Sunday, Feb. 19th, 2012

RICK BUKER

Most Penguins fans have taken in a game or two at the CONSOL Energy Center, have seen highlights of a young Mario Lemieux, and have heard the story behind the franchise’s birth in 1966. But only real fans know who designed the team’s original logo, which player is considered the “Original Penguin,” or have visited the site of the Schenley Park Casino.

100 Things Penguins Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die by Rick Buker reveals the most critical moments and important facts about past and present players, coaches, and teams that are part of the storied history that is Penguins hockey. Scattered throughout the pages, you’ll find traditions, records, and Penguins lore to test your knowledge, including:

§  Who was involved in “The Trade” – the best trade in team history?

§  Which player tallied points in 46 consecutive games?

§  Who was the first Penguin to score 50 goals in a season?

§  Which player was nicknamed “Jack Lambert on Skates?” 

Whether you’re a die-hard booster from the days of Jean Pronovost or a new supporter of Sidney Crosby, these are the 100 things every fan needs to know and do before they go to the Igloo in the sky.

If you bleed black and gold, then 100 Things Penguins Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die is for you. It offers the chance to be certain you are knowledgeable about the most important facts about the team, the traditions, and what being a Penguins fan is all about.

About the Author:

Rick Buker is the author of Total Penguins: The Definitive Encyclopedia of the Pittsburgh Penguins. An avid hockey fan and freelance writer, he earned a degree in business administration from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1979.  Upon his graduation, he accepted a position with Consolidated Natural Gas Company.  Buker began his writing career in 1995 when he joined the company’s communications staff.  He currently resides in the Steel City.

Sunday, Feb. 19th, 2012

KEVIN ALLEN

In 1967, there were just two American-born players logging regular minutes in the NHL. More than 40 years later, the United States roster at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics was filled completely with NHL players, including the likes of superstars Ryan Miller, Zach Parise and Patrick Kane. USA Hockey has overseen the growth of the sport from the days of the early “hockey belt” of Massachusetts, Michigan, and Minnesota to today’s organization that boasts nearly 500,000 registered players across all 50 states. 

Star-Spangled Hockey: Celebrating 75 Years of USA Hockey by veteran hockey writer Kevin Allen traces the history of hockey in the United States—spanning nearly a century from Hobey Baker’s emergence as a star at Princeton University in the early 1900s through Team USA’s bronze medal at 2011 World Junior Championship. Allen takes readers through the early highlights in American hockey history. Coached by Boston native Bill Stewart, the 1937–38 Chicago Black Hawks won the Stanley Cup behind the efforts of American-born goaltender Mike Karakas. Karakas came from tiny Eveleth, Minnesota—an immigrant town of 5,000 that sent 11 players to the NHL during an era when the league was almost entirely Canadian.

Star-Spangled Hockey includes an in-depth history of the USA’s Olympic hockey program, including the “Miracle On Ice” 1980 team that won gold at Lake Placid. Mike Eruzione’s game-winning goal to beat the Soviets was a defining moment for the United States during the Cold War. The Associated Press and Sports Illustrated chose the upset by coach Herb Brooks’ team as the greatest sports moment of the 20^th century. 

With a foreword by Jeremy Roenick, one of the most colorful characters in the game, Star-Spangled Hockey utilizes first-hand accounts from some of the sport’s legendary figures to help readers fully understand the remarkable rise in prominence of American hockey over the past three quarters of a century.

About the Author:

Kevin Allen has been writing about hockey since 1986 and has covered more than 550 NHL playoff games. He has written about every level of hockey, from the NHL to the Olympics and the Women’s World Championship. He has authored and co-authored more than a dozen sports books, including Brett Hull’s as-told-to autobiography and Without Fear: The Greatest Goalies of All-Time. Allen is currently president of the Professional Hockey Writers Association. He lives with his wife, Terri, in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Sunday, Feb. 19th, 2012

BRYAN BURWELL

“The John Madden you are about to discover is nothing at all like the person you think you know.”

-          Pat Summerall

Nobody has had as much impact on the world of football in the last 50 years as John Madden. With incisive wit and superhuman energy, this one man football factory has seen and done it all. As a coach, he has the highest winning percentage in history, and he led the Oakland Raiders to a 1979 Super Bowl Championship. He followed that up by becoming the most beloved and popular football announcer in the country, experiencing unparalleled success in a broadcasting career that lasted for parts of four different decades.

