PITTSBURGH (AP) — Hall of Fame broadcaster Mike Lange, whose imaginative goal calls made his raspy voice immediately recognizable to Pittsburgh Penguin fans for decades, has died. He was 76.
The team confirmed Lange's death Wednesday. No cause was given.
“Mike was a wordsmith — a magician behind the mic,” the Penguins said in a statement, later adding “only Mike could make the biggest names in hockey seem more magical with just his voice.”
Phil Bourque, a former Penguin who spent years alongside Lange in the team's radio booth, called his former partner “one of the kindest, most loyal and loving humans I've ever met.”
Lange spent nearly five decades chronicling the franchise's rise from also-ran to Stanley Cup champion five times over, his unique delivery and quirky sayings serving as the soundtrack for iconic moments from Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux and longtime running mate Jaromir Jagr to current stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
The Hockey Hall of Fame inducted Lange in 2001 when he received the Foster Hewitt Award for broadcast excellence.
From “It's a hockey night in Pittsburgh” to “Elvis has left the building” to “he beat him like a rented mule," Lange's distinctive turns of phrase made his voice instantly recognizable.
When Pittsburgh defeated Chicago to win a second straight Stanley Cup in 1992, Lange punctuated the title on the team's radio network by telling listeners “Lord Stanley, Lord Stanley, get me the brandy."
Born in Sacramento, California, on March 3, 1948, Lange called games in the Western Hockey League before doing a one-year stint with the Penguins in 1974. He left while the team experienced financial difficulties before returning to Pittsburgh for good in 1976. He didn't miss a single game for the next 30 years, serving as the club's lead broadcaster on its television and radio networks as Pittsburgh became one of the NHL's marquee clubs.
It wasn't uncommon for Lange's calls to be mimicked by sportscasters everywhere, with former ESPN anchor Keith Olbermann putting his own twist on a Lange classic by using the line “he beat him like a rented goalie” occasionally during NHL highlight packages. Lange even appeared as a broadcaster — and trotted out some of his singular sayings — in the Pittsburgh-set Jean-Claude Van Damme action movie “Sudden Death." The fictional 1995 film was set against the backdrop of a Stanley Cup matchup between the Penguins and the Chicago Blackhawks.
Lange moved to the radio side full-time in 2006, calling the team's Stanley Cup wins in 2009, 2016 and 2017 before retiring in August 2021 after 46 years with the Penguins. The team honored him in October that year, which Lange noted marked his 50th in broadcasting.
“I didn’t get cheated in my quest to do what I have always loved,” Lange said in a statement that coincided with his retirement.
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Will Graves, The Associated Press
