Fred Cusick
Encyclopedia
Frederick Michael Cusick (November 7, 1918 - September 15, 2009) was an American ice hockey
broadcaster who served as the Boston Bruins
play-by-play announcer from 1971 until 1997 on WSBK-TV
(Channel 38) in Boston
, and from 1984 until 1995 on NESN. Counting his radio broadcasts, he was a Bruins' announcer for an unprecedented 45 years, and was an active sports announcer for over seven decades. He is best known for yelling "SCORE!" when a Boston player scored a goal.
in World War II
, rising to lieutenant in command of a subchaser. After the war, he worked for several radio stations, hosting the popular Irish Hour on WVOM in Brookline
, which focused on sports, especially hockey. After a brief time in Washington during the Korean War
and upon the retirement of Bruins' radio broadcaster Frank Ryan
, Cusick - paired with ex-Bruin Jack Crawford
- became the radio play-by-play broadcaster of the Bruins from 1952 to 1970, during which time he was also Sports Director for WEEI
radio in Boston.
Cusick was the announcer for the first US network NHL broadcast (CBS-TV in January 1957); he would spend four years in all working the NHL Game of the Week for CBS.
for the very first game of the fledgling American Football League
, a Friday night contest between the Denver Broncos
and the Boston Patriots
on September 9, 1960, at Nickerson Field
on the campus of Boston University
. He served as the color man for Patriots radio between 1960 and 1964. He also had a notable interview with golfing legend Francis Ouimet
in 1963, the fiftieth anniversary of Ouimet's 1913 U.S. Open
victory, the only video interview of Ouimet in existence.
In the early 1960s, Cusick was responsible for getting Boston Bruins' games on local television on a regular basis. In 1963, Bruins CEO Weston Adams asked Fred and producer/director Neal P. Cortel to arrange the first-ever live telecast of a Bruins game from the old Boston Garden. The experimental telecast was wildly popular, and later during the 1963/1964 season, Fred hosted the Sunday morning rebroadcasts of edited CBC Television
tapes of Saturday night Bruins games in Montreal and Toronto; flown back overnight with the team, seen first at 9:00 AM on WMUR-TV
in Manchester, New Hampshire
and WTEV-TV (now WLNE-TV
) in the Providence/New Bedford market (the signal[s] of which covered most of the Boston area), then at 1:00 PM on the old WHDH-TV
(now WCVB-TV
) in Boston, WWLP-TV in Springfield, and WRLP-TV
in Northhampton. Fred's telecasts were enormously popular, and within a few years, games would be shown live on WKBG and later began a long run at WSBK-TV
.
From 1969 through 1971, Cusick was the radio voice of the Boston Bruins on WBZ-AM 1030 (Bob Wilson replaced him on WBZ-AM starting in 1972) when they reached the pinnacle of their popularity, winning their first Stanley Cup
in 29 years in 1970, and setting a regular-season record for points and goals scored in 1970–71. His broadcasting partners were former NHL players Johnny Peirson
in 1969–70 and Cal Gardner
in 1970–71.
In 1971, Cusick returned to television, succeeding Don Earle
, who had been hired by WSBK when they began covering the Boston Bruins, as play-by-play man for Bruins' games on WSBK with Peirson as his color man; when NESN was formed in 1984, he did double duty for a few years, calling games for both channels. In his last years before he retired from broadcasting the Bruins, Cusick did games only for WSBK.
in the first wave of media honorees in 1984, and in that year was also named the first winner of the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award
(along with Danny Gallivan
, Rene Lecavalier
and Hewitt
himself), "in recognition of members of the radio and television industry who made outstanding contributions to their profession and the game during their career in hockey broadcasting." He has also won the Lester Patrick Trophy
in 1988 for outstanding service to hockey in the United States.
It was Cusick who did the television play-by-play of the last Bruins' game at the old Boston Garden
(a pre-season game against Montreal in 1995) and the first Bruins' game in the Fleet Center, the 1995–96 season-opener against the New York Islanders
.
