"GET UP!!" Its fact, no Boston play by play announcer is more beloved by his fans than Jack Edwards, and while there is not arguing, he is more biased than well anyone in the sports broadcasting business Jack Edwards is a legend and will always be remembered as one of the greatest personalities in Boston sports history.
Born on March 24th 1957, the now 56 year old sportscaster began his sports casting career in his late twenties taking scattered play by play gigs with the UNH hockey team. As time went on Edwards joined the team at ABC's Wide World of Sports before moving on to cover Olympic skiing in the 1988 Winter Games.
"To me, every game has a dramatic story," Edwards said when asked to return to UNH and give an interview "Sometimes it's over in the first act, and other times it's going to go down to the last two or three lines. And what makes it more fascinating to me is this: the more you know about sports, the more you realize you can't possibly have any idea of what's going to happen next. Most of the time, there's a bit of mystery going into the theater. And who knows what's going to happen in the next two or three hours when you go into an arena?"
Nevertheless while every game may tell a story, Edwards bounced around networks and sports for the majority of the next 15 years. Little League Baseball, MLS Soccer, FIFA World Cup action, even sumo wrestling were all sports that Edwards called his at one point. Yet it was in soccer that he really made a name for himself. From the year 2000 to the one 2 years later, Edwards was ESPN's lead soccer announcer calling both MLS and international games as often as 5 days a week. And while his weekly gigs with the MLS certainly brought in the big bucks, it was one specific call of one specific game in the one specific sport that made him so great.
"Mine eyes have seen the glory!" He screamed after USA upset Portugal to move on to the 2002 World Cup Quarterfinals. Little did he know that in just 3 short years, Edwards eyes would be seeing a sport far different than soccer.
After a seemingly 17 year long game of broadcasting musical chairs, Jack Edwards had found his home: Boston. Beginning at the kick off of the 2005-2006 Boston Bruins season, Edwards began calling each and every one of the teams 41 road games and willingly forced Bruins fans to fall in love with his quirky blend of psychotic calls and indecipherable descriptions of every play in those near half centennial of games.
Quite a bit has changed for the Bruins seine those first games of the Jack Edwards era: Tim Thomas has come and gone, the line of Tyler Seguin, Brad Marchand, and Patrice Bergeron has exploded into one of the most potent in the league and Zedeno Chara has well been Zedeno Chara. So much has happened, so much has changed yet perhaps the one constant throughout this all had been Jack Edwards.
Top 5 calls of Jack Edwards Bruins career:
"Hamerlik goes down as if SHOT! GET UP!" Edwards making perhaps the most infamous call of his career while Roman Hamerlik embellished a hit. Edwards was fined for his comment but trended on Twitter for the next 6 days.
"Where's the puck? Strasvedbugh, I HAVE NO IDEA!" Edwards as German Dennis Sidenberg struggled to find the puck.
"What a huge pirouette, AND THE BIG MAN SCOREEES! SIX [foot] NINE [inches] AND HES A BALLERINA!" Edwards after Zedeno Chara completed a beautiful spinning goal against the Florida Panthers.
"LUCIC HAMMERS HIM! And how's this for irony, the crowd wants a call for a hit from behind ahh ha ha" ha!" Edwards after Milan Lucic delivered a hit from behind.
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