{"id":4516,"date":"2022-03-24T15:00:51","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T15:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=4516"},"modified":"2022-03-24T15:00:51","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T15:00:51","slug":"bgsu-alum-makes-nhl-broadcasting-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/24\/bgsu-alum-makes-nhl-broadcasting-history\/","title":{"rendered":"BGSU Alum Makes NHL Broadcasting History"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Everett Fitzhugh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Bowling Green State University alumnus continues to make NHL broadcasting history after recently being part of the first all-Black announcing team for the Seattle Kraken\u2019s Feb. 17 game at Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

While filling in on ROOT Sports\u2019 Kraken television broadcast, Everett Fitzhugh \u201911 joined analyst and former player JT Brown to make NHL history, a night whose significance was not lost on the Detroit native who didn\u2019t always see people who looked like him at the rink.<\/p>\n

Fitzhugh became the first Black announcer in NHL history when hired by the Kraken as the club\u2019s radio play-by-play broadcaster.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never expect the first of anything or set out to be the first of anything, but it has definitely been a cool experience,\u201d Fitzhugh said. \u201cIt has been a little weird in that, as a PR guy, I\u2019ve been mostly behind the scenes. I\u2019m mostly the one doing the promoting, so it\u2019s a little odd being the one who is being promoted like I\u2019ve been, but I owe it to our culture, to our sport and to myself to be able to help lead that and show people there is a place for historically unrepresented populations within the game of hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a whirlwind few days, but Fitzhugh said he was blown away by the support he received dating all the way back to his days at Bowling Green.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, all the support from colleagues, friends and family was great,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously without John Forslund giving his blessing, it wouldn\u2019t have happened. I heard from a lot of people around the league, a lot of my old colleagues, a lot of my old friends from BG.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really special just to hear from a lot of folks. That\u2019s the one thing I\u2019ve gotten in abundance since I took this job: People being so kind and warm and genuine with their support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fitzhugh knew he wanted to work in sports for a career, and chose Bowling Green because it is one of the select few nationally that plays all four major sports at the Division I level.<\/p>\n

While he was a student, Fitzhugh volunteered in the Athletics Department to help complete media guides, write releases and run news conferences, but from the first time he called a hockey game, he was hooked.<\/p>\n

During his stops doing hockey play-by-play in Youngstown, Cinncinati and now Seattle, Fitzhugh said he has regularly used things he learned on the job as a BGSU student majoring in sports management and minoring in
\nbroadcast journalism .<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell folks this all the time, and it\u2019s not just for a soundbite: Without Bowling Green, I\u2019m not here, and I 1,000% believe that,\u201d he said. \u201cBowling Green is the reason why I am where I am. It gave me that foundation and showed me that this is a career that is worth sacrificing for and is worth having.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you do it right, you\u2019ll never work a day in your life, and I\u2019ve never worked a day in my life, and it\u2019s because of all the things I learned at Bowling Green.\u201d<\/p>\n

The experience of becoming part of the first all-Black broadcasting team was a special night, he said, because it helps show that sports \u2013 and hockey specifically \u2013 are for anyone.<\/p>\n

Further, he said, there are more ways into to sports than just playing them, and part of his goal as the play-by-play announcer for an expansion team is to help grow the game for anyone who wants to experience what
\nit\u2019s like.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo tell people and show people that there are so many more avenues than just playing that you go into to be involved in the game of hockey, that\u2019s the big impact for me,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about getting people involved in the game and trying to foster people’s love of the game no matter what color, gender, sexual orientation. You are allowed to be true to yourself and still love this game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Bowling Green State University alumnus continues to make NHL broadcasting history after recently being part of the first all-Black announcing team for the Seattle Kraken\u2019s Feb. 17 game at Winnipeg. While filling in on ROOT Sports\u2019 Kraken television broadcast, Everett Fitzhugh \u201911 joined analyst and former player JT Brown to make NHL history, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[112],"class_list":["post-4516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4518,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4516\/revisions\/4518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4516"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=4516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}