I’m happy for my friend Ralph Strangis. This weekend, along with Joe Nieuwendyk, Strangis will be inducted into the Dallas Stars Hall of Fame. A well-deserved honor for both, and not just for the nostalgia of the 1999 Stanley Cup. Both belong to the foundation and fabric of the franchise.
The Stars are celebrating a lot these days. Last week at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Daryl “Razor” Reaugh received the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award, the highest honor in the hockey broadcasting business. Again, it’s well-deserved. For almost 30 years, Razor’s been the color commentary voice of the Stars and, arguably, the best analyst in the NHL.
Dallas Stars President and CEO Brad Alberts told me both Strangis and Reaugh were “highly instrumental in creating a hockey culture in Dallas. Both of them brought their own personalities to the air, connected with fans, and helped grow this sport.”
That’s also the way Strangis sees it. From his home in Palm Springs, on the phone, he told me about his love for Dallas and the Stars, his pride in what the franchise has become, and his gratitude for being inducted into the team’s hall of fame. He called it a “full circle moment.”
“Dallas holds a really special place in my heart,” Strangis said. Having met his wife in Dallas, welcomed their daughter into the world in Dallas, called the Stanley Cup winning season in Dallas, he said the city “was a really important place for me.”
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And to come back this weekend for his hall of fame induction gives Strangis a chance, he said, “to end this part of my story with those who were there.”
It’s a story about relentless evolution, struggle and triumph. Strangis, over the years, has been an open book about how he overcame addiction in the 1980s before working his way into broadcasting.
To be honest, I don’t know much about that side of his story. Our friendship came along much later, and whenever we get together, I’m the beer drinker. Talking to Ralph, for me, is more about arguing over books and movies, solving our broken politics and trying to get him to rethink Catholicism. Yet, about his past struggle with addiction and how it relates to his career in hockey, he did once tell The Dallas Morning News that, “It was as if I replaced one addiction with another.”
And knowing him, I get that. He’s passionate, to say the least, an addict about whatever he does. He’s intense, persistent, sometimes pushy, but that’s part of what got him where he is. Without that, no Dallas Stars Hall of Fame. Without that, maybe even no Dallas Stars, at least not the Stars as we know them.
He told me it’s a thrill to see how well the franchise is doing today. He said it’s like seeing a garden mature into full bloom.
“We all planted those seeds,” he told me. “And clearly there have been many good gardeners along the way.”
It seemed improbable 30 years ago, but today Dallas loves hockey. “The fan base is great,” Strangis said, “as rabid as Montreal.” But to get there, he said, “it took a lot of work.”
That’s what Alberts told me, too. “Ralph embodied everything about the Stars,” he said. In those early years, Strangis was basically the face, the voice and the pitch man for a franchise trying to introduce hockey to Texas, Alberts said.
Ralph’s attitude was “I’ll talk to anybody” when the Stars arrived in the spring of 1993. “This wasn’t something people were craving,” Strangis remembered. “We had a lot to do!”
So, with a stick and puck in hand, Strangis visited churches, Lions Clubs, department stores, you name it.
“I even took Mike Modano to a Target!” he laughed.
But it paid off, partly because the timing was perfect. As the sun was beginning to set on the Cowboys’ glory years, just before the advent of Dirk Nowitzki, and just as the popularity of the The Ticket all-sports radio station was taking off, the Stars quickly established themselves.
It really is a remarkable business story from that perspective. But again, if not for the work of those early hockey missionaries, it’s doubtful the Stars would be where they are today.
Which brings me back to my friend Ralph, especially the friendliness part. You see, I think friendliness is a big part of Ralph’s legacy. I mean, Ralph’s my friend, but I’m talking about something more than that. I’m talking about how we fans relate to sports broadcasters and journalists in a way that’s unique both in the world of sports and in media.
“My job basically was to say to the fan, ‘For the next few hours, I will try to give your life some joy. We’re going to do this together,’” Stangis said. “And when it’s bad, we’ll hold your hand. And when it’s great, we’re the first to high-five you.”
That’s what local broadcasters do best. Strangis often quotes the late broadcasting legend Dick Enberg: “National guys are liked … local guys are loved.” That’s because local broadcasters often hold in trust a franchise’s continuity. As players retire or are traded, as coaches come and go, local broadcasters remain the voices and faces of their teams. Friendly faces. At least I think that’s what the best ones offer: friendliness.
The best sports broadcasters and journalists can create an experience not just for the fans but with the fans. They can make it seem like you’re watching a game with a friend — a friend who doesn’t judge you for not knowing everything about the game but instead helps you love the game so much that you want to watch another.
And, that’s my point: It’s the human experience of friendliness that’s key. I mean, we could probably let some AI machine call the game, giving us every conceivable statistic and detail efficiently and cheaply. And I’m sure some bright executive somewhere has thought about it. But really who on God’s earth wants that?
No, I want to watch the game feeling like I’m sitting at a bar surrounded by friends. I want to learn and laugh and fall in love with a game, with a team. I want sports joy, a kind of joy that comes best with friends.
Now I’m just talking about sports, nothing too serious at the end of the day. But it is something beautiful, how they make us fans by making us friends.
Which is why I truly am happy for my friend Ralph.