Players, Coaches, Broadcasters Pay Tribute to Mike Lange

Before Dan Bylsma arrived in Pittsburgh during the 2008-09 season, the Michigan native knew of Mike Lange’s goal calls and the color he added to Penguins broadcasts.

“‘Scratch my back with a hacksaw’ and ‘he beat him like a rented mule’ was something my family – me and my son playing knee hockey in the basement – said long before we got to Pittsburgh, in the raspy Mike Lange voice,” grinned Bylsma, who coached the Penguins to a Stanley Cup that June.

Since Lange died on Wednesday at age 76, there have been so many stories, memories and tributes shared in his honor. It’s been such a treat to read them and listen to them, especially when those who knew and loved Lange best go into their own imitation of his unique voice that called so many iconic moments in Penguins history, gave such sound advice, and cracked so many jokes.

Players, coaches, and fellow broadcasters shared what came to mind when they thought of the Hall of Famer, who will be forever in our hearts.

Sidney Crosby

Mike made such an impact on the Penguins franchise, and me personally as a player. He welcomed me to Pittsburgh. It was the little things, like words of encouragement at my stall after the media had left, a fist bump to acknowledge a big game or a wink for a special moment. He was so special and I am honored to have called Mike my friend.

Evgeni Malkin

I think everyone in Pittsburgh knows his voice, you know? He’s probably the most popular voice in Pittsburgh. He’s a great guy. I know he is sick the last couple of years. Tough loss for the whole organization. It’s hard to say anything right now... I met him a couple times, he say, ‘Malkin, make me a milkshake!’ It’s great words for me. It’s a tough loss, but I hope his family is good.

Kris Letang

That voice will always kind of resonate with the Pittsburgh Penguins and all the players, like Mario, Jagr, Sid, Geno... I was lucky myself to have my name called by him. He made it unique and fun and enjoyable to listen.

At the beginning, when he would travel with us, you kind of create a little bit of a bond. He tried to get to know you, and try to create some dialogue – get to know you, your family, where you're from. You got to a point where you felt familiar with him, like he was part of the team. (His impact is) huge. Every time you hear replays of big memories, like Stanley Cup wins or big goals by Mario or stuff like that – that's his voice. So, it means a lot for the city and for all of the players that are in this dressing room.

Bryan Rust

Being around development camps, I think I got an idea of how much he meant to the city, this organization, and everybody who is involved, top to bottom. He talked to everybody. It didn’t matter if you were a new guy, if you were a janitor in the room, if you were a media person, if you were the head coach, or if you were Sid — it didn’t matter. He genuinely had conversations with you, and when he talked to you, he listened and he cared. Then you saw his enthusiasm every time he talked about hockey and every time he talked about the city.

I think it's really, really cool to have Mike Lange call some of my goals. I think at the time, you might take it for granted a little bit. But now, looking back, you see his legacy and the overall impact that he made... then you see that, oh, he was calling plays I made, games I was in, and just so many memorable calls – especially from those Cup runs. Just the enthusiasm he had and the hilarious sayings, I think will be remembered forever.

Mario Lemieux

Mike was a Penguins legend and one of the most important figures in franchise history. It was my honor to have him call virtually every goal in my career and play a key role in all five of our Stanley Cup championships. Mike was a one-of-a-kind broadcaster, a tremendous ambassador for the city of Pittsburgh, and most importantly, a great friend. He will be missed.

Mike Sullivan

Some of the greatest memories that I have and some of my greatest hockey memories, Mike’s voice are attached to those. I just can’t help but think of some of his catchphrases and the passion that he brought to the job every day. He loved the Penguins, and the Penguins loved him. It’s a big loss for Pittsburgh. It’s a big loss for our organization.

He worked at (his craft). That’s why I had so much respect for him. He was at every morning skate. He would have personal conversations with players, coaches. He had a pretty good pulse on what was going on around the team at any particular team. Some of the ebbs and flows, the adversities that teams go through, he had a pretty good handle on it. That doesn’t happen by accident. You’ve got to put your time in. Mike was a guy that was willing to do that. He’d roll up his sleeves. He put the time in to be around the team and do all the background work so that when the cameras went on or they turned that microphone on, he was prepared.

When someone works at the game the way he does, in a lot of ways, you become a student of the game. He did it for a long time. Because he became a student of the game, he gained a better understanding of how the game is being played. Because of that, it allowed him to maybe engage in conversations that weren’t just stating the obvious, that maybe dug into the subtleties of the game.

Dan Bylsma

I think broadcasters and announcers have a unique spot in the game, and the great ones add life and add color. Their names and what they did for the game is as high up there as the greats in the game, as Gretzky and Orr and Lemieux and Jagr. They play great hockey, and the announcers give you great hockey with their voice and with their calls. They are hockey. They are a part of hockey, and that's what Mike Lange was. And to meet him in person, he's just the same. He's a character of hockey, humble, loved the game and loved giving the game to the people. Mike will always be remembered for that. He’s a true legend.