Lowell Lock Monsters with former Bruin Brad Park
as his partner. He retired for good as a hockey sportscaster after the 2002 season at the age of 83.
In 2007, he returned to the broadcast booth as the Cape Cod Baseball League
game of the week play-by-play announcer on WBZ (AM)
Radio.
His autobiography, Fred Cusick: Voice of the Bruins (ISBN 1–58261–981–6), was published in October 2006.
from complications from bladder cancer
. The following day he was posthumously inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
broadcaster who served as the Boston Bruins
Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The team has been in existence since 1924, and is the league's third-oldest team and its oldest in the...
play-by-play announcer from 1971 until 1997 on WSBK-TV
WSBK-TV
WSBK-TV is a MyNetworkTV television station for eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire that is licensed to Boston. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 39 from a transmitter along the Needham and Wellesley town line southwest of the MA 9 and I-95 / MA 128...
(Channel 38) in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, and from 1984 until 1995 on NESN. Counting his radio broadcasts, he was a Bruins' announcer for an unprecedented 45 years, and was an active sports announcer for over seven decades. He is best known for yelling "SCORE!" when a Boston player scored a goal.
Early life and career
Fred Cusick was born in the Brighton section of Boston. A graduate of (and former hockey player at) Northeastern University in Boston, Cusick began broadcasting sports at WCOP in Boston in 1941 while a senior at Northeastern, crediting his hockey background as the entree to the position. He subsequently went into the United States NavyUnited States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, rising to lieutenant in command of a subchaser. After the war, he worked for several radio stations, hosting the popular Irish Hour on WVOM in Brookline
Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston and Newton. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 58,732.-Etymology:...
, which focused on sports, especially hockey. After a brief time in Washington during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
and upon the retirement of Bruins' radio broadcaster Frank Ryan
Frank Ryan (sportscaster)
Frank Ryan was a publicity director and sports announcer who was the first play-by-play announcer and PR director for the Boston Bruins....
, Cusick - paired with ex-Bruin Jack Crawford
Jack Crawford (ice hockey)
John Shea "Jack" Crawford was a Canadian ice hockey defenceman. He was born in Dublin, Ontario.Crawford started his National Hockey League career with the Boston Bruins in 1938. He would also play his entire career with the Bruins and retired after the 1950 season. In 1943 and 1946, he was a...
- became the radio play-by-play broadcaster of the Bruins from 1952 to 1970, during which time he was also Sports Director for WEEI
WEEI
WEEI is a sports radio station in Boston, Massachusetts, that broadcasts on 850 kHz from a transmitter in Needham, Massachusetts, and is owned by Entercom Communications. The station is one of the top-rated sports talk radio stations in the nation. Studios are located in Brighton, Massachusetts...
radio in Boston.
Cusick was the announcer for the first US network NHL broadcast (CBS-TV in January 1957); he would spend four years in all working the NHL Game of the Week for CBS.
1960s-1970s
Fred Cusick was the color commentator on WEEIWEEI
WEEI is a sports radio station in Boston, Massachusetts, that broadcasts on 850 kHz from a transmitter in Needham, Massachusetts, and is owned by Entercom Communications. The station is one of the top-rated sports talk radio stations in the nation. Studios are located in Brighton, Massachusetts...
for the very first game of the fledgling American Football League
American Football League
The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
, a Friday night contest between the Denver Broncos
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
and the Boston Patriots
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...
on September 9, 1960, at Nickerson Field
Nickerson Field
Nickerson Field is a stadium on the site of Braves Field, in Boston, Massachusetts, the former home of the National League Boston Braves baseball team which is now located in Atlanta...
on the campus of Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
. He served as the color man for Patriots radio between 1960 and 1964. He also had a notable interview with golfing legend Francis Ouimet
Francis Ouimet
Francis DeSales Ouimet was an American golfer, who is frequently referred to as the "father of amateur golf" in the United States. He won the 1913 U.S. Open, and was the first American elected Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews...
in 1963, the fiftieth anniversary of Ouimet's 1913 U.S. Open
U.S. Open (golf)
The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...
victory, the only video interview of Ouimet in existence.