In Madden, longtime sports columnist Bryan Burwell has written the first comprehensive biography of this living legend. From his days as a star athlete in Daly City, California, Madden was driven to succeed, a trait that helped him persevere during his tumultuous years with the Raiders under Al Davis and compelled him to try his hand at broadcasting after his coaching career was over. Madden’s incredible football knowledge, down-home sensibilities, and tireless work ethic made him arguably the most popular sports analyst in any sport and led to a long and storied career as a TV pitchman. In the third stage of his public life, the Hall of Fame coach became known to new generations of fans through his eponymous line of groundbreaking video games, which are among the best-selling titles of all time.

Madden is a behind-the-scenes look at the man who put the “Boom!” in our Sundays. From Al Davis and the Raiders to Canton, from the booth to the bus to Turduckens on Thanksgiving day, this is the definitive Madden book, a wild collection of stories from a legend’s 50 incredible years in the NFL.

About the Author:

Bryan Burwell is an award-winning sports columnist with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The author of two books, including At The Buzzer! The Greatest Moments in NBA History, Burwell’s work has also appeared in several sports anthologies, USA Today, the New York Daily News, The Sporting News, and Sports Illustrated. On television, Burwell is a regular contributor to ESPN’s The Sports Reporters and spent 14 years with HBO Sports. In 2007, he was the host and writer of a nationally syndicated TV documentary on the Negro baseball leagues called The Color of Change, which won two 2008 Telly Awards.

Sunday, Feb. 12th on WDeV AM & FM

Ross Bernstein
("Raising Lombardi")
Donald Hubbard
("100 Things Patriots Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die")
Robert Schnakenberg
("The Underground Football Encyclopedia")
Sean Grande
(Radio Voice of the Boston Celtics
@SeanGrandePBP)

Now in his fourteenth season in the NBA and eleventh as the voice of the Boston Celtics, Sean Grande’s epic account of the two-month run to the 2008 World Championship, and the classic Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals cemented his status as one of the nation’s elite play-callers. Sean, who now trails only the legendary Johnny Most as the longest-tenured radio voice of the Celtics, will be joined again by analyst Cedric Maxwell for all Boston Celtics games. For over a decade, “Grande and Max” have been one of Boston’s most popular and iconic on-air combinations. On February 3, 2012, they will call their 1,000th game together.

On December 3rd, 2009 in San Antonio, he called his 1000th NBA Game, joining NBA icon Marv Albert and Ian Eagle as the only three to reach that plateau before the age of 40.

Voted by the readers of Boston Sports Media Watch as the best play-by-play announcer in Boston, Sean was recruited back to New England in 2001 after serving three years as the television voice of the Minnesota Timberwolves. When he signed in 1998, he was the youngest announcer in the NBA, a distinction he would hold for three years. The versatile Grande’s play-byplay credits also include two seasons as part of ABC Sports College Football broadcast team, joining the likes of Keith Jackson and Brent Musburger. He returned to the national scene last September, calling the FIBA Americas tournament on ESPN.

Grande’s first stint in Boston began at Boston University where he spent seven seasons calling Terrier hockey, football and basketball on both television and radio. In 1996, he moved up Commonwealth Avenue to Boston College, as the voice of the Eagles football and hockey radio networks for three seasons until the NBA came calling. On the television side, Grande was the original voice of the Hockey East Game of the Week on Fox Sports Net. His renowned college hockey work for Fox and as the six-year television voice of the NCAA East Regional garnered him three New England Emmy nominations including the 1999 Emmy for best Play-by-Play. Now in his fourth decade of college hockey, Grande will call his eleventh NCAA Championship Game in April, 2011 as the “Voice of the Frozen Four” on CBS Radio.

A frequent guest on ESPN’s First Take and the B.S. Report, Grande’s broadcast career includes a sevenyear stint at WEEI (1991-1998), the final three as Sports Director. His wide-ranging play-by-play career has seen him call WNBA basketball for the Minnesota Lynx and Connecticut Sun, MFS Pro Tennis, Providence Bruins hockey, Harvard basketball and even Major League Soccer. He served three years as host of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on NHL radio and co-hosted the NCAA Hockey Selection show on ESPN2. In 2005, Grande became a recurring guest host of Comcast Sports Net’s “Sports Tonight”, and a regular contributor to WEEI. Sean made his major motion picture debut with a cameo, as himself, in the 2001 release “Joe Somebody” starring Tim Allen and his call of Ricky Davis’ buzzer-beater in November of 2005, was used as a soundtrack in a scene of the final season premiere of HBO’s “The Sopranos” in 2006. A regular contributor to Celtics.com, Grande’s made his debut on ESPN’s Grantland in November, 2011.

Grande lives in Cambridge, Mass. His first child, Jackson, was born in October.