John Rooke, the esteemed voice of the New England Patriots and director at Dean College, shares a captivating journey through his extensive broadcasting career in this enlightening podcast episode. He recounts how a twist of fate led him to become the public address announcer for the Patriots, a position he has held for over three decades, witnessing the franchise's transformation from underdog to powerhouse.

Rooke discusses the evolution of sports broadcasting and education, emphasizing the burgeoning opportunities available in the industry, particularly at Dean College, where he is shaping the next generation of sports professionals. With a delightful blend of personal anecdotes and professional insights, he reflects on pivotal moments such as introducing Sir Elton John at a Patriots game and the exhilaration of championship celebrations, underscoring the joy of his craft.

As he offers sage advice for aspiring broadcasters, Rooke’s passion for storytelling and dedication to nurturing talent shine through, making this episode a must-listen for anyone interested in the dynamic world of sports media.

47-year professional career in journalism, broadcasting, leadership, effective management and instruction. Current announcer of the New England Patriots, WEEI talk Host, 98.5 THE SPORTS HUB host, Sports columnist, Director: Center for Business, Entertainment & Sport Management at Dean College. John brings a wealth of knowledge and conversation to the Blind Knowledge Podcast. This is a must-listen for any sports fans or anyone looking to get into the industry.

Takeaways:

• The podcast features an interview with John Rooke, the iconic voice of the New England Patriots, who shares his inspiring journey in sports broadcasting.
• John discusses how he transitioned from a laid-off television job to becoming the Patriots' public address announcer after a serendipitous encounter during a live radio show.
• He emphasizes the importance of networking in the broadcasting industry, advocating for aspiring professionals to engage meaningfully on platforms like LinkedIn.
• John reflects on the evolution of the sports industry, noting how it has transformed from a mere hobby to a multi-billion dollar business that now attracts serious academic interest.
• During the episode, John recounts memorable highlights from his career, including his experiences at the Super Bowl and the electrifying atmosphere of playoff games.
• Lastly, John offers sage advice for young broadcasters, stressing the necessity of perseverance, adaptability, and the art of building professional relationships.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Dean College
• Blind Knowledge
• Gillette Stadium
• New England Patriots
• CBS
• WPRO
• Providence Bruins
• San Antonio Spurs
• Texas Longhorns
• University of Texas
• Emerson College
• Boston Bruins
• Kraft family

Hey, what's up, y'?

All?

My name is Joey V. Welcome back to another edition of the Blind Knowledge podcast.

It is Friday.

It is a lovely day.

It is springtime.

And we are bringing you a new event, a brand new interview, I guess you could say, with the man, the myth, the legend.

His name is John Rook.

He's the voice of the Patriots.

He is a journalist.

He's director over at Dean College.

If you know Dean College, you know that it's a good place to get your education on.

If you don't, check him out at Dean Eduardo, a little bit about me.

I own and operate blind knowledge.

BlindKnowledge.com is the spot that's hot.

We have podcast, live streaming videos.

We have a blog coming on the way.

We have 19 active podcasts and two more being added today.

So if you want to check us [email protected] please do.

And enough about me and more on to the man, the myth, and again, the legend, this guy.

I look up to John Rook a lot because I'm a huge New England Patriots fan.

I used to go as a kid with my grandfather and.

And now we get to learn more about him.

So I'm going to bring him on right now.

Mr. Rook, welcome to the show.

Hey, Joe, thanks for having me.

I appreciate it.

Hey, thank you for taking the time.

It's.

It's a big plus.

It's a big plus for everybody, and we're gonna.

We're gonna figure out who the dude is under the cap.

I gotta ask you this right off the bat.

How did you get the gig to be the voice of the Patriots?

I don't think it's anything special, but the true story is, is that it was.

This was back in like 91, I think I was actually had just been laid off from a TV job, and so I was working as a crowd host, if you will.

Chuck Wilson was a longtime sports talk radio host in New England, and he was doing live broadcast of his radio show on WPRO in Providence.

