While Steve Levy is heavily associated with ESPN’s National Hockey League coverage, there was a significant portion of his 1993-present career at the network where they didn’t have rights to the league. And that led to some interesting times for him and the other NHL-associated figures there.
The Worldwide Leader’s very first year of operation, 1979, is when they began broadcasting the NHL. That was just with individual teams (especially the nearby Hartford Whalers) at first. They then then picked up some national rights in 1985. But they lost those rights in 1988, got them back in 1992, and then lost them again in 2005 before regaining them in 2021.
Levy recently spoke to host Brandon Contes on the Awful Announcing podcast about the NHL, his career at ESPN, and much more. On that podcast, Levy said ESPN’s 2004 loss of NHL rightswas a brutal feeling for those who covered the league at the network.
“It was like our dog had passed away, like a lifelong puppy had passed on us,” Levy said. “I’m not exaggerating, there were tears in the hallways. People were so upset. …People think about ESPN and you know, it’s me and Bucci [John Buccigross] and Barry [Melrose] and Linda [Cohn], like, the hockey people, right, who go way back to that period, but there’s so many more hockey people behind the scenes that, you know, nobody ever gets to see, right? Cause they’re behind the scenes. But camera people, audio people, researchers, producers, I mean, the sport is so beloved, and had always been a part of ESPN.
He said the NHL stood out as a distinguishing marker for ESPN at that point.
“It’s been kind of our lifeblood, right? Everybody was involved in the other sports, but we had hockey, right? We owned hockey. And it was our thing, and people were so protective of it. And again, back then hockey was, you know, there’s a big four, but it was a distant, distant fourth probably.
And because of that, think it was so beloved and protected by those who really cared about the sport, who didn’t want to see it getting trampled on. And so people were, were devastated and really, really upset.”
Levy said there was a stark contrast in 2021 when they regained rights.
“The total opposite feeling happened, you know, four years ago, whenever we found out we were gonna get the rights again. People were ecstatic and jumping for joy and people were having parties and a lot of the same people are still there. …We’re so happy to get the sport back.”
One of those same people who was there for the early coverage, stuck around during the years without rights, and was there when they got them back is Barry Melrose. Melrose stepped away from ESPN last October after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Levy told Contes that Melrose has long been the face of hockey in the U.S., including while legendary player and current TNT analyst Wayne Gretzky was playing.
“I’ve spoken with Gretz recently and, and Gretz would say that very same thing, that Barry Melrose was the face of hockey in the US on television while Gretz was on the ice.”
Levy also spoke to Contes about how he and others (Dan Patrick has also raised this recently) are encouraging the Hockey Hall of Fame to consider Melrose for the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award, where they annually induct a top broadcaster from the U.S. or Canada. It’s more frequently been awarded to local than national figures, especially in the U.S., but some national U.S. figures like Mike Emrick, Dave Strader, and Bill Clement have won. Levy said he hopes that Melrose will receive that; in the meantime, he’s still talking to him regularly, and missing working with him on broadcasts.
“I miss him desperately. I probably talk to him 23 times a week. We text a bunch. He’s in full retirement. He’s fighting that, that awful disease of Parkinson’s, doing the best he can. He has good days and bad days. But everybody misses him the most.”
He said the NHL on ESPN theme music and Melrose are the two things that are most associated with the network’s coverage.
“That’s hockey on ESPN, and has been and forever will always be that way.”
The full episode of The Awful Announcing Podcast with Steve Levy will be released Friday morning. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. For more content, subscribe to AA’s YouTube page.
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.