In the early 1960s, Cusick was responsible for getting Boston Bruins' games on local television on a regular basis. In 1963, Bruins CEO Weston Adams asked Fred and producer/director Neal P. Cortel to arrange the first-ever live telecast of a Bruins game from the old Boston Garden. The experimental telecast was wildly popular, and later during the 1963/1964 season, Fred hosted the Sunday morning rebroadcasts of edited CBC Television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
tapes of Saturday night Bruins games in Montreal and Toronto; flown back overnight with the team, seen first at 9:00 AM on WMUR-TV
WMUR-TV
WMUR-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for the state of New Hampshire that is licensed to Manchester. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter on the south peak of Mount Uncanoonuc in Goffstown. Owned by Hearst Television, the station has studios...
in Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester is the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, the tenth largest city in New England, and the largest city in northern New England, an area comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It is in Hillsborough County along the banks of the Merrimack River, which...
and WTEV-TV (now WLNE-TV
WLNE-TV
WLNE-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for Rhode Island and the South Coast of Massachusetts. It is licensed to New Bedford, Massachusetts, but is headquartered in and operates from studios at 10 Orms Street in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. It is one of two major Rhode Island...
) in the Providence/New Bedford market (the signal[s] of which covered most of the Boston area), then at 1:00 PM on the old WHDH-TV
WHDH-TV
WHDH, digital channel 42 , is an NBC-affiliated television station in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest NBC station not owned by the network. Owned by Sunbeam Television, WHDH is a sister station to CW affiliate WLVI...
(now WCVB-TV
WCVB-TV
WCVB-TV, channel 5, is a television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, owned by Hearst Television and affiliated with the ABC Television Network. WCVB-TV's studios and transmitter are co-located in Needham, Massachusetts. WCVB is also one of six Boston television stations seen in Canada by...
) in Boston, WWLP-TV in Springfield, and WRLP-TV
WRLP-TV
WRLP-TV was a television station in Greenfield, Massachusetts which broadcast on UHF channel 32 from 1957 to 1978. For most of its history, it was a satellite of WWLP in Springfield....
in Northhampton. Fred's telecasts were enormously popular, and within a few years, games would be shown live on WKBG and later began a long run at WSBK-TV
WSBK-TV
WSBK-TV is a MyNetworkTV television station for eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire that is licensed to Boston. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 39 from a transmitter along the Needham and Wellesley town line southwest of the MA 9 and I-95 / MA 128...
.
From 1969 through 1971, Cusick was the radio voice of the Boston Bruins on WBZ-AM 1030 (Bob Wilson replaced him on WBZ-AM starting in 1972) when they reached the pinnacle of their popularity, winning their first Stanley Cup
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...
in 29 years in 1970, and setting a regular-season record for points and goals scored in 1970–71. His broadcasting partners were former NHL players Johnny Peirson
Johnny Peirson
John Frederick Peirson is a retired National Hockey League player who played right wing for the Boston Bruins....
in 1969–70 and Cal Gardner
Cal Gardner
Calvin Pearly "Ginger, Red, Torchy" Gardner was a professional ice hockey player in the NHL. In 1943, after playing professional hockey for three years and winning the Memorial Cup, he joined the Canadian military and took part in World War II. At the conclusion of the war, he once again began...
in 1970–71.
In 1971, Cusick returned to television, succeeding Don Earle
Don Earle
Donald Earle Clement was an American ice hockey announcer.Earle, who got his start broadcasting high school hockey games on radio, called Boston Bruins games on WSBK-TV from 1967-1971....
, who had been hired by WSBK when they began covering the Boston Bruins, as play-by-play man for Bruins' games on WSBK with Peirson as his color man; when NESN was formed in 1984, he did double duty for a few years, calling games for both channels. In his last years before he retired from broadcasting the Bruins, Cusick did games only for WSBK.