And the guys at Pro who had hired me already the previous year, two years previous to that, as the radio voice of Providence prior basketball team.

And they knew that, you know, looking for extra things to do, and they said, hey, why don't you come out and host the show that Chuck is doing?

Because it's a live broadcast.

And you know, that way during the commercial breaks or in commercial breaks, you can, you know, do trivia with the fans, you can interact, you know, whatever it's come out, we'll Pay you to do it.

Right.

And I'm like, okay, cool.

You know, I wanted something to do, so it kept me active.

And it just so happened in the audience that night with three marketing executives for the Patriots.

And after the show is over, they pulled me aside and introduced themselves.

And they had known that I had covered the Patriots because I had worked at what is now the CBS affiliate in Providence.

And they said, you know, so have you ever done public, you know, public speaking?

And I said, well, yeah, actually done quite a bit.

And I had actually done some public address work for a season in the NBA before that.

And they said, well, we love how you project and love how you interact with the fans.

And so we're actually looking for a new stadium voice.

New public address announcer for Gillette Stadium.

Not for Gillette.

Excuse me.

This would have been 91.

So this would have still been old Foxborough Stadium.

Yeah.

With the metal benches.

Yeah.

Oh, boy.

Yeah.

You remember those, right?

And so we.

So they said, so we're.

We're going to be auditioning.

We're going to do auditions.

Right.

But we want to make sure that you're a part of the audition because we really like you.

Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Right, One of those.

And so I said, I'm flattered.

Sure.

I'd be happy to do whatever you want me to do.

So for an exhibition game, preseason game that year, they had me come in and I think there were three other candidates at the time.

We all did a quarter of the game, right.

And so I got to do the quarter.

And then the next week they contacted me and said, you're the guy.

You're the one we want.

And so I got it for, I think, starting in the 92 season.

So I've been doing it for 31 years.

Next year will be year 32 for me.

92, That's just before Drew came.

Drew Bledsoe.

Right, right.

Yeah, absolutely.

I was there actually before the Crafts bought the team.

Oh, wow.

I was.

I was there for all of it, but I was there as well for, you know, you know, Bill Parcell's arrival and.

And all that stuff, which was really an amazing, amazing time to see, you know, what previously had been a moribund franchise develop.

But the.

The change, you know, and the.

And the attitude around the entire franchise changed dramatically when Dwayne Charles Parcells arrived as head coach at that time.

Dwayne Charles.

Yep.

Interesting factoid there.

Yeah.

The Tuna himself.

And so how long did you actually have that specific gig as PA Announcer?

I've still got it.

You still have it.

Okay.

I wasn't sure about that.

I wasn't sure if he was still going into this season being the PA announcer.

Okay.

Yes.

This will be year 32 for me.

32.

Wow.

Yeah.

I mean, just, just the, just the, the fact that you have that gig and are able to, like, that's just such a dream gig for anybody, not just a fan, but I think anybody that gets into voice acting, into audio, even like a musician would love that kind of gig.

So, man, I, I look up to you for that one.

That, that's awesome.

And, and I gotta ask you this.

So how, how has your career gone since then?

Like, what have you done to turn that opportunity into new opportunities?

How did that, how did pave itself?

Bumpy.

Wicked.

Bumpy.

Okay, but that's just.

But see, that's.

Joe, that's just the.

That's just the nature of the beast.

You know, in the, in the broadcast business, anybody who's spent any time in and around it knows that it, it ebbs and flows.

There are bumps in the road.

There are really great times and there are really down times.

There are times when you've got more work than you can shake a stick at, and then there are times when you're looking for work.

So that's just kind of the nature of the beast.

And you have to be able to, to stick through it and kind of ride through, you know, those bumpy times in order to be able to make a career out of it.

And I'm very fortunate that I've been doing this as a paid professional now for almost 47 years.

And, yeah, I started when I was.

I started when I was three years old, so.

