to both cities." Edwards said.
Looking Back
It's been a long strange trip for Jack Edwards to get to where he is today, dating all the way back to those night's when his transistor radio kept him company and introduced him to a game that still delights him to this day. Nearly thirty years have passed since he set those lofty goals for himself at the tail end of his senior year at UNH.
He has put in his time on the radio and on local and national television. He has traveled around the globe, working tirelessly to get to where he wanted to be. And now, as the play-by-play announcer for the hometown Boston Bruins, that young boy who fell in love with hockey before ever even witnessing it's intensity and it's sheer beauty couldn't be happier with how things have turned out. "This was the actual specific description of the ultimate job I could have."
Tremendous, and I mean tremendous thanks to Jack for taking the time out of his busy schedule to share his story. It was truly a pleasure to talk with him and I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did.
Join the Discussion:
»