Courtesy Foster's Daily Democrat

(April 13, 2009) The year is 1979. A young hockey player, fresh out of high school, arrives on the University of New Hampshire campus on the first day of classes. He's not enrolled. The young man goes straight to hockey coach Charlie Holt's office and introduces himself. By the end of the day, with the help of the veteran coach, the player is enrolled in courses and offered an opportunity to skate onto the UNH hockey team. By the end of his college hockey career, the player is an All-American and destined for stardom in the NHL.

Fast-forward to a Saturday night in 1984. A Boston sports anchor named Keith Olbermann is fired from WCVB-TV. The next night, a former soccer player at Oyster River High School and UNH is working as a sportscaster in Providence, R.I., and pulls an all-nighter to get his tape to the program manager in Boston. At 5:30 on Monday morning, the tape lands on the executive's desk. Less than four hours later, the sports guy has his first big break at a major metropolitan station, and is on his way to becoming a legend in New England broadcasting.

The hockey player is Andy Brickley, and the sports reporter is Jack Edwards. Today, they make up the Boston Bruins broadcast team for the New England Sports Network, and their voices are heard in living rooms and bars all over the region for more than 70 Bruins broadcasts per year.

And both are having the time of their lives.

"This is the best job I've ever had," said Edwards, whose broadcasting career has brought him from WMUR in Manchester to high-profile positions with ESPN and NESN. Before he landed the job in the Bruins booth, Edwards was flying all over the country doing various NHL and Major League Soccer games for ESPN. Now, Edwards flies on the team charter, which is among the all-time best job perks.

"The charter is more luxury and convenience than I ever deserve in my life," Edwards said. "It is phenomenal how easy it is. The only time we ever got in at 5 a.m. was when we got home from Calgary in October. Most of the time we're in (Boston) at 1:30, 2 o'clock. It's really not bad at all. Plus, I'm so juiced after a game I need about an hour and a half to decompress anyway."

Brickley's path to the booth came naturally. He played 14 seasons in the NHL, spending time with the Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils before landing with the Bruins in 1988. He was with Boston until 1992, then finished his NHL career with the Winnipeg Jets and played for various minor-league clubs before retiring in 1996.

Brickley was recruited by UNH, but seemed destined to play Division II hockey after being wait-listed at Harvard.

"UNH was my backup school in terms of academics," Brickley said. "My parents were pushing hard for an Ivy League school, particularly Harvard. (They) didn't feel I was good enough to play Division I hockey."

Brickley played on the fifth line his freshman year, and finally got into a game on Jan. 2, 1980, a 9-2 win over Air Force at the old Snively Arena. Brickley had seven points in that game. He went on to play in 26 more games that season and amassed 15 goals and 17 assists. He was an All-American selection in 1982 and finished his college hockey career with 68 goals and 69 assists in 93 games to rank 37th on UNH's all-time scoring list.

"They threw me in there in a nonconference game," he said. "It opened the door for them to throw me into a meaningful game. From there, it was a steady progression, fourth line to third line to power play. (I) got drafted at the end of my freshman year. It was pretty heady."

Brickley caught the broadcasting bug near the end of his playing career, when he was with the IHL's Denver Grizzlies, and occasionally announced games when he was injured. He landed a job providing color commentary on Bruins radio broadcasts in 1996, then made the jump to television a year later. He moved permanently to NESN in 2000. In addition to his duties with NESN, Brickley works a number of NHL games per season for the Versus television network.

Edwards was a star soccer player for Oyster River, during an era when the Bobcats were the most dominant team in the state. He recalled a game during his senior year against powerhouse Winnacunnet, which scored early in the game. Since few teams were accustomed to leading against the Bobcats during that era, the Warriors decided to sit on the lead by putting most of their players on defense in the box. The Bobcats eventually got the ball past the Warrior defense, and Edwards scored the goal that helped Oyster River salvage a 1-1 tie.

"Of all the wins we had, it was not losing that meant as much to us as anything," Edwards said. "They were playing not to lose. We always played to win."

And that's how Edwards has lived his life.