Wow.

I started as a teenager in this business.

Right.

You know, in the journalism business.

And my first, my first on air job was when I was 19, so that was 44, almost 45 years ago.

And I'm 63 now.

So that was something that I kind of fell into.

And it's another story for another day, perhaps, or another moment.

But no, no, this is the moment, John.

This is the moment right now.

I'll be honest.

Some of it is just kind of useless, you know, banter.

But the.

To get back to your original question, falling into this.

I started out in television, even though my background was in writing.

I went to school on a journalism scholarship and I wanted to be a sports writer.

And then I didn't really get into broadcasting until it was my night to lay out our newspaper at the University of Texas in Austin, which is where I went to school.

And it was my night as assistant sports editor of the Daily Texan to lay out the paper.

And I got a release that night from the women's athletic department, because back in the late 70s, the women's and men's athletic departments were separate, sort of segregated.

This was just in the time right after Title 9 had, you know, become prevalent and become law, you know, in the country.

And they were going to hold.

The women's athletic department is going to hold a campus wide audition for the very first radio voice of the Texas women's basketball team, the Lady Longhorns.

And I remember thinking at the time, I think, shoot, that would be a blast to do.

Even though I wasn't really a broadcast major, I was a journalism major.

It was.

But I had just finished an internship the summer before working for a very large radio station in Houston, KTRH Radio in Houston.

And so I said, yeah, you know what, what the hell, I'll take a shot.

I sent him an audition tape from some of the stuff that I had done at the radio station in Houston.

And lo and behold, I got called in.

The audition was there.

I won the audition, which was amazing to me.

Oh, wow.

Wow.

And they ended up winning their first national title.

Well, after that was after I graduated.

They won the first national title in 86, I think it was under Coach Conrad, who is a, you know, basketball hall of Famer now.

But that's how it really all started, to be honest with you.

And that's what got me into broadcasting.

And then mostly I moved into television from radio after that, after I got out of school.

That's a whole different game, too.

That's.

It is, but that's what I.

When I got that job doing the radio, I'm like, you know, I think I really want to take a look at this whole broadcast thing.

So I started taking TV stuff as well and doing radio broadcast, working for the campus station, doing all that stuff.

And so I started taking the broadcast labs as well, the television, and discovered I really liked it, really enjoyed it.

And some of my people that I looked up to in the business, Joey, were TV people, TV personalities, you know, sports anchors at the time.

The guy that I really sort of loved to model myself after at the time was a, you know, guy that I'm sure that, you know, your listeners will know, Vern Lundquist, who, you know, spent Years and years at cbs is the voice of the sec.

Yeah, some golf for them from time to time.

The PGA Tour at a very high level for a long time.

But Vern was the weeknight sports guy at WFAA Channel 8 in Dallas and the radio voice of the Dallas Cowboys at the time.

And so I. I thought, you know, what better job on the planet is there than the job that he had, right?

Oh, my God, Yeah.

Yeah, right.

And so that's who I wanted to be and, you know, followed him and a lot of other guys that were working in the Dallas Fort Wor market where I grew up and went to high school, people that I really wanted to be like.

So that's what I decided I wanted to study.

And my first job in the business after I got out of school was as a sports reporter and anchor for the NBC station in Waco in Temple, Texas.

Spent two great years in there, and lightning struck, and I was in the right place, right time through contacts that you make.

So really, in all honesty, the way that you succeed in this business is by networking.

You know, it's not, you know, what you know, but it's who.

It's who you know.

And then, of course, the other end of that is who knows you.

So I was big into that.

I was always, you know, introducing, shaking hands.

We didn't have social media.

We didn't even have.

We didn't have email back then, obviously.

So it was really difficult to.

To network other than meeting people face to face and going up there to them face to face and shaking their hand and going eyeball to eyeball and say, if there's anything I can ever do, let me know.

Right.

That's how it worked.

And then two years after being at that station in Waco, I was working in the NBA for the San Antonio Spurs.

So that's how it kind of took off for me.

Yeah, it took off like a rocket ship.

Yeah.

Wow.

And you haven't.

You haven't slowed down at all?

Well, a little, maybe, but it's because I found, you know, I found an area of the country that I really enjoyed being in.

I mean, and you're talking to a kid who grew up in Texas and, you know, who went to the University of Texas, and, you know, I consider, you know, the home for my soul being, you know, in Austin, Texas, and in Fort Worth, Texas, where my family is still largely located.

But I've spent now 34, almost 35 years exactly here in the Northeast because I. I loved being in this medium area.

I've worked in Providence, Boston, Hartford, New York, and they're all up and down I95.

Real easy to get to, right?

Yeah.

That's the whole span right there.

Yeah.

It's a unique area of the very few other geographic blocks of the country where you can say that you can do this.

And I was just lucky to be in that position and know these people.

And I happen to work in TV and radio and all of these markets.

You know, I decided I wanted to stay here.

You know, I had my kids here.

You know, I meant the love of my life here.

There you go.

So, I mean, once you do that, it's game over.

Yeah, exactly.

And I gotta admit, I gotta be honest, you know, even though I was, you know, a Texan, you know, born and raised, love the great state of Texas, but I love living by the ocean, man.

I do.

Oh, the water.

Yeah, I love living by the water.

There's just something mesmerizing by it.

And so there's nothing better than a Friday night out on the.

Out on the dock, you know, sipping a cold one and watching the sunset.

Man, that's.

That's hard to beat once you've had it.

It's hard to beat.

Yeah.

That sounds really good.

A nice, nice boat ride by the dock.

Just kind of see the stars.

It sounds.

It sounds pretty nice, for sure.

Yeah, totally.

So you were a big sports fan growing up, I'm assuming?

Oh, yeah, I was total.

What I would call.

I was a geeky nerd.

Geeky nerd.

Okay.

Back before, it was cool.

Yeah.

Oh, no question.

Look, I told this story to one of my students, in fact, earlier today, you know, because I class this morning, and I. I mentioned to him, I said, look, you cannot out geek me.

You can't.

There's just no way.

Because, you know, I love basketball and.

And I.

That's what I normally played.

And.

And.

But when I was preteen, early teen, my grandmother allowed me to have one room in her house that she had set up really as kind of a sewing room, you know, And I got to put all my stuff up on the wall.

So I had charts, I had stats, I had graphics, I had, you know, photos, I had newspaper articles.

It was, you know, it was crazy, you know, and it was like I was playing, you know, the part of the Princeton professor, Beautiful mind.

I had all this stuff, you know, and that's how I nerded out, right?

And so she let me do this, and she nurtured that.

And so I give my grandmother a lot of credit for Allowing me to do that, to allow me to be a geek and.

And to feel good about myself.

And.

And so I used a lot of that useless knowledge to.

To get me started.

When I got into high school, I'm.

Assuming big box score reader runs heads.

I played.

I played strat.

O matic, dude.

I played.

You know, I'm rolling the dice and I'm playing stratomatic.

And I was doing fantasy baseball before fantasy baseball.

I was just gonna.

I was just gonna ask you about fantasy baseball and, you know, used to be huge and probably still is, is trading cards.

Oh, my God, yes.

And when I finally figured out that they were better off being.

Not being in the spokes of my bicycle.

Yeah.

Okay.

When I figured out that, you know what?

These might be worth something someday, I immediately took them out of the spokes and started learning how to preserve them.

And the funny thing about it is, is that my brother, My younger brother actually spent a number of years in the sports collectible business.

One of his business partners, about a decade and a half, maybe two decades ago, was Bobby Valentine.

Wow.

When.

And they first met and became business partners when Bobby Valentine was actually managing the Texas Rangers.

Okay.

And so.

Yeah.

And so I had a bunch of those cards that, you know, we kept and I gave off to him, and he was able to make some, you know, some decent profit over the time.

