Longtime Buffalo Sabres play-by-play announcer Rick Jeanneret poses with the team after their 4-3 win over the Nashville Predators on “Rick Jeanneret Night” at KeyBank Center on April 1, 2022.

 Derek Gee/Buffalo News file photo

Rick Jeanneret, the legendary play-by-play voice of the Buffalo Sabres who became one of the franchise’s biggest icons over his 51-year career behind the microphone, died Thursday night, the Sabres announced.

Remembering Rick Jeanneret, legendary Buffalo Sabres broadcaster

Jeanneret had turned 81 on July 23. When he retired last year, he was the longest-tenured play-by-play announcer in NHL history.

“It is with extreme sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather and brother, Rick Jeanneret, Hall of Fame broadcaster for the Buffalo Sabres,” the Jeanneret family said in a statement issued by the Sabres late Thursday night. “Rick died on August 17, 2023 with his family by his side after a two-year battle with multi-organ failures. He will be loved forever.”

Jeanneret’s bombastic style and high-powered goal and fight calls made him a fixture on NHL highlight packages on both sides of the border throughout his career. Sabres fans can routinely imitate many of his most famous ones, a list that’s almost always led by the “May Day, May Day” call of Brad May’s overtime goal that gave the Sabres a four-game sweep of the Boston Bruins in the first round of the 1993 Stanley Cup Playoffs and ended Buffalo’s 10-year drought without a playoff win.

A roll call of Jeanneret's top play-by-play snippets easily comes out for most fans. There's "Top shelf where Mama hides the cookies." "We are not worthy." "Call a cop. He robbed him." "Roll the highlight film." "LaLaLaLaLaLaLaFontaine." "Wowie Housley." And to celebrate Jason Pominville's series-winning overtime goal in 2006 at Ottawa, Jeanneret dropped the always-remembered, "These guys are good. Scary good."

Jeanneret, who formed a play-by-play pair for the ages with longtime voice of the Sabres Ted Darling, started his career as the analyst on the team’s radio broadcasts during the 1971-72 season, Buffalo’s second in the NHL. He moved full-time to television in 1995 and the team went to a simulcast in 1997, with Jeanneret calling the game on both radio and TV with partners Jim Lorentz, Harry Neale and Rob Ray.

“Rick was indeed a very special and very loved man, to and by all, who knew him and listened to him, his magic, and his command,” Sabres owner Terry Pegula said in the team statement. “How glad I am to have known him. How lucky were we all to have been around him and to have listened to him.

“Rick Jeanneret’s mark on Sabres history extends far beyond the broadcast booth and we will miss him dearly. I extend my deepest condolences to Sandra, Rick’s family, friends, and all that were loved by him.”

Known throughout the hockey world as simply "RJ," Jeanneret stopped traveling to most road games in his final few years as eventual replacement Dan Dunleavy took over a larger share of the play-by-play duties. The 2021-22 season was Jeanneret’s final run in the NHL and it was billed by the team as “RJ’s Last Call,” with a year-long slew of highlights during the broadcasts.

It was capped by RJ Night in KeyBank Center on April 1, 2022, against the Nashville Predators. With a star-studded group of alumni joining him on the ice, Jeanneret joined former owners Seymour and Northrop Knox as the only non-players to have their names raised to the rafters of KeyBank Center as the capper to a pregame ceremony that featured numerous standing ovations.

Buffalo Sabres play-by-play announcer Rick Jeanneret speaks as he honored with a banner bearing his name in the rafters of the KeyBank Center prior to playing the Nashville Predators on Friday, April 1, 2022. Jeanneret died Thursday night.

After Buffalo held on for a 4-3 victory, Jeanneret was escorted on to the ice by Sabres forwards Alex Tuch and Cody Eakin for what turned into an iconic team picture, with the broadcaster surrounded by all the players and coaches and the sellout crowd chanting, “RJ, RJ.”

"It was something that just happened heat in the moment and it worked out perfectly," said Tuch, a Syracuse-area native who grew up as a Sabres fan entranced by Jeanneret's calls. "It was emotional. It was a lot of fun. He's a legend. ... An unbelievable moment."

Nashville broadcaster Pete Weber, who spent 20 years in Buffalo and worked alongside Jeanneret at WGR Radio, said it was a career highlight to be in the building that night for the ceremony.

