Mike Emrick

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Mike "Doc" Emrick (born August 1, 1946 in La Fontaine, Indiana) is an American sportscaster. He is one of the most famous voices in hockey.

Emrick has been sportscasting since 1973, when he did play-by-play for the IHL Port Huron Flags. In 1977 he became the voice of the AHL Maine Mariners for three seasons before moving up to the parent NHL Philadelphia Flyers. He has been calling NHL hockey games for either the Flyers, New York Rangers -- as a substitute for Marv Albert, or for New Jersey Devils ever since. Emrick served as the team's first voice in New Jersey, arriving for the 1982-83 NHL season. He returned to the team to replace Gary Thorne for the 1993 Stanley Cup Playoffs and has been the team's voice ever since. He was the voice of the Philadelphia Flyers, from 1988 to 1993.

He has done play-for-play also for CBS, NBC, TNT, ESPN, Fox, ABC, CSTV, SportsChannel Philadelphia, PRISM, Fox Sports Net, and others.

He received the 1997 National CableACE Award for best play-by-play and New York Emmy Award for his work with the Devils. He is also a member of the NHL Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee.

Emrick has earned a Bachelor's degree in speech from Manchester College in 1964, a Master's degree in radio/television from Miami University (Ohio) in 1969, and a Doctorate in radio/television/film from Bowling Green State University in 1976 (a degree from which he gets his nickname, "Doc"). He received the 2004 Lester Patrick Trophy and worked at the Summer Olympics, calling the men's and women's water polo competition. He also was the lead play-by-play man for the 2006 Winter Olympics for men and women's hockey action.

He was the lead play-by-play announcer for The NHL on ESPN from 1986-1988. He first came to national over the air television doing regional games for The NHL on ABC from 1993-1994. In 1995, Emrick became the play-by-play man of The NHL on FOX game of the week, which was also known (during the glow puck era) as the Fox Trax Game of the Week from 1995-98 (FOXTrax was not used during the 1998-99 season), calling the Stanley Cup Finals for FOX. After FOX relinquished the NHL rights to ABC, he became a regional announcer for The NHL on ABC, in the same backup game role he had at ABC in the early 90s, from 2000-2004. He would only call select playoff games at this time.

Since the 2005-06 NHL season, Emrick has been the lead play-by-play announcer for The NHL on Versus (formerly The NHL on OLN) and The NHL on NBC, calling the Eastern Conference and Stanley Cup Finals for both networks. He has called games in nine Stanley Cup Finals on TV (For ESPN, FOX, OLN, and NBC), and will add a 10th next year. He has also called six NHL All-Star Games on TV for FOX and Versus. He called the 1996 World Cup of Hockey for the Prime Network and the 2004 World Cup of Hockey for ESPN. He has done two Olympic Games for NBC and one for CBS.

Emrick is a founding member, and still president of, the NHL Pronunciation Guide, which is used as a guide for all NHL broadcasters for some of hockey's most difficult names.