Broadcaster Profiles- John Hennessy and Brock Hines, University of Massachusetts Minutemen

We continue on with our look at the radio voices of Hockey East. This next feature will spotlight the radio team at the University of Massachusetts, John Hennessy and Brock Hines, two veterans with decades of experience of calling hockey.







Beginning with John Hennessy (left), John brought his considerable talent to Amherst after stints in the NHL with the New Jersey Devils and the Albany River Rats of the AHL. John spent six seasons with the Devils, with his finest accomplishment most likely coming in 2003, calling the Devils run to the Stanley Cup. He has plenty of college experience as well, as he has been the voice of RPI hockey, and also has worked at Northeastern and Providence over the course of his career. In fact, John began his career calling the Friars on WDOM radio in Providence before moving on to Albany where had a seven year run as the voice of the River Rats. While there he hosted a program called NHL Face Off as well as a radio call in show. Over the course of his career he has also covered the New England Patriots and Boston College football. He is a 1982 graduate of Providence College and is in his 36th year of broadcasting hockey on the radio. John also survived a very serious bus crash while working for Albany after returning from a game in Lowell. Many broadcasters have stories to tell about buses and travel (myself included), and thankfully John was able to recover from that harrowing experience.

John is one of the most professional broadcasters I've ever met, very polished prepared and he possesses a wonderful pleasing personality. He blends well with everyone he comes into contact with and has an excellent symmetry with the man I am going to discuss next, Brock Hines.

Brock Hines was the color analyst for UMass hockey and held that position for 28 years, retiring from the Minutemen at the conclusion of the 21-22 season.  He was the senior member of the UMass Sports Network. He is an award winning broadcaster who has won two Massachusetts Broadcaster Awards, an Associated Press award for broadcast excellence, and the prestigious Joe Concannon Media Award in 2010-11 from Hockey East. He has been involved in the game of hockey for over 31 years and hosted the UMass Hockey Radio Show.

One of the things I admire most about Brock is the path he took to get where he wound up. He has done plenty of high school reporting and commentating (as I did myself when I broke in to the business 20 years ago).... he did work for Greenfield High school from 1989-1992, doing hockey color commentary and football sideline reporting. He then launched his radio career, hosting a weekly radio show on WGAJ in Deerfield. Brock also provided color analysis for UMass women's basketball for two seasons. He began playing hockey at the age of 12 and has also been involved in coaching as well, so between all of his hockey pursuits he has been involved with the game for over forty years.

Brock made history on the night/morning of March 6-7, 2015, as he teamed with Cody Chrusciel to call the longest college hockey game in NCAA history between UMass and Notre Dame, a first round playoff game that ended in the fifth overtime. The Minutemen won the game 4-3 in a game that began at 7:35 PM Eastern and ended at 1:25 AM.

Brock added international hockey to his resume in November of 2016 when he travelled to Northern Ireland to broadcast the second annual Friendship Four Tournament with Donnie Moorhouse for the UMass Radio Network.

On April 10, 2021 at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, PA, Brock experienced broadcast history as UMass won their first national championship in school history, defeating St. Cloud State 5-0, sharing the radio call with Donnie Moorhouse and Adam Frenier. 

Here is a clip of John and Brock in action, along with some commentary from Adam Frenier during a UMass game against BC in the 2013-14 season:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKYSp6bIEk8

And a second clip of John and Brock, with again additional commentary from Adam Frenier, the third member of the broadcast team during a game against Denver:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvuVYubShPg