Ahead of Golden Hall Induction, Preds Broadcasters Reflect on Impacts of Weber, Crisp in Nashville and Beyond

Without Pete Weber and Terry Crisp, the Predators may not still be playing hockey in Nashville.

That’s how Predators television play-by-play man Willy Daunic sees things, and he’s not wrong.

Weber and Crisp, as synonymous with Predators hockey as anyone else who has ever played for or worked for the organization, were a broadcasting match made in hockey heaven from the very first game they called together back in 1998.

And as the Preds were blessed to have them over the airwaves, so too were those fans - many of them who didn’t know icing on a cake to the same call on an ice rink - in those early days.

Weber, the play-by-play man with a steady, thrilling call, and Crisp, the sidekick who put the color in color commentating, not only informed scores of Nashvillians and Tennesseans over the years, they also made hockey fun. They had a way of drawing their viewers and listeners in, to want to spend three hours every other night with a duo that felt more like family than a couple of talking heads on a television screen.

When the Predators decided to unveil a Golden Hall last season as a way to choose new inductees each year and properly honor those who have made the franchise what it is today, the first three figures were perhaps most deserving.

David Poile, the architect of the club for 25 years, then Shea Weber and Pekka Rinne, arguably the two best players the franchise has ever had, weren’t difficult choices.

So, it only seems fitting that the pair known simply to Preds fans as Pete and Crispy will now take their rightful places in the Golden Hall.

Crisp spent the franchise’s first 24 seasons providing analysis on the Predators’ television broadcasts before retiring after the 2021-22 campaign. He worked alongside Weber from the team’s inaugural season until 2013-14, forming one of the most well-known broadcast duos in the NHL.

Crisp then shifted to the Predators LIVE pregame and postgame shows, serving as a studio analyst for seven seasons with Lyndsay Rowley. A lifer in the game of hockey, Crisp won three Stanley Cups – two as a player with the Philadelphia Flyers (1974-75) and one as a head coach with the Calgary Flames (1989) – before embarking on his successful broadcast career. He was also inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in August 2020.

Weber is in his 28th season as the “Voice of the Predators” on the franchise’s broadcast team and 11th as the primary radio play-by-play announcer. Over the past 27 seasons, he has called more than 2,000 Predators games. In addition to calling games with Crisp through the 2013-14 campaign, he has also partnered with Hal Gill and Jay More over the last several seasons. Weber has won multiple Emmy awards during his tenure with the organization and is a nine-time recipient of the Tennessee Sportscaster of the Year award from the National Sports Media Association.

Not only do Weber and Crisp have the experience to warrant such an induction, but they have the accolades, too.

And back to Daunic’s belief that when times got tough and the Predators residence in Nashville was all but guaranteed back in the 2000s, the final outcome may not have been favorable if it weren’t for the fanbase that was developed, in part, because of Weber and Crisp simply doing what they do best - making people fall in love with hockey.

Although Weber now calls home Preds games on the radio - with an occasional road trip mixed in - and Crisp is no longer on the air with the team, the two men, who also have a tavern named after them at Bridgestone Arena, are just as popular and notable within the fanbase as they ever have been.

“They were the absolute best ambassadors for the organization, and I think you could really not go too far on a limb to say, if it were just a couple of bland announcers, I’m not sure the team would have made it, you know?” Daunic said. “I think you could make that argument. They were that important. They made every game fun, and they had the right level of educational value to go with great entertainment while they were bringing you the product of a scrappy, overachieving team that didn’t have the weapons to really compete. I think that is their biggest contribution to the Predators.”

While plenty of fans have met the two over the years, and many more feel like they know Weber and Crisp just from watching and listening, few know the duo as well as those calling games now for the team.

Current Predators broadcasters Daunic, Chris Mason, Hal Gill, Rowley and Max Herz each have their own unique perspectives of how Weber and Crisp not only helped them to become better at their own craft, but also the ways in which they were simply there for each other as life happened.

“Pete and his wife, Claudia, have been so gracious to me at a time that has been tough for Pete, medically for him, three seasons ago now…ever since he had literal brain surgery in the middle of the season,” Herz, who calls games on radio away from Nashville, said. “Pete and Claudia have been so unbelievably welcoming to me, and the best part is they have thanked me for all I've done for Pete, which to me, should be the other way around. They've allowed me to share with him something that's always been his, and to live my dream. So, that's another reason why these guys deserve to be in the Golden Hall is they treat everyone around them as an equal. They treat everyone around them with so much respect, and they make hockey inclusive, and they make Smashville inclusive. That's part of the reason why the Preds are what they are now.”

“When I was in my last year [on the desk] with Crispy, I was going through some tough stuff personally, and he and [his wife] Sheila were like second parents,” Rowley, who used to co-host pregame and postgame coverage with Crisp, said. “They really helped me get through that tough time, and Pete and [his wife] Claudia are the same. Like, they would give you the shirt off their back. I think everybody knows that they're kind people, but I don't think you know exactly how kind they are. They will do anything for anyone, especially their friends or family.”

Mason, who had three different stints as a goaltender for the Predators, was a natural fit to become a broadcaster following his playing days. But the former netminder can still vividly recall a decade earlier when he thought he was ready to make his television debut - until Crisp taught him a valuable lesson.

“We had the morning broadcast meeting, everything was planned out, and I was nervous as heck,” Mason said. “I went home, and I knew the questions I was going to be asked, and I wrote down my answers. I had the best answers. I remember getting to the desk that night and I was nervous, and I think Crispy sensed that. He just put his hand on my shoulder and just tapped me on the back and said, ‘Don’t worry, son.’ He goes, ‘Just bring the passion,’ as he always said. I said, ‘OK,’ even though I was nervous. So, I'm getting ready to answer my first question, I know Crispy is going to ask me the question, but it's completely different than what it was supposed to be. So I'm like, ‘All right, throw all my answers out. I'm just going to bring the passion.’

“Probably one of the most valuable lessons that I learned from those two is just to go out there and try to show your personality and bring the passion. They helped me really fall in love with broadcasting.”

Crisp did just that throughout his entire career in the game, no matter the scenario. Preds broadcasters smile when they hear Crisp utter that phrase, “Bring the Passion,” but it’s a reminder as much as it is pregame fodder.

Weber was the perfect complement to Crisp’s one-of-a-kind perspectives having played and coached in the NHL over four decades. The play-by-play man’s ability to play off of Crisp and allow him to share when warranted made for an on-air product that was not only informative but downright entertaining.

“When I got traded to Nashville [as a player], it was like, these are the pillars,” Gill said of Weber and Crisp. “These are the legends. These are the guys that have been here forever. These are the guys that explained hockey to Nashville fans and got their buy in. They're a big part of this franchise, a big part of why Nashville is where it is. The hockey market has blown up, and a lot of it is because of these guys.”

For Gill, who joined the Predators broadcast team after skating in more than 1,100 games as an NHL defenseman and became Weber’s radio partner in the booth to start, the chance to learn a completely new side of the game was made that much better because of his new pairing.

“I still don't know what I'm doing,” Gill quipped, “but no, with Pete, I think his strength is sharing his passion with you so you just felt comfortable. I would mess up, and he'd laugh at it, and he'd move on and you just keep going. That's what Pete does - he can chat and have fun on air, and then when it's time to make a call, a goal call, he's on top of it and he's a pro. I learned a lot just watching him, how he enjoys the game, has fun with it, entertains. But then when it's time to dial in for a goal call, it's like, boom, you’ve got to nail it. I think that listening to him, learning from him, watching what he does, the details that he put into it, it's pretty impressive. I learned a lot from him.”

“For me personally, they're just incredible mentors,” Mason said. “When I was playing, my mom and dad would always watch the games, and they'd always comment about Pete and Terry, not necessarily if I made any saves or anything, but telling me the jokes that they would make. But having come over to the broadcast and just what they did for me and helping me get acclimated into the position I'm in now, it’s just an absolute honor to have been playing while they were calling games. Transitioning to the broadcast with them as friends, they’re just a couple of special guys who just have this unique ability to connect with our fanbase.”

Fans were privy to the on-air hijinks from the pair over the years, but the hilarity didn’t stop there. In fact, the off-ice stories away from the rink are too numerous to count, but one came to mind for Daunic as he recalled a moment in time when Weber and Crisp were still regulars on roadtrips.

“Crispy was such a great prankster, but he and Pete always sat together on the plane, and Crispy always had this routine of wanting to get the wine after a game the fastest,” Daunic said. “He had this thing [where] he would tell the flight attendant it was his birthday. And so, of course, Pete picks up on this, and you’d get it like clockwork. It became a routine every time on the plane after a game that it’s Crispy’s birthday. The flight attendant would always just take the hook, line and sinker, like, ‘Oh, congratulations! Happy birthday! Let me get you a glass of wine!’ So, Crispy would always get the red wine like clockwork every time. We estimate that per year, he probably had 15 to 25 birthdays every year.

“We think Crispy’s probably about 750 years old.”

Regardless of their actual ages - or how long the franchise is around - there may never be another pair like Weber and Crisp.

After all, there aren’t many who are deserving of such an honor as an induction into the Predators Golden Hall. But if any pair should be there, it’s the two who taught Nashville to love hockey and this team.

And now, that adoration will be reciprocated for the rest of time.

“They're legends,” Rowley said. “I think over the years, they've become more like family than they have like co-workers. So, to see them go in, I always thought they would. It was just a matter of time when it was going to happen. I love them both dearly, and they are definitely deserving, to say the least.”

“I love that they're going in as their own class, because who is their equal?” Herz said. “For most of the existence of the team, they were bigger names than the players. So, I actually think it's the perfect way to do it. In the first class, you had the guy who built the teams, and the two best players on those teams. And then the second class is arguably the most important people other than those three. So, I think it's perfect.”