This Day in Hockey History – March 27, 1993 – Voice from Venus

Mar 27, 2019

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Like most sports, hockey was traditionally considered the realm of men – from the players to management and even to the media covering the sport. In the U.S., on March 27, 1993, the latter had a breakthrough for women, when Sherry Ross became the first woman to give the play-by-play during an NHL game. Some sources even credit her as the first woman to broadcast for a male professional sports team.

Ross graduated from Rutgers University-Newark in 1977 and the following year began covering hockey for the Daily Record in Morristown, New Jersey. She later wrote for New York Newsday and the New York Daily News and freelanced for Sports Illustrated and The Hockey News, covering both hockey and horse racing. Her writing extended to the Hockey Scouting Report for 14 seasons between 1990 and 2004. During her career, Ross has served as secretary-treasurer for the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association and on the board of directors for the National Turf Writers’ Association. Beginning in January 1992, Ross joined the New Jersey Devils as a radio analyst, a position she kept through their successful bid for the Stanley Cup in 1995.

On March 27, 1993, the New Jersey Devils defeated the Washington Capitals 5-2. The Devils’ usual announcer, Gary Thorne, had been in Winnipeg to call a game for ESPN, and he ran late when his flight back was delayed. Radio announcer Chris Moore filled in on TV for SportsChannel New York. Thus, Ross stepped in for him and called the first period for WABC Radio while Devils’ beat writer Rich Chere provided the color commentary. Chere gave her a lot of credit. “She did a fine job, but that wasn’t surprising to me. She proved her great knowledge of the game of hockey and really seemed to have a lot of fun calling the contest.” The New York Daily News praised, “Real nice spur-of-the-moment play-by-play job by Devils radio analyst Sherry Ross on Saturday.”

The following year, Ross became the first woman to do color commentary during the Stanley Cup finals. She worked as an analyst for NHL Radio when the New York Rangers defeated the Vancouver Canucks in 1994. As of 2009, she had covered 15 Stanley Cup finals and 6 Kentucky Derby races.

On September 20, 2007, the Devils rehired Ross as a radio color commentator to work with play-by-play announcer Matt Loughlin. She held that position for nearly ten years before being relieved of her duties on May 23, 2017. During that time, Ross had another female first on November 25, 2009, when she called the play-by-play for the entire game between the Devils and the Ottawa Senators at the Prudential Center. Loughlin had suffered a death in the family, so Ross became the first woman to do the full play-by-play for an English broadcast. Her color commentator was former Devils forward Rob Skrlac, who said, “She’s a seasoned professional — how can she fail.” Beforehand, Ross commented, “I have a feeling it’ll fly by, like when I did the play-by-play for that one period in 1994.” After the first period, she graded herself a C-plus, saying, “I think hockey is kind of unique to do play-by-play — not that I’ve done other sports, but hockey is different because there aren’t a lot of set play stoppages like baseball and football. So a color person has to get a lot in during the flow of the play. We stepped on each other a little bit but it wasn’t too bad.”

For all her accomplishments (and for Women’s History Month), Ross was honored by the state of New Jersey with a ceremony at the Statehouse in Trenton on March 22, 2010. At the time of her 2009 play-by-play experience, Ross said, “If it doesn’t exist for anybody as an opportunity, then nobody thinks to do it, so if you think nobody could ever do this, then nobody will ever try. Now, maybe some girls will think, ‘It’s been done once so maybe if I go to school and pay my dues and get better, I could do it too.’” The women of The Pink Puck can and do!