He was a guy who I went to, and he came to me with tips. Not just tips about the game, but tips about the media, and tips about answering questions. In true Mike form, I still have a scratch piece of notebook paper with 1-10 lessons on how to deal with the media, and each one of them has a true Mike Lange color to it.

A memory for me is walking across the ice after my first win in Mellon Arena, and hearing ‘Elvis has just left the building!’ It happened right around the blue line every time. But in the new arena, I had to wait for it on the bench to hear Mike Lange's voice with the ‘Elvis has just left the building’ call. Mike Lange, for me, is a huge part of the game hockey and a huge part of Penguins history.

Ed Olczyk

He was a mentor and he was a friend. When I was a kid growing up, I used to watch the Penguins on the old satellite dish in our backyard. Used to get them on KDKA. Obviously, there’s Mikey's legendary calls, but to work with him – he really helped me. Like, he taught me how to breathe when I'm on the air. He would say, ‘I want you to talk from here,’ pointing at his gut, not up in the neck and chest area. He taught me you can’t BS the fans. He took me under his wing as a young broadcaster and somebody that had played in the league a long time, and just we had fun. He helped mold me into what I could become as a broadcaster.

It was an intimidating chair to sit in, because I knew Mikey was a legend there. I think when you do work with legends like that, you know there's a time where you just let them have the stage and do what they need to do. Then, you get an opportunity to jump in and give them a breath, and they can go back to doing what they're doing, whether it was calling a game or telling a story... or Mikey leaning over to me during a commercial break and say, ‘hey, Edzo – I can see it in 66’s eyes here, you know?’ I would set him up on the other side, like, let's hope you're right! And sure enough, bam, Mario would get a goal or Jags would do what he would do.

The times that we had together traveling and in the booth, I will say that the Mike Lange on the air, personality-wise, is who Mikey was away from the rink. Everywhere we would go, he was a rock star, and people wanted his autograph, and people suggested tens of thousands of times, ‘hey, why don’t you try this saying?’ Mikey really never turned anybody away. It's just hard not to feel emotional. We all had a different view of him, and I was lucky enough to sit next to him very early in my broadcasting career, and just be a very small part of his life. We had no shortage of laughs.

Paul Steigerwald

We were interviewing Jags in the locker room after we won the Cup and he said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building!’ He could barely speak English, but he was able to put that out there. That was in ’91, his rookie year. So, that was really cool. Mikey got a huge kick out of that. After we won the Cup in ’92, I had a little video camera, and he and I sat in the stands down near the ice at Chicago Stadium. I basically interviewed him. I said, well, Mikey, you've been through a lot, man. Like, this is it, you're here. You just won back-to-back Cups. It’s amazing, isn’t it, how far you’ve come? He started talking from his heart about it all, and it was a really informal, fun thing.

One of the things that people have to remember about Mikey is how much fun he had doing what he did. It was an enjoyable experience to listen to him call a hockey game. He took it extremely seriously, but there was an element of fun to it. He knew that would resonate with people. His broadcasts were very easy to listen to, and he didn't try to make it bigger than it was, but he certainly didn't diminish it at the same time. So, if it was a huge game or an incredible play, he was blown away by it, and he knew how to convey that, so that you would also be blown away by it. He gave weight to things that needed it. He did that really well with his sayings and also his tone of voice, the way he brought his voice up and the intonations. A lot of subtle things that he did with his voice that conveyed different emotions. It was like he had an instrument, like he was playing the guitar. That's what I loved about his style, it was very musical and very artistic.

He wanted it to be creatively compelling... he thought it was important to add his own flair, which not a lot of guys do. He was never afraid to step out of the normal restrictions that you seem to have when you're doing television. He could goof around a little bit, say some funny things, lighten the atmosphere. Like in Calgary, a TV had fallen and kind of grazed the side of my head and hit my shoulder. Afterwards, we staged a thing where we got some ketchup and some gauze and put it around my head, made it look like I was injured. Mike helped cook it up, and I went along with it, we had some laughs over it. That was just something we did. We weren't afraid to step out and try different creative stuff.

Something else about Mikey is that he was fun to be around. Traveling with him, he was always hilarious. If there was something that bothered him, he would complain about it, but it was all kind of in good fun. He was never really mad. He was just kind of putting on a show for everybody. On the road, he would go off on his own. He liked to eat late at night. He would take a towel from the hotel bathroom, put it across the end of the bed like a tablecloth, and then he set his food on that. So, he'd sit on his bed and he'd eat his late-night food. Then he'd go to bed, get up in the morning and go to the morning skate, take a nice nap in the afternoon and be ready to roll.