1980s-1990s
He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of FameHockey Hall of Fame
The Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it is both a museum and a hall of fame. It holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League records, memorabilia and NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup...
in the first wave of media honorees in 1984, and in that year was also named the first winner of the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award
Foster Hewitt Memorial Award
The Foster Hewitt Memorial Award is an award named after Foster Hewitt and presented by the Hockey Hall of Fame to members of the radio and television industry who make outstanding contributions to their profession and the game of ice hockey during their broadcasting career...
(along with Danny Gallivan
Danny Gallivan
Danny Gallivan was a Canadian radio and television broadcaster and sportscaster.-Early life and career:Born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Gallivan began his broadcast career at a local radio station in Antigonish, Nova Scotia while attending St. Francis Xavier University...
, Rene Lecavalier
René Lecavalier
René Lecavalier, OC, CQ was a Canadian French language radio show host and sportscaster on SRC in Quebec. During his career in radio Lecavalier won several Radiomonde Trophies. He was also the first commentator for La Soirée du hockey, the French language version of Hockey Night in Canada...
and Hewitt
Foster Hewitt
Foster William Hewitt, OC was a Canadian radio broadcaster most famous for his play-by-play calls for Hockey Night in Canada. He was the son of W. A. Hewitt, and the father of Bill Hewitt.-Early life and career:...
himself), "in recognition of members of the radio and television industry who made outstanding contributions to their profession and the game during their career in hockey broadcasting." He has also won the Lester Patrick Trophy
Lester Patrick Trophy
The Lester Patrick Trophy has been presented by the National Hockey League and USA Hockey since 1966 to honor a recipient's contribution to ice hockey in the United States. It is considered a non-NHL trophy because it may be awarded to players, coaches, officials, and other personnel outside the NHL...
in 1988 for outstanding service to hockey in the United States.
It was Cusick who did the television play-by-play of the last Bruins' game at the old Boston Garden
Boston Garden
The Boston Garden was an arena in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Designed by boxing promoter Tex Rickard, who also built the third iteration of New York's Madison Square Garden, it opened on November 17, 1928 as "Boston Madison Square Garden" and outlived its original namesake by some 30 years...
(a pre-season game against Montreal in 1995) and the first Bruins' game in the Fleet Center, the 1995–96 season-opener against the New York Islanders
New York Islanders
The New York Islanders are a professional ice hockey team based in Uniondale, New York. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
.
2000s
After retiring from the Bruins' broadcasts in 1997, he began broadcasting home games for the AHLAmerican Hockey League
The American Hockey League is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League...
Lowell Lock Monsters with former Bruin Brad Park
Brad Park
Douglas Bradford Park is a retired ice hockey defenceman who played in the National Hockey League for the New York Rangers, Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings...
as his partner. He retired for good as a hockey sportscaster after the 2002 season at the age of 83.
In 2007, he returned to the broadcast booth as the Cape Cod Baseball League
Cape Cod Baseball League
The Cape Cod Baseball League is a collegiate summer baseball league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, in which many college baseball stars play during the summer. Many future Major League Baseball players have started there during their college years; MLB has provided...
game of the week play-by-play announcer on WBZ (AM)
WBZ (AM)
WBZ is the call sign for an AM radio station in Boston, Massachusetts owned by CBS Radio, itself owned by the CBS Corporation. Originally based in and broadcast from Springfield, Massachusetts, WBZ was the first commercial radio station in the United States...
Radio.
His autobiography, Fred Cusick: Voice of the Bruins (ISBN 1–58261–981–6), was published in October 2006.
Death
Fred Cusick died in his sleep on September 15, 2009 at his home in Barnstable, MassachusettsBarnstable, Massachusetts
Barnstable is a city, referred to as the Town of Barnstable, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the county seat of Barnstable County. Barnstable is the largest community, both in land area and population, on Cape Cod. The town contains seven villages within its boundaries...
from complications from bladder cancer
Bladder cancer
Bladder cancer is any of several types of malignant growths of the urinary bladder. It is a disease in which abnormal cells multiply without control in the bladder. The bladder is a hollow, muscular organ that stores urine; it is located in the pelvis...
. The following day he was posthumously inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame.