Sam Rosen has been the voice of the New York Rangers for four decades, but he is soon going to put down the microphone, set to retire in a few weeks.
The longtime broadcaster told NY1 in an interview earlier this month that it was time to step away.
āI want to go out with people thinking Iām at the top of my game. And I feel that way,ā he said. He added that traveling feels longer now than it used to.
āLittle things like that, you realize, you know what, itās time to slow down a little bit,ā he said.
Rosen has been calling games his whole life, going back to his early days growing up in Brooklyn.
āEvery weekend there were roller hockey games, and I sat and watched the games with my friends and I called the games,ā he said. āI didnāt know the players. I made up names or put the Rangersā names into the game.ā
The Rangers gig was a dream job for him, and it has been one filled with memories over the last several decades. What he called āthe greatest game as a broadcasterā was when the Rangers broke their more than 50-year drought in 1994 to win the Stanley Cup.
āTo call that moment, Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, and your team ā for me, that Iāve been following for basically my entire life ā for me to call them winning it after 54 years, doesnāt get any better,ā he said.
One of his signature calls happens when the Rangers scored on a power play.
āItās a power-play goal,ā Rosen booms across televisions in the tristate area.
āKids come up to me. Parents come up to me. They want to hear that call,ā he said.
Its origin, Rosen said, actually comes from when he called games for the now-defunct New York Cosmos, a professional soccer team.
āSo when the Cosmos scored, I would just punch it out there, āItās a Cosmos goal,āā he said, adding the same emphasis he does when the Rangers score on the power play.
He said that in 1987, when the Rangers scored 111 power-play goals, the call grew punchier and took on a life of its own.
āBecause fans liked it. They took to it. And I loved it,ā he said.
Rosenās run with the Rangers has been recognized by teams across the National Hockey League this season, with the broadcaster routinely being honored during away games.
āItās the most heartwarming thing that you could feel,ā he said.
But even though he is set to retire, he doesnāt plan to stop watching the Rangers. He will be putting it on his television along with other die-hard fans.
āIāve been a Rangers fan my whole life, and itās never going to stop,ā he said.