"That was a very emotional night for me," Weber said by phone Thursday from the Musicy City. "I think I did a fair job keeping myself under control. To have been there and been a part of that is as special a night as one could have. I was blessed. I worked with Ted, with Van (Miller), with Rick. I got to work with Murph (Bills announcer John Murphy). I've been particularly blessed in that regard and RJ Night is something I'll never forget."

Jeanneret’s final game, an overtime win over Chicago on April 29, 2022, was another massive celebration as his last goal call was Casey Mittelstadt’s game-winner off a Dylan Cozens rebound. Again, he came on the ice after the game to the roars of the crowd.

"It was a great way to end it for RJ," Mittelstadt said that night. " (Cozens) and I were talking. We were pretty proud to be his last call."

On Jan. 19 of this year, Jeanneret drew more cheers at the mic when he spoke during the ceremony the Sabres held to retire Ryan Miller’s No. 30. Jeanneret drew howls from the crowd by starting his remarks with the drawn out “Millllerrrrrrrrrrr” call he routinely used for the goaltender’s top saves.

Miller was one of several former Sabres to tweet condolences to Jeanneret as the news of the broadcaster's death began to spread. In a picture taken on his night,  Miller is seen shaking Jeanneret's hand. His message on the tweet was "I will always remember this wonderful man who was a true friend" and it was followed by a heart emoji.

Former Buffalo Sabres play-by-play announcer calls out Ryan Miller's name one more time at the No. 30 retirement ceremony.

Jeanneret overcame Stage III throat cancer in 2014, missing several games at the start of the 2014-15 season, and worked his final few seasons with a pacemaker that was implanted in 2016. He had an on-air collapse during a 2018 game against Anaheim and was stretchered out of the KeyBank Center press box to be examined at a hospital for exhaustion, largely caused by overheating from a Santa Claus suit he was wearing early in the broadcast.

Jeanneret would never allow himself to be referred to as the "Voice of the Sabres". To him, that title was reserved for Darling in perpetuity. An emotional Jeanneret nearly broke down at the microphone during ceremonies after the last game in Memorial Auditorium in 1996 while talking about his one wish was that Darling would still be next to him in the booth. Darling, ravaged by Pick's Disease, would die eight months later at age 61.

Jeanneret would join Darling in the Sabres Hall of Fame in 2011 and a had a big year in 2012, with nods to the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame and the Buffalo Broadcasting Hall of Fame. The biggest honor came on Nov. 12, 2012, when he was given the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for career excellence in broadcasting by the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Jeanneret was also an honorary member of the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame in the Allegany County town of Belfast and even received the key to Niagara Falls in a ceremony shortly before his retirement last year.

Jeanneret was born in St. Catharines, Ontario, and lived most of his adult life in Niagara Falls, Ont. It was in Niagara Falls in 1963 when his career switched from being a radio disc jockey to a hockey broadcaster when he called games of the Junior A Niagara Falls Flyers. Jeanneret, in fact, continued DJ work on CJRN in Niagara Falls into the early 90s before finally giving up those duties to concentrate solely on hockey.

“Growing up in Buffalo, Rick Jeanneret was not just the voice of the Sabres, he was the voice for our city. He helped foster my love of hockey, along with so many others,” Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams said in the team statement. “Beyond the booth, Rick was an incredible man that was loved by all. His wit and humor was unmatched and we are all lucky to have known him.

“I am heartbroken by his passing and send my condolences to his wife, Sandra, and all of his family and friends. May he rest in peace.”

One of the highlights of RJ Night was the speech offered by Ray. As an enforcer on the ice during his career, Ray's fights ignited some of Jeanneret's most outrageous calls. As his broadcast partner, Ray enjoyed playing the foil to the needling of the partner he playfully dubbed "the old man" in response.

"I speak for all Buffalo Sabres alumni when I say you deserve to be in the rafters as much as anyone who ever wore the uniform," Ray said as the crowd erupted. "You are one of us. You are the Buffalo Sabres."

Jeanneret is survived by his wife, whom he always referred to as “Cupcake”, sons Mark and Chris and stepdaughter Shelly, and several grandchildren. Mark Jeanneret spent several years as a hockey broadcaster with the Ontario Hockey League's Erie Otters and substituted for his father on Sabres play by play during 2010 road games in Calgary and Edmonton. Funeral arrangements have yet to be announced.

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