The Evansville Thunderbolts are pleased and VERY excited to announce that their own legendary hockey play-by-play broadcaster, Terry “Fic†Ficorelli will be broadcasting his 3500th game at the Thunderbolts weekend home opener, Saturday, September 19, 2015 at Swonder Ice Arena in Evansville Indiana against the Point Mallard Ducks. Puck drops at 7:30 p.m. Broadcast time on the “Radio Home for the ‘Bolts,†WVHI-AM 1330.
“We are so pleased to have Fic as a part of our Thunderbolts team in this first season. He has helped to make our start out of the gate so very much more professional and has added his infinite depth and understanding of new organization development to our beginning of this new hockey venture in Evansville,†said Thunderbolts General Manager/Head Coach Scott Fankhouser.
For those of you who are not familiar with Terry Ficorelli’s incredible career, this would be the Cliff Note version:
Terry was raised near Detroit, Michigan and grew up loving and playing hockey. He was a young boy when he went to his first Detroit Red Wings hockey game with his dad. Because Terry was so young, they didn’t stay for the entire game, and his Dad Tony, being a huge hockey fan turned on the radio in the car on the way home to listen to the play-by-play. Tony thought Terry would fall asleep, but instead, Terry was listening to the hockey broadcast too. He asked his dad what was that guy on the radio talking about. His dad explained what a play-by-play hockey broadcaster did, and Terry said “that’s what I want to do when I grow up.â€
It wasn’t long before the family would find Terry hidden in a broom closet using his toy soldiers as hockey players and the brooms and mops as goalies and coaches, with of course Terry calling the play-by-play. After several years, his dad assembled a microphone so that Terry could call play-by-play for the hockey games on television. Clearly it is no stretch to say that Terry Ficorelli has been developing his craft his entire life.
His passion for Play-by-Play hockey broadcasting led him to Michigan State University where he was a student play-by-play broadcaster for the MSU radio station calling many of the Michigan State sporting events. (Don’t ask him about his take on soccer!!!!) While in college he was fortunate enough to land his first professional hockey Play-by-Play broadcasting job with the Kalamazoo Wings Hockey organization.
From that 1st game with the K-Wings, Fic’s career has led him down many paths and through several teams in minor pro-hockey and junior hockey. He is well known throughout the hockey industry because of his professionalism (Trivia – Guess how many suits Terry owns?) and work ethic. Terry has been fortunate to meet, know and become friends with many great, famous or infamous hockey stars, other broadcasters in and out of hockey and genuinely good people. The fans, his co-workers, team players in every level and aspect of the sport, owners, general managers, coaches, referees, scouts, training and equipment staff and business associates from coast to coast and at every level from NHL to juniors have each had a part in Fic’s long-lasting and venerable career.
Fic’s passion and love of the sport and the hockey business, his unfailing loyalty to his friends, colleagues, team and co-workers has held him up in a business that has not always been kind to him. It is his love of hockey, his passion and incredible knowledge for the sport of hockey, his true team spirit and his unique style of broadcasting that made Terry Ficorelli a legend in hockey broadcasting and the sport of hockey.
Now Fic reaches another significant milestone in his career. Broadcasting 3500 games. That is a lot of “mic†time, prep-time, miles on a bus (that number is staggering – figure 800 average miles to and from each game, Fic has traveled over 2,800,000 miles conservatively during his hockey career on a bus), sheets of yellow legal pads, long hours, little sleep and Yabba Dabba Doos to reach 3500 game broadcasts.
Congratulations Terry Ficorelli. We are proud to have your 3500th broadcast be with the Evansville Thunderbolts and we look forward to many more milestones and celebrations to come.
Tune-in the “The Fic†all season long for ThunderBolts hockey action on the exclusive radio home of the ThunderBolts, Evansville’s WVHI-AM 1330.
