By Keith Lavon
TV viewers or radio listeners in the Providence area, if they happen to be tuning in on a Friday or Saturday night, are among those who have been lucky enough to catch the smooth words coming from Northeastern alumnus and Providence College broadcaster Mike Logan, a class of ’91 graduate and winner of the 2008 Joe Concannon Hockey East media award.
At Hockey East media day Monday, Logan was announced as the 17th recipient of the award, the first Northeastern alumnus to receive the honor.
The Concannon award is presented annually to someone who has shown dedication to the coverage of Hockey East and is voted on by a body of administrators, coaches and sports information directors. The award is presented each year at Hockey East media day.
“It’s a nice honor, as I said on Monday, to be mentioned with [Boston University broadcaster] Bernie [Corbett] and [Northeastern broadcaster] Rob [Rudnick], two guys I got to know as I was an undergrad. And two guys that have been a tremendous support to me,” Logan said.
For the past 14 years, Logan has been the play-by-play voice of the Providence College Friars hockey squad while also owning and operating his own media company, MWLsports, which broadcasts high school football games in southeastern Massachusetts.
Logan has been on the air at one station or another since his graduation in 1991, first with WPEP in Taunton, before eventually becoming the play-by-play voice for the Pawtucket Red Sox from 1997 to 2000. He was also behind the mic for Providence College hockey and women’s basketball while doing work for their men’s team, Harvard football and Northeastern football.
Logan cut his teeth starting in 1991 at the Northeastern student radio station WRBB. Calling a football game along with a number of hockey games for the campus station, Logan worked with Don Orsillo, now a broadcaster for the Red Sox. From 1997 to 2000, Orsillo and Logan worked together again in Pawtucket as broadcasters for the Pawtucket Red Sox.
“I have not had nearly as much fun as I had those four years where you truly enjoyed doing 400-plus games together. The biggest highlight was getting a chance to work with Don for four years because when we were in college we always talked about , ‘wouldn’t it be neat if somewhere down the road we had a chance to either be doing the same game or working together?’ It was kind of neat that it would work out.”
Rudnick has been calling Northeastern hockey for more than 30 years now, and has seen many young broadcasters come through WRBB.
“I think he’s wonderful, he is a great announcer,” Rudnick said. “He is one of these guys who thinks the game is the most important thing. The calls are real, they are precise, they are interesting.”
Rudnick added that Logan is a man with a passion not only for college hockey, but college athletics across the board.
Logan is not the first Northeastern alumni to make his mark in the professional broadcast world. There is a laundry list of former WRBB members, like Orsillo, working across all sports and levels, but Logan remains the closest to the university, broadcasting college hockey and making it out to Matthews Arena at least once a year when Providence travels to Boston.
Logan always makes it a point to stop by the WRBB booth, not only to check out his old stomping grounds, but also to provide some council and advice to the next generation.
Logan said he’s enjoyed working with college athletics and would be happy to continue working with them for the forseeable future.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been 14 years,” Logan said. “I love college hockey, I love college football, I enjoy college basketball. I would be very content to spend the next 20 years around college athletics.”
