It's high praise, but it's well-earned for Emrick, an Indiana native and a Manchester College graduate, who got his start in the sport by announcing games at Bowling Green State University in 1971. Emrick got more than a start to his career at BGSU, he earned a doctorate degree that resulted in his well-known nickname, "Doc."

Emrick began his career as the play-by-play voice of the Port Huron Flags, which played in the International Hockey League with the Toledo Goaldiggers. He also spent time with the Maine Mariners of the American Hockey League before joining the Philadelphia Flyers three years later.

When the Colorado Rockies moved to New Jersey in 1982-83, Emrick became the first voice for that club. Soon after that he turned to television, where he has become the TV voice of hockey.

He has broadcast the Stanley Cup finals for nearly every American network, as well as leading Olympic hockey telecasts.

Emrick has been the television voice of the Devils since 1993 after serving in the same role from 1983-86. Now in his 29th season working NHL games, Emrick also has served as play-by-play man for the national broadcasts on both Versus and NBC.

Emrick, 62, received the NHL's Lester Patrick Award in 2004 and the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award from the Hockey Hall of Fame last year.

"WHEN I WAS growing up in Indiana, there were only two ice surfaces for hockey in the state. Both were opponents of the [Toledo] Blades/Mercurys: Indianapolis Fairgrounds Coliseum for the Indianapolis Chiefs and Allen County Memorial Coliseum for the Fort Wayne Komets. Coming from that environment, it was a long shot [for me to be a hockey broadcaster]. But my parents took my brother and me to a game in December, 1960 - Muskegon at Fort Wayne - and I was hooked on the sport.

"After I finished my master's at Miami (Ohio), I wasn't able to get a job in hockey because I had no experience, which was no surprise. So I became director of broadcasting and instructor in speech at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pa. After two years of doing that, I realized that, if I was to remain in college teaching, there was a $600 a year bonus if I got a doctorate. Bowling Green was just beginning a doctoral program in 1971 and, in addition to teaching two undergraduate classes, they threw in [that I would broadcast] the second period of the hockey games on WBGU-FM. Finally I got to broadcast hockey to someone instead of to myself on a cassette recorder.

"When my course work ended, I had an actual air-check to send out and one station in Port Huron, Mich., said 'yes' and I was an IHL announcer. My first game was in October of 1973 at the [Toledo] Sports Arena. Port Huron won on a left circle blast by a winger named Dale Dolmadge that got past the living legend of IHL goaltending, Glen Ramsey. I finished the dissertation three years later and received the doctorate in 1976.

"THE IHL DURING that time was a league that was reflecting the times - the Bruins and Flyers had won two Stanley Cups each with a combination of skill and toughness. Every [IHL] team had tough guys and skill players. I enjoyed watching Dino Mascotto with the red hanky in his back pocket, Louie Kazowski, Ray Germain, Hal White and of course 'The Rammer,' Glen Ramsey.

"Greg Jablonski had the wheels at center ice and there were plenty of good scorers. Terry Slater was one of the most educated and brilliant coaches I remembered from that time. And, he had a touch of showmanship. One night he bet the refs were so bad that, as coach, he could run across the ice in civilian clothes and not be noticed. In a game at the Sports Arena against Port Huron, he did it and got away with it. Bill Doyle was the referee and learned from the complaining Port Huron players that it had happened. Slater was fined $250 by the league, but he told me years later the fine was never paid.

"I THINK regardless of what voice we are given - local or national - it is our job to help people who don't know learn about the sport and, at the same time, give people who are fanatics information to make their appreciation better. The best thing about this sport is you just don't walk into an arena and play. Hockey requires unnatural extensions of the hands and arm, a stick, as well as unnatural extensions of the feet, skates, and unnatural surfaces on which to play, ice.

"THERE ARE A lot of memorable games. That first one between the Port Huron Wings, coached by Bob McCammon and the Toledo Hornets, coached by Skippy Burchell in October of 1973 is certainly one. The gold medal Olympic shootout between Canada and Sweden where Peter Forsberg won the shootout for the Swedes will be one that will stay in my mind for a long time. The women's Olympic gold medal in 1998 in Nagano, where the U.S. beat their longtime nemesis, Canada in the first-every women's competition, is another. The finish of the 1996 World Cup, where the U.S. exploded in the third to win at Bell Centre in Montreal, is another. My first game at Bowling Green in 1971 - with a future Goaldiggers announcer, Terry Shaw - Ryerson vs. Bowling Green - and the Falcons won. Jack Vivian was the coach then. Bob Schmidt, a former Falcon player, was our third man in the booth.

"THE HOCKEY HALL of Fame honor was impressive, as was the Lester Patrick Award a couple of years earlier for the same reason. Of course, it was a salute from the people in the business of hockey. But in both cases, it was a moment two hours long where your family and the people with whom you work were in the same place at the same time. That rarely happens. I leave evaluation of my work to the people for whom I work and the fans. If they are enjoying the game, then I am lucky to ride along. My goal is to enhance, but not intrude, on the play of the game. I often tell journalism classes that, though people might say your first job doesn't pay a lot - mine was $160 a week - it is a profession to aspire to."