"I take chances in my life and with a lot of things I do," he said. "But I enjoy that. I enjoy being creative. I don't enjoy failing once in a while, but I accept that as part of the territory. If you play it safe, you're sure to get a solid 'B' or 'B-minus.' If you try to do something that really fulfills you by being unique and original, for me, that's where my comfort zone is."

Always known as a thinking-man's type of hockey player, Brickley said he likes to take the same approach to his work in the booth.

"I always had to be an intelligent player because I didn't have the skill set a lot of the top players had," Brickley said. "I was a late bloomer, so I had to 'think' the game in order to play with the best players."

A broken leg ended Edwards' soccer-playing career at UNH, but soon afterward he caught the broadcasting bug. Killing time after a summer-school class between his sophomore and junior years, he saw a flier for a newswriting class directed by legendary New Hampshire broadcaster Moe Quinn.

"That really whetted my appetite," Edwards said. "I had always really enjoyed writing a lot. Obviously I loved sports, and growing up in Durham, I was crazy about hockey. The combination of all those things just started coming together."

Edwards began calling games for WUNH, the student-run radio station, and like Brickley would benefit greatly from the tutelage of Coach Holt.

"Charlie was so incredibly giving of his time," Edwards said. "He was so nurturing and really helped me understand how the game is played and all the little things to look for that made the difference. (To him), defense was just as exciting as offense if you're really paying attention."

Edwards landed at ESPN in 1991 and was there for 12 years. Now the "Worldwide Leader" in sports, in the early 1990s ESPN was still a fledgling network that had only just begun to make a profit after almost a dozen years in existence. He worked various jobs for ESPN, and was best known for anchoring the network's soccer coverage and as the Sunday morning anchor on SportsCenter.

"Cable was such a dicey thing," Edwards said. "I wanted to do as much on-location reporting as possible. But as the years went on, the studio inventory kept growing. By 1999 I knew I just didn't want to do it anymore."

Edwards had grown tired of doing SportsCenter and wanted a chance to return to his first love — play-by-play.

"I had lost touch with what's really important," he said. "That's seeing the game with my own eyes and making my own decisions. All SportsCenter is, it's 'Here's what was on TV in the last 24 hours.' It's unfortunate but it's true. There's so little enterprise journalism left in the show. It's phenomenally produced generic video. I just couldn't get a feel for that."

Feeling hopeless about landing a permanent play-by-play position with the network, Edwards looked elsewhere for fulfillment. A job with CBS to do NFL play-by-play, among other things, appeared to be a done deal, when out of the blue, ESPN came calling, literally, with a job offer.

"It was like they had a mole at CBS or something," Edwards said with a laugh. "Nobody knew I was interviewing with them."

Brickley thinks he and Edwards bring a perfect balance of styles to each Bruins broadcast.

"Jack allows me to do my job," Brickley said. "To me, that's chemistry. His heart-rate is going 150 before we even drop the puck. I'm a little more reserved. I feed off his energy. He feeds off my analysis and hockey IQ, and I think it's a nice blend. We want our viewers to enjoy the broadcast. We want to inject our personalities, get a little humor in there, but not get away from what they're watching, which is a hockey game."

Edwards has nothing but praise and respect for his fellow Wildcat and current booth-mate.

"I overlapped with him professionally but not as a student," Edwards said. "He had so much talent and athletic IQ. That's really what distinguished him. That's why he thrived under Charlie Holt. Charlie was a tremendous thinker of the game. He was always open to suggestions from his players. Didn't pretend to know it all and loved the fact he didn't know it all. Brick has always analyzed the game in a very cerebral way. I think Charlie recognized that very early."

The chemistry between the two is evident during any Bruins broadcast, and on the weekly hockey program "The Instigators," which the pairs host along with former Bruins player and coach Mike Milbury. Edwards said that Brickley, despite his playing days long behind him, never let go of the concept of teamwork.

"It goes through his soul," Edwards said. "Anyone who works with him knows he's your friend. Late at night, in the middle of January, Brick's always the last guy to leave the lot to make sure (everyone's) car starts. He doesn't make a big deal about it, but he'll always there to cover for you just in case. The team concept is no lip service with him — it's all action. That is such a great example of what we all want to be. I love that about the man. I really do."