Hockey Hall of Famer Budd Lynch, the longtime public address announcer of the Detroit Red Wings, has died at the age of 95.
Lynch passed away early Tuesday.
The native of Windsor, Ont., began his radio career out of high school. He was hired by Windsor radio giant CKLW in 1939, before he headed off to Europe as a volunteer in the Canadian Army’s Essex Scottish Regiment, an infantry unit. He lost an arm to a rocket not long after the invasion of Normandy in 1944.
Lynch, known for his distinctive voice, began his career as the Wings’ play-by-play man in 1949, after he returned home from combat. The team won the Stanley Cup in his first season behind the mike.
Lynch tried to retire twice. In 1975 he was brought back by Alex Delvecchio as the team’s director of publicity, a job he held for 10 years. A second retirement attempt failed in the 1980s when Marian Ilitch, wife of owner Mike Ilitch, asked him to stay on. He served as the public address announcer at Joe Louis Arena since 1985.
Lynch was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1985 as the winner of the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award. He was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.
https://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=643102&print=true
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