EAST LANSING, Mich. - Spartan Media Network radio broadcaster Scott Moore has been the voice of Michigan State athletics for 33 years, and has witnessed multiple championships.
Of the many memorable moments, Moore recalls MSU hockey’s national championship win over Boston College, culminating the 2007 Frozen Four, as being the biggest.
When the Spartans scored with 18 seconds left, Moore’s voice cracked during the broadcast. His emotional tone was not just because of the play, but also from the sight of his 14-year-old daughter, Courtney, sitting next to him as his statistician during such a major game.
“...You can hear me start to choke up, and it's because I made the mistake of looking at my daughter,” Moore said. “That’s my kryptonite, somebody crying, but that was something that definitely stuck with me in my career.”
Courtney began helping him track stats when she was just 14, and received a credential for MSU’s appearance in the 2007 Frozen Four. Moore never could have anticipated a lifetime of memories and championship runs after taking a role at a radio station that just needed to be filled at the start of his career.
The Grand Rapids native does not anticipate stepping away anytime soon. Moore is the voice of Spartan Media Network, a radio group based in East Lansing that covers MSU athletics.
He began his MSU career calling football and basketball, while also covering the Lansing Lugnuts. It wasn’t until he started going to hockey games with his wife that he really fell in love with the sport, despite never playing.
Moore’s path to broadcasting wasn’t linear though. After a gap year and completing classes at Lansing Community College for media technology, he worked for a few Lansing T.V. and all-news radio stations before being brought on to Spartan Media Network.
He said these experiences helped him master a wide variety of media related skills, advice he now passes on to students entering the field.
It wasn’t just the atmosphere inside Munn Ice Arena that had Moore hooked on covering hockey, but also the challenge of painting a picture of high speed hockey over the radio. This is a practice he perfected over time, and has even been complimented on his depiction of the game by a fan who was blind.
“The challenge is you have to paint the picture,” Moore said. “You have to keep telling people that the Spartans are skating left to right, or you have to tell them where the puck is because they can’t see.”
In 29 years of covering MSU hockey, he has only missed one game. He’s the voice of game coverage, so there is no time or space to miss.
Moore has had to miss holidays, his oldest daughter’s college graduation, and even his youngest daughter’s winter dance - the same night his wife suffered a heart attack while he was on air. Even so, Moore’s wife had told the family not to call him while he was working the night of her heart attack.
Despite the sacrifices that have to be made to work in sports, Moore’s family is more than understanding and supportive.
“It’s always different,” Moore said. “No two games are the same, and even though you may hit the same thing in your pregame show as your post game show, it’s still spontaneous.”
Moore insists the best parts of the job far outweigh the hard times. The people and the game, he says, are what keep him coming back.
Moore has gotten to watch Spartans start their careers at MSU and make it to the pros, but he has also watched families grow and fans start to fill more and more seats. Some of the most dedicated though, aren’t even from the state.
One of them is “Jimmy V,” a sports fan from New Jersey who adopted Michigan State hockey out of nowhere. Moore mentioned him on air after seeing his tweets, and was showered with thanks from Jimmy V.
Even without having any ties to MSU, he’s still a dedicated sports fan who posts about what he’s having for dinner, complete with whether he's having chocolate milk or a chocolate milkshake. Regardless, he is one of Moore and MSU Hockey’s biggest supporters.
“He followed us during the dark days, so he’s been listening for a while,” Moore said. “Michigan State is just his college hockey team.”
Moore’s support doesn’t end there though. He has an old college friend who spends his winters in Thailand, and tunes in to the radio show, even with a 12 hour time difference.
It’s 33 years after Moore sat behind a microphone for the first time, he still arrives at the arena early, eats a pretzel before every game, and carries the same passion for calling the sport he grew to love - all with the help from the love of his life.
For listeners across the country, and sometimes across the world, his voice continues to bring Michigan State hockey to life.
