Fred Cusick (right) pictured with analyst Derek Sanderson during a Bruins broadcast.
Fred Cusick carved an indelible niche into the Boston sports scene. He served as the voice of the Bruins on TV from 1971 to 1997, on WSBK Channel 38 in Boston and then for two seasons on the Bruins cable carrier, NESN. In total, he covered the Bruins for an amazing 45 years. His career began in 1941 on WCOP in Boston while in his senior year at Northeastern. He played the game at NU, before going into the United States Navy, ultimately reaching the rank of lieutenant in charge of a subchaser. After spending some time in Washington during the Korean War, Fred was named the Bruins radio voice in 1952, a post he would hold until 1963. Also at this time he was the sports director at WEEI in Boston. In 1957 he would become the first broadcaster to call a National Game of the Week when he did so for the CBS network.
It was Fred who was responsible for getting Bruins games on TV, at first doing an experimental broadcast of a Bruins game from the old Boston Garden in 1963, and this led to a long run of broadcasting on WSBK in Boston (TV 38). He became the Bruins radio voice from 1969 to 1971, then switched over to TV when Bob Wilson was brought in. (I'll discuss Bob in a separate post). Fred replaced Don Earle on the telecasts (Don's voice can be heard on the vintage LP album, GOAL BRUINS! of which I still have the original album, since converted to the iPod).
Fred was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1984 and was given the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for excellence in hockey broadcasting (he was the first ever recipient of the award, along with Montreal's Danny Gallivan, Rene Lecavalier, and Hewitt himself). He did the last ever game at the old Garden (an exhibition against Montreal in 1995) and the first ever game at the new Garden (then called the Fleet Center, now the TD Garden) against the New York Islanders, which was broadcast on NESN. He finished his career by calling the Lowell Lock Monsters AHL broadcasts with former Bruins defenseman Brad Park on cable television. He was then posthumously inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
I met Fred on a Saturday afternoon back in the mid to late 70's. The Bruins were playing an afternoon game at the Garden against the Chicago Blackhawks, and back then at the old Garden the broadcast booths were located as such that you could walk over and literally reach out and touch the broadcasters. I went over and introduced myself after the game and asked for his autograph. I am not much of an autograph person in terms of collecting them, and I'll only ask for one if I really have a compelling need to have it as a memory. In fact, I have only gotten two autographs in my whole life, the other being the great Irish ballad singer Tommy Makem. It was a big deal meeting my role model.
In later years, after I got the radio job at Merrimack in 2005, I got in touch with Fred's daughter Martha in the hopes that I could persuade him to come on the air with me during a game. He accepted- but sadly he fell ill and I was unable to get him on the air. But it was wonderful having the chance to interact with him before he passed away in 2009. I watched him on TV for my entire childhood and emulated and copied his style. It was because of him that I would turn down the volume on my TV set and pretend to be the "voice of the Bruins." Listening to his work highly influenced me to choose broadcasting as a career path.
Here are some goal calls from Fred, teamed with analyst Johnny Peirson on WSBK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXRisXzn7Ik
And here is the pre-game intro from Fred and Derek Sanderson prior to the Bruins final game in the old Boston Garden in 1995. Sean McDonough also appears in this clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTWj1KilaR0
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