Two days ago in Isles history
On May 17, 1983, the New York Islanders won their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup by sweeping the Edmonton Oilers in four games.
Enjoy the moment, Isles505. I do this out of fairness and not because I fear that you may some day call me a cross-dressing Transylvanian, although I am a big fan of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
My first exposure to the Islanders kind of painful. I was back in (where else?) Chicago, listening to a Blackhawks game on radio. Or at least trying to do so. The Hawks' radio team was normally made up of two Hall of Fame-caliber broadcasters, Lloyd Pettit and Bob Elson.
Thing is, Elson was a Hall of Fame baseball announcer and not terribly big on hockey. And Pettit, Chicago's version of Mr. Hockey, lived in Milwaukee and commuted via his own private plane.
Well, on this day Pettit got fogged in and Bob Elson was totally alone. He started broadcasting the game between Bobby Hall (not a typo) and Stan Mikita against the "Long Islanders." It didn't take long before another WMAQ sportscaster jumped in and hijacked the broadcast.
I felt bad. Bob Elson was incredibly dull, and in this case out of his element, but I loved him. (Awww)
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Comments (3)
Thanks for the post, and for the memories I'm not old enough to actually have (sadly). One day our Islanders will return to prominence...
Didn't Pettit (or his family) own the NBA Bucks at one time? Pretty certain that they owned the IHL (now AHL) Admirals.
Hey Mark:
You are right about Pettit owning the Milwaukee Admirals.
I believe that his connection with the Bucks is that he and his wife donated the $100 gazillion needed to build the Bradley Center in memory of her father.
Her dad was the Bradley part of Milwaukee's huge Allen-Bradley Co., not to be confused with Allan Brady from the Dick Van Dyke Show.