Fred Cusick | |
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| Born | Frederick Michael Cusick (1918-11-07)November 7, 1918 Brighton, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | September 15, 2009(2009-09-15) (aged 90) |
| Occupation | FormerNHLbroadcaster |
Frederick Michael Cusick (November 7, 1918 – September 15, 2009) was an Americanice hockey broadcaster who served as theBoston Bruins play-by-play announcer from1971 until1997 onWSBK-TV (Channel 38) inBoston, and from1984 until1995 onNESN. Counting his radio broadcasts, he was a Bruins' announcer for an unprecedented 45 years and was an active sports announcer for over seven decades. Cusick is best known for yelling "SCORE!" when a Boston player scored a goal.
Fred Cusick was born in theBrighton 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.[1] He subsequently went into theUnited States Navy in World War II, rising to lieutenant in command of a subchaser. After the war, he worked for several radio stations, hosting the popularIrish Hour on WVOM inBrookline, which focused on sports, especially hockey. After a brief time in Washington during theKorean War[1] and upon the retirement of Bruins' radio broadcasterFrank Ryan, Cusick – paired with ex-BruinJack Crawford – became the radio play-by-play broadcaster of the Bruins from1952 to1963, during which time he was also Sports Director forWEEI radio in Boston.[2]
Cusick was the announcer for the first US network NHL broadcast (CBS-TV in January 1957); he spent four years in all working theNHL Game of the Week forCBS.[3]
Fred Cusick was the color commentator onWEEI for the very first game of the fledglingAmerican Football League, a Friday night contest between theDenver Broncos and theBoston Patriots on September 9, 1960, atNickerson Field on the campus ofBoston University. He served as the color man for Patriots radio between 1960 and 1964. He also had a notable interview with golfing legendFrancis Ouimet in 1963, on the fiftieth anniversary of Ouimet's 1913U.S. Open victory. It is the only video interview of Ouimet in existence.[1]
In the early 1960s, Cusick was responsible for getting Boston Bruins' games on local television regularly. 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 editedCBC Television tapes of Saturday night Bruins games in Montreal and Toronto; they were flown back overnight with the team, then seen first at 9 am onWMUR-TV inManchester, New Hampshire, and WTEV-TV (nowWLNE-TV) in the Providence/New Bedford market (the signal[s] of which covered some of the Boston areas), and then at 1 pm on the oldWHDH-TV (nowWCVB-TV) in Boston,WWLP-TV in Springfield, andWRLP-TV in Northampton. Fred's telecasts were enormously popular, and within a few years, games would be shown live onWKBG and later began a long run atWSBK-TV.
From 1969 through 1971, Cusick was the radio voice of the Boston Bruins onWBZ-AM 1030 (Bob Wilson replaced him on WBZ-AM starting in 1972) when they reached the pinnacle of their popularity, winning their firstStanley Cup in 29 years in 1970, and setting a regular-season record for points and goals scored in1970–71. His broadcasting partners were former NHL playersJohnny Peirson in 1969–70 andCal Gardner in 1970–71.
In 1971, Cusick returned to TV, succeedingDon 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 11 years, calling games for both channels, first withJohnny Peirson and later bothDerek Sanderson andDave Shea. In his last years before he retired from broadcasting the Bruins, he did games only on WSBK.
Cusick was inducted into theHockey Hall of Fame in the first wave of media honorees in 1984, and in that year was also named the first winner of theFoster Hewitt Memorial Award (along withDanny Gallivan,Rene Lecavalier andHewitt 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 theLester 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 oldBoston Garden (a pre-season game against their rivalMontreal in 1995) and the first Bruins' game in theFleetCenter, the 1995–96 season-opener against theNew York Islanders, both with color commentatorDerek Sanderson and studio hostSean McDonough and on WSBK.[4][5][6]
After retiring from the Bruins' broadcasts in 1997, Cusick began broadcasting home games for theAHLLowell Lock Monsters with former BruinBrad Park as his partner.[7] He retired for good as a hockey sportscaster after the 2002 season at the age of 83.
In 2007, Cusick returned to the broadcast booth as theCape Cod Baseball League game of the week play-by-play announcer onWBZ (AM) Radio.
His autobiography,Fred Cusick: Voice of the Bruins (ISBN 1-58261-981-6), was published in October 2006.
Fred Cusick died in his sleep on September 15, 2009, at his home inBarnstable, Massachusetts, from complications ofbladder cancer. The following day he was posthumously inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame,[8][9][10][11][12] an honor he had been scheduled to receive before his death.
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