Steve Mears

He treated me like a son, and it was in different phases. I first met him when I was working for the Islanders. It was 2006, and this was my chance, finally, to meet my idol. The whole reason I got into this business was him. So, he rolled in like the fog, like he said, at Nassau Coliseum – long green trench coat – and he knew that he was my idol, so he gave me a little extra time. He knew I was from Pittsburgh, and it was real special to do a Penguin-Islander game and to meet him. So, he always took a little extra time.

Then, it was working for the Penguins. That was just so incredibly special, to be a part of the team and for him to just take me under his wing and pass along all these little pearls of wisdom that he had. I still remember so many of them to this day that I appreciate, like, take an extra second, make sure you have the right player: 71, not 72, you know? Just those little things. He was a great influence, great friend, mentor. Just a generous, kind soul, and he was just a master at his craft. That's really what it was. He was so dedicated to that art form of calling a game on radio or TV, doing play-by-play. Of course, he did other sports, not just hockey, but specialized in calling hockey.

But I think my favorite memories are actually not even at the rink or in the booth. It's going to the casino with him. There he was at the video roulette machine, having his Miller Lite and his cigarette. Those quirks about him and the memories that come to mind aren't calling Game 1 of the ’92 Final, even though those were, of course, big moments, and they'll live forever. But the ones that I remember are just getting the bat signal at 1 AM, you’ve got to come out to Rivers Casino and join him for some video roulette!

The few times that I got to travel with him, we actually sat next to each other, and that was just a dream. Though one time on the plane, my electric toothbrush was going off in my suitcase, and one of the flight attendants went on the loudspeaker and said, ‘If you have a black bag with the initials S and M, your bag is vibrating, come to the front.’ Sid is the first one who stands up and points and laughs, Justin Schultz is crying. I’m walking down the aisle, like, ‘IT’S A TOOTHBRUSH! IT’S A TOOTHBRUSH!’ I couldn't sink in my seat any lower, like, can I just go out on the wing and stay there? And there Mikey was again to console me, with words of wisdom and comfort. Just patting me on the knee, saying, ‘It's all right. Oh, that's funny, you fancy TV guys use electric toothbrushes now. Yeah, no big deal.’ He was the best.

Josh Getzoff

One of my biggest memories is when I first met him. When I got hired, the last day of training camp was my first day. So, the team was established, everyone's been around each other, and I’m just rolling in. Like, I don't know anybody, I've never met anybody. But I knew who Mike was, and I was so intimidated by him because of who he was. I remember him coming over, he had that giant trench coat even though it was like, 90 degrees outside. He and Bourquey came over and introduced themselves. He’s like, how old are you? I’m like, I'm 27. He's like, that's how old I was when I came here!

I didn't notice it in the moment, because there's so much going on when you move here, and you’re like, I'm in the NHL, this is crazy! But once you think back, he clearly saw something that I didn't realize that he saw. Because from that point forward, he would text me - what are the line combinations? What's going on? He was always on top of things, wanting to know what I think about things. He gave me guidance and he gave me advice, but he never told me what to do. He’d be like, here's something to think about. I just feel like from the start to him finishing here, when I was on, he was always eager to help. He never said no. He always responded. I actually thought he went out of his way a lot of times.

Mike ‘Doc’ Emrick (as told to WPXI)

I was doing Devils and Mike was doing Penguins. There was a game at the old Meadowlands Arena in New Jersey, the old place seated 19,000. I imagine there were 12,000 there that night. It was back in the day when teams played a five-minute overtime, and if neither team won, there was no shootout; it just went as a tie.

So, it got into overtime, and future Hall of Famers were all over the ice. Martin Brodeur, our goaltender in New Jersey, was in the net and Mario got a breakaway in overtime. Marty stopped him and trailing Mario on the play was Jaromir Jagr. He picked up the loose puck and Marty stopped him, too. Of course, the crowd that was there went nuts because it persevered the tie and eventually, it became a tie.

After the game was over, Mike and I are down on the loading dock. Mike is waiting for the team bus, and I'm about to get in the car and go home. I said, “it was a lot of fun, wasn't it?” He said, “It's a blessing.” And then there was a pause, and then he said, “Why is it always so cold in here?!” And I said, “Well I don't know, management seems to think it makes for better ice.” But anyway, we had that moment where we shared the joy of doing our work and then there came the reality, “why am I standing here shivering?"

Phil Bourque

Bourque joined Lange as his color analyst in the radio booth in the 2006-07 season. They were broadcast partners until Lange retired in 2021. The Hall of Famer and the Old 29er were close friends and had such a bond. Bourque went on WDVE to share all sorts of reflections on Lange, both professionally and personally. It’s fantastic stuff that will make you both smile like a butcher's dog and cry instead of winding your watch. The full interview is here.