It was June 14, 1994 and we were living in Princeton, New Jersey after I finished my first year as head of public relations for the Philadelphia 76ers. We were in Princeton because my wife Laura was still commuting to New York for her work at Paramount, and it made for a good midway point for both of us. What it also meant was that our cable system was on the edge of the New York market, meaning that we got the national broadcast of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks, with the Broadway Blues long Cup drought on the line. It also meant I could not hear Sam Rosen call the game on MSG Networks, which still (and for the final year in a contract that changed after that) blacked out ESPN’s coverage in the New York area. As the game wound down with New York clinging to a one goal lead, I decided to try something. I found a radio, switched off the TV audio and searched the airwaves to pull in the signal from WFAN in New York. In the days before streaming even the FAN and its strong signal was iffy this far from New York, but on this June night it came in clearly, and with that I got to listen to Marv Albert call the memorable last few minutes where I had always listened to him the most, on the radio.
And the drought was over. The Rangers won the Cup.
More importantly for me, I got to listen to a person who had helped map the soundtrack of my life at one of his best moments. I remembered that time this week as I again switched on the final moments of the Knicks playoff loss to the Atlanta Hawks, at MSG, the last time Marv, now at Turner, would call a game with the Knicks in “The World’s Most Famous Arena.” Turner had a great tribute, the Garden, surprisingly, did not. Maybe it will be a more fitting tribute in the future for both the Knicks and the Rangers for a voice most closely associated with those franchises for decades.
As I have said before, when you get a little older in this business you end up rooting for people you know more than teams sometimes. I loved watching Tom Thibodeau at the Knicks, Mike Malone at the Nuggets, because I know these people; Jerry Stackhouse at Vanderbilt and GM Tommy Sheppard at the Wizards and GM Andy Elisburg at the Heat because we have shared some great times and experiences back in the day. You root for your friends and those who have helped you along the path, and Marv is always one of those people.
I first met Marv when I was part of that golden era of WFUV staff members while at Fordham. He was always cordial and would take a minute to speak to those on the way up. I then got to work with Marv a bit during my first internship for the legendary Mike Cohen. Mike shared an office with Marv’s broadcast partner and Fordham alum John Andariese, so the connection for Mike and his small team…myself, and Bryan Harris, was even more important. Marv would always listen and have some advice on good PR ideas, and thankfully, he, not once but twice, made a call for me to help get a position, the second of which was to Harold Katz and the Philadelphia 76ers which helped get me into the NBA, where at the time, I was the youngest PR person in the league (with much, much to learn). Later when I was with the Knicks I got to sit across the aisle from Marv and Clyde Frazier on road trips, and watching him prepare for games was always an amazing treat, a skilled craftsman working words and phrases and attention to detail like no other.
My connections to Marv and his family also went beyond just him. When I was at SportsChannel in the late 1980’s we ran a future announcer contest, and the second place finish, from NYU, was a young Kenny Albert, who has gone on to his own amazing career. Marv’s daughter Denise and I have worked on a number of projects over the years, and I am proud to call her both a friend and a colleague as well.
We all know how the broadcast world has changed over the years, but one thing has really not. The sound of the voice that identifies you to a moment or a time of your life speaks almost louder than anything else. Hearing Vin Scully randomly call a Dodgers game while driving on a California Sunday a few years ago was a special moment for me, and hearing Marv this past week bring his A game back to MSG one more time was so special, and personal for me.
Ironically it was Marv who once told me that people rarely listen for the announcers, they listen for the athletes, and rarely will they remember what they heard, it is what they saw. While that may be true for some, for me, there is nothing more special than hearing the great voices speak to me through any audio device. They set the time, and the feeling, and none have done it better than Marv.
It has been quite the Marvelous run, one both personally and professionally, I owe a great deal of gratitude to. Thanks for letting us listen for decades, we won’t ever forget it.
