(NBC Sports) … Mike “Doc” Emrick, among the most acclaimed, respected and beloved sportscasters of all time, announced his retirement today following a 47-year career broadcasting professional hockey, including the last 15 as the lead play-by-play voice for NBC Sports’ NHL coverage.
Emrick spent three years as the radio voice of the American Hockey League’s Maine Mariners from 1977-80 and has been a vocal supporter of the AHL in the four decades since. He has served as emcee for events such as Hershey Bears Hall of Fame ceremonies; provided the narration for dozens of enshrinement videos on behalf of the AHL Hall of Fame; and provided play-by-play for the international telecast of the 2011 AHL All-Star Game.
Synonymous with hockey in the United States, Emrick has voiced the most important hockey games of the past three decades, including 22 Stanley Cup Finals, 45 Stanley Cup Playoffs/Final Game 7s, six Olympics, NHL Winter Classics and All-Star Games. In all, Emrick estimates he has called more than 3,750 professional and Olympic hockey games, thrilling viewers with an unmatched style that blended fevered excitement with an endless vocabulary of words to describe the puck’s movement around the rink.
Acclaim for his work is unmatched. In 2011, Emrick became the first broadcaster ever inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. In all, he’s a member of seven Halls of Fame. That same year, Emrick won the first of his eight career Sports Emmy Awards for Outstanding Sports Personality – Play-by-Play, which is the most ever in the category, including an unprecedented run of seven consecutive in the years 2014-2020.
Although retiring, Emrick will remain a member of the NBC Sports family by occasionally writing and narrating video essays for its NHL coverage in the future.