And my wife right now, she's got a hidden ST Stacks, believe it or not, of baseball cards, of which, oh, gosh, she's probably got a dozen or more that she could probably get rid of for three figures a card.

Easy.

Wow.

I have to check the baggage.

Right.

You know, and if we ever take the time to do that and, you know, and actually get the cards rated, then I think that, you know, they would probably actually be worth some good money.

So, fortunately for me, I married a big baseball fan and a big baseball card collector, so that helps.

That's fair.

And being intertwined in the New England Patriots, you must get a chance to go, you know, mingle with some of the Sox and the upper echelon of the Sox of the players.

Do you ever go over to Fenway just to kind of see the game or.

Yeah, we go to a few games a year.

I don't really, you know, mingle so much with players only because as a.

As a member of the media, that's just sort of verboten.

You know, we have access.

You know, we have access that, you know, people don't usually get when you're a member of the Credentialed media.

I mean, have I become friendly with some guys over the years?

Absolutely, you know.

Absolutely.

And there's a line.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, there's a line that you have to draw between, you know, being a friend and being professional.

And so you have what we call, you know, working professional relationships, which, you know, where you can be friendly.

But, you know, do we go out and, you know, and bust beers together?

Do we, you know, have dinner at each other's house?

No, no, no, we don't do that.

You know, we certainly don't ask for autographs.

I've never, you know, asked for anybody for, you know, a photo either.

Of course, nowadays it's easy, right, with these to get selfies and things like that, but you just, you just don't do that because you're in a position that could put them at a disadvantage because they feel like, well, they're being a jerk if they don't say something to you.

And yet you're in a position that, you know, people don't normally get.

So I've never, ever, ever taken advantage of that.

And I, I think most media people feel the same way.

Yeah, smart.

Don't burst the bubble.

Right.

Yeah, you don't, you don't want to, you don't ever want to put yourself in a position where you, you have to be critical of someone's performance after, you know, hey, they just took the time to pose for a picture and give you an autograph.

Now, how awkward is that going to be?

And, and plus, that erodes your credibility as a member of the media.

I mean, because if you're buddy, buddy with someone, you can't do your job.

And if you can't, you can't be very objective.

How are you going to have any credibility with your audience, your readership, your listenership?

Right, right.

Yeah.

You wouldn't be able to give them the whole, you know, the whole, the story.

You'd be, you know, it'd be mixed.

So we draw the line on, on that one.

And so that's sort of the, that's sort of the penance you pay for being, you know, relatively close to these guys.

I mean, I can tell you stories, many stories of occasions where I walk up and down the hallways at Gillette and, you know, I'm bumping fist with Tom Brady or I'm stopping and talking for a moment to Bill Belichick or whomever, and, you know, they don't really know me from Adam, but they know I hang around there a lot, so they always stop you know, with a familiar face or a familiar voice in my case.

And then you move on and you got to do your thing.

So, John, you have a pretty cool role over at Dean College where you're a director of.

Well, what is the, what's your actual title over there?

So it's kind of unwieldy.

So it's long.

Yeah, I don't want to mess it up.

I'm director of the center for Business, Entertainment and Sport Management.

Very cool.

Dean was, you know, kind enough to bring me in.

I'd spent the previous 10 years, first 10 years of my teaching career at Emerson College in Boston, which is great school known for communications arts.

Right, yeah, great school.

Yeah.

And that really is because we have sport management, we have sports marketing, and we have communications and sports broadcasting, all as majors, which is a little unusual because Dean is a very small liberal arts school.

If you don't know anything about it.

Right.

Located in little bucolic Franklin, Massachusetts.

Lovely Franklin.

Yeah, lovely Franklin.

Just across the border, northern Rhode island from like when socket, Rhode Island.

If you're looking for a geographic, you know, location here, Franklin is right on the T coming out of Boston, heading westward.

So it's a great little town.

The campus is beautiful.

