Press & broadcasting / Sports
Budd Lynch
1917–2012 · hockey broadcaster, public-address announcer
One-armed World War II veteran who spent 63 years with the Red Wings, first as play-by-play voice from 1949 and later as the beloved PA announcer at Joe Louis Arena.
- Born
Windsor, Ontario- Died
Dearborn, Michigan
aged 95- Birth name
- Frank Joseph James Lynch
- Detroit years
- 1949–2012
- Field
- Press & broadcasting, Sports
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Lynch grew up across the river in Windsor and lost his right arm while serving with the Canadian Army in Normandy in 1944. He was broadcasting Windsor Spitfires games when Red Wings general manager Jack Adams asked him to call Detroit's games, and he began in 1949 on radio and early television. The Red Wings won four Stanley Cups in his first six years behind the microphone, the Howe–Lindsay era at the Olympia. He later worked in the team's public relations office, and in 1985 he became the public-address announcer at Joe Louis Arena, a job he held until 2012, when he was in his nineties. His gravelly announcement "Last minute of play in this period" became so beloved that a recording of it kept playing at every home game until the arena closed in 2017. He received the Hockey Hall of Fame's Foster Hewitt Award and died in Dearborn in 2012.
Highlights
- Red Wings play-by-play voice from 1949
- Public-address announcer at Joe Louis Arena 1985–2012
- Lost his right arm in Normandy in 1944
- Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, 1994
- His recorded "last minute of play" call was used until 2017
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1985–2012
Joe Louis Arena
Demolished · 1979–2017
Where he was public-address announcer for 27 years; closed in 2017 and demolished in 2019–2020.
Worked here · 1949–1970s
Olympia Stadium
Demolished · 1927–1979
Where he called Red Wings games in the Stanley Cup years of the early 1950s; demolished in the 1980s.