By Dominick DiRienzo
Meadville Tribune
Aug. 25, 2010 7:00 a.m. —
Like many of the young men who hung around DeArment Ice Arena, Jack Michaels had professional dreams.
Michaels, a 1992 graduate of Meadville High School, wasn’t on skates and wearing pads as his dreams took root. He was sitting in the crow’s nest above the ice wearing headphones and speaking into a microphone calling the games for WMGW 1490 AM. Eleven years after his electric call of Meadville’s triple-overtime loss in the 1999 state championship to Conwell-Egan — the tape of that game helped earn his first professional hockey radio job — Michaels was named the radio play-by-play voice of the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday.
According to the Oilers, Michaels is the only American calling play-by-play for a Canadian team. He was introduced at a press conference Tuesday at Rexall Center.
“You always wonder whether it is going to happen. My friends, my family, my fellow broadcasters, who at times leapfrogged me in the game, they encouraged me to keep plugging away,” Michaels said. “My attitude was keep my nose to the grindstone apply for every job I could and if it doesn’t happen I will know that I gave it everything I had.”
But it did happen.
“After 15 years, in the NHL at age 36, I’ll take that,” Michaels said. “I am thrilled to be where I am. I have to put in the same kind of work to stay here. There is a very high standard expected here.”
The franchise has won five Stanley Cups and played in the Stanley Cup finals six times, most recently in 2006. The Oilers were one of sports’ greatest dynasties from 1983 to 1988 and had some of the game’s most recognizable players in Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Grant Fuhr.
“I’m thrilled,” said the Cornell graduate. “As a kid, growing up, I was watching this team win Stanley Cups.”
Michaels, who said he had applied for some other NHL jobs, has been the radio and television voice of the Anchorage Aces of the East Coast Hockey League for the last eight years. A message on Michaels cell phone said the voicemail was full, and he said he had 37 messages on his phone Tuesday afternoon. His choice by the Oilers did not come as a surprise to those who know Michaels.
“He was the most prepared broadcaster I have seen in sports,” said Gary Clark, who proceeded Jack Michaels at WMGW 1490 AM and then replaced Michaels when he left. “He took special care. He really wanted this. He paid the price, away from family and friends, and he deserves it. He’ll do a great job.”
Hall of Fame broadcaster Mike Emrick, who calls the NHL for NBC and also does the New Jersey Devils is a Michaels’ fan, too.
“I met Jack five years ago and was immediately struck by the quality of his call, his professionalism and his passion for the game,” Emrick said.
Michaels is a veteran of more than 900 hockey broadcasts, including his time as the voice of the Meadville Bulldog high school team. He broadcasted the 1999 state championship game between Meadville and Conwell-Egan. Meadville lost that game, 3-2, in triple-overtime. His tape from that game, earned him his first minor league hockey job with the Colorado Gold Kings. While doing the Anchorage Aces games, he was the ECHL announcer of the year in 2004 and was picked to broadcast the league’s all-star game five times.
Jack Michaels’ father, Lloyd, a professor at Allegheny College, said it was especially sweet to see his son reach this level because as a teacher he tells his students to study what they love.
“And this is what he has loved since he was a little boy,” Lloyd Michaels said.
Lloyd Michaels said he remembers in 1978 Jack as a young child reciting the call of Affirmed’s Triple Crown clinching race at the Belmont Stakes from memory into a tape recorder.
“I knew if he persisted, this day would come. It’s a pretty simple formula, talent plus love plus persistence equals success,” Lloyd Michaels said. “He has worked very, very hard to get this moment.”
The Edmonton Journal reported there were three other frontrunners for the job: Kelowna Rockets’ Regan Bartel, Toronto Marlies John Bartlett and former Score TV broadcaster Steve Kouleas. According to a report on oilers.nhl.com, Michaels beat out about 100 other applicants and was the best of five finalists.
“I’m really happy for him,” Meadville hockey coach Jamie Plunkett said. “There are only 30 jobs for what he does and he’s got one of them.”
Michaels replaces Hall of Fame broadcaster Rod Phillips, who has been the only radio voice of the Edmonton Oilers. Phillips is retiring after 37 years, but will broadcast 10 select games this season.
“We welcome Jack to Oil Country,” said Oilers President and CEO Patrick LaForge. “We underwent a comprehensive search to find the right voice with the right credentials and chemistry to launch this new era of Oilers radio.”
Michaels said he will be joined in Edmonton by his wife, the former Emily Moutsos, a daughter, Callie, 6, and a son, Tyler, 3.
