On the evening of June 14, 1994, from the television booth inside Madison Square Garden, Sam Rosen said the words Rangers fans had been waiting to hear for 54 years.
“The waiting is over! The New York Rangers are the Stanley Cup champions! And this one will last a lifetime!”
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Rosen was asked about that famous proclamation on Tuesday morning during a conference call with local media, during which he announced the 2024-25 season — his 40th as Rangers television play-by-play announcer on MSG Networks — will be his last.
“For me it was more of a personal call. It would last my lifetime no matter what happened,” said the 77-year-old Rosen, who has called more than 3,000 Rangers games in a Hall of Fame career. “If they won three more, no more, five more … certainly the hope was that they would win a lot of Stanley Cups.
“I didn’t want to say it would last my lifetime, but that was really the meaning, that it would last a lifetime for me, and it has.”
Rosen explained that though he has never talked about age, he started to have thoughts about retirement two years ago at his surprise 75th birthday party, thrown by his wife, Jill.
“Suddenly with friends around, you start thinking about, ‘OK, how do you want to wind this up?’ ” said Rosen, who mentioned he has two granddaughters in Phoenix and two grandsons in the New York area.
“So it’s time to spend a little more time with my wife, with my family and to go out on top,” Rosen said. “Fans have been great and they’ve been so complimentary and they’ve inspired me. I realize that I’ve touched a lot of people, and it’s now time to say thank you very much and put a big, big bow on it, because I think everyone is in agreement at the Garden and at the network that this will be a big finish, and I’m hoping the Rangers will have a big year to cap it all off.”
Rosen was born in Germany and his parents moved the family to Brooklyn when he was 2 years old. As a child, he became a fan of the Rangers, Knicks, Yankees and Giants.
“I grew up at a time where we didn’t have a problem getting on the subway in Brooklyn and going to the old Madison Square Garden on Eighth Avenue, and 49th and 50th, and we would go as many Sundays as we could,” he said. “ We had our G.O. card that allowed us to get in at 4:30 in the afternoon for a 7 o’clock game.
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“We got in for 50 cents and we raced up to the balcony and got the best seats we could and watched the game.”
Rosen played catcher on the baseball teams at Stuyvesant High School and City College of New York and started his broadcasting career at WINS radio while still in college. He later served as a sportscaster for UPI Audio and began at MSG Networks in 1977. He became the Rangers studio host and part-time radio play-by-play announcer in 1982.
Two years later, he replaced Jim Gordon as the Rangers’ lead TV voice. After spending two seasons with Phil Esposito on color commentary, Rosen worked alongside John Davidson for 20 seasons and will be starting season 19 with Joe Micheletti in October.
“You’ve made all of those that work with you better people, and you’ve helped us all reach heights that would not have been achievable without your support,” Micheletti said in a statement. “You have included all of us on your crowded list of friends. For all these reasons and many more, your legacy will last a lifetime.”
Rosen said his signature call — “It’s a power-play goal” — started during the 1987-88 season when the Rangers scored 111 man-up goals.
“Just during the course of the year, they were scoring so many goals, it started off as, ‘Oh, it’s a power-play goal,’ and it just continued to evolve,” he said.
Rosen borrowed the cadence from a previous job as public-address announcer for the New York Cosmos, where he’d say, “It’s a Cosmos goal!”
One of Rosen’s most memorable moments came on the day of the Rangers’ Stanley Cup parade: June 17, 1994. He and Davidson were assigned to anchor the network’s coverage from the studio at MSG, and they weren’t happy about throwing the coverage to Al Trautwig and Bruce Beck at City Hall.
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“All of a sudden a door opens during the coverage and two police officers walk in and they say, ‘Hey guys, come with us,’ ” Rosen recalled. “John starts to gather his papers and I say, ‘John, leave the papers, we gotta get out of here!’
“The officers took us in a squad car on one of the wildest rides through the city of New York that you can imagine. The good news was we weren’t under arrest. They were taking us to City Hall the fastest way possible. We were going the wrong way on one-way streets. It was a white-knuckle ride, and seeing all the people was amazing.”
Kenny Albert, the Rangers’ radio play-by-play man for the past 28 years and the pre-eminent national announcer for hockey, is the odds-on favorite to replace Rosen.
But that will wait a season. Season 40.
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“I would probably say to you, are you kidding? How can anyone last that long … do the same thing?” Rosen said. “It’s been a wonderful ride. I loved sports growing up. I played sports growing up. And to be involved in sports the way I have been has been just the thrill of a lifetime.”
What they’re saying
Chris Drury, Rangers president and GM
“Congratulations to Sam on a truly historic broadcasting career and for providing generations of Rangers fans with unforgettable moments. After growing up as a Rangers fan listening to Sam on television, it’s been an absolute pleasure to get to know him on a personal level in my years as a player and executive.Sam will forever be connected with New York Rangers hockey and Sam and his family will always be a part of our Rangers family.”
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Andrea Greenberg, CEO of MSG Networks
“Sam’s love of hockey and for the New York Rangers, together with his distinctive voice, enthusiasm and impeccable sense of timing, have been a unique gift to hockey fans throughout his amazing hall of fame career. Sam has been an indispensable element of Rangers broadcasts for over four decades and he will forever be a part of our MSG Networks family. We look forward to celebrating Sam throughout the upcoming season.