It's what you would consider if you think quintessential New England liberal arts college.

Red brick ivy.

Right, that's.

But that's what it is.

And it's a gorgeous little school.

And you know, eight years ago or so they made.

Ten years ago actually is when it first started.

They made the decision that we want to get into sports, we want to teach sports.

Because the business of sports has grown exponentially, you know, not only in this country, but all over the world.

As we all know, it's.

It's a multi billion dollar industry.

Now, 30 or 40 years ago, sports was an afterthought.

Sports, you know, you could make a little money.

But most business people looked at sports with somewhat of a bemused attitude and just kind of like, ah, we're not going to take it seriously.

You know, it was kind of like it was.

Sports was considered the toy department of life.

Right.

You know, it's just, it just, hey, okay, well, it's just sports.

Right.

But people realize now that you can make serious quid in the sports world.

Serious, I mean, millions, billions of dollars.

I mean, what do you think?

What do you think college Athletes now are getting paid through, you know, name, Image and Likeness Month.

There are millionaire college athletes right now.

It's amazing.

There's just more money than you, anybody is really aware of.

And so Dean wanted to teach this.

You know, there's.

There are jobs out here in this professional industry.

There are jobs here where people can actually do quite well in the sports industry through marketing, through promotions, through communications, you know, through management, through coaching, through scouting, through athletic training, through so many different aspects of sports.

Dean did this and they approached the Patriots and they're like, you know, how could we work together?

How can we help you build your own workforce?

And the Kraft family, to their credit, man, they're like, that's a great idea.

We should do that.

And so they announced this partnership, a first of its kind academic partnership between a local school and an NFL franchise.

We are the first NFL team to do this, and first school to do this with an NFL team.

And then they hired me soon thereafter to manage this partnership, this relationship.

And so it's all about creating our opportunities for our students who come to Dean, who want to work and learn in any of these particular industries.

Of course, we open up our academic partnerships to a lot of other entities as well.

You know, hockey, baseball, basketball, businesses, all kinds of things all over the place, but that are all touched somewhat by sports and athletics.

And so that's kind of what I do is I manage this partnership for our students.

I place our students and help position them in internships, and I teach curriculum.

You know, we're.

We have a sports broadcasting major at Dean, one of the smallest schools in the country to have that.

But we're able to do that because of, of me being there and the people that I have, you know, so my goal has been to make Dean College in Franklin, Massachusetts.

Yeah.

A small school version really, of, you know, some of those powerhouses that are out there like Northwestern and Missouri and Syracuse and, you know, in some of the big time schools that are out there in my own alma mater, Texas, these are all large schools.

But why can't the small school do it?

Largely because a small school, as I'm sure you're aware, Joe, a small school sometimes doesn't have the, the personnel or, or the, the infrastructure in place in order to be able to sustain a program like that.

We have that at Dean.

We have a campus radio station, we have our digital television studios.

We have someone who has, you know, connections and the wherewithal within the industry, myself and the other producer and the other professors that I work with.

We're all active in the business.

We're all still active in the business.

So I can't think of a school right now that has more street cred really, in terms of people who are actively working in the business than what we have at Dean.

And there are some great programs out there.

I mean, UMass has a great sports marketing program.

BU and Northeastern have very good, you know, communications programs in Boston.

Emerson obviously is a huge communications program in Boston.

You know, we, they have a good comm program at University of Rhode island as well.

But I don't think any of those beat what we do from top to bottom just because of the personnel we have and the opportunities we offer and the relationships professionally that we've aligned with.

It seems like it's close knit.

You know, you have very hands on, it must be hands on with such a small amount of, you know, it's just, it's just a small program.

We are, we are very much roll up the sleeves and go to work.

You go right in there.

Yeah.

I noticed you guys already have some, some students that are doing Providence hockey.

Is that true?

Yeah, Yep.

Yeah, we have, I have students on Friday nights who call hockey for the Providence Bruins in the American Hockey League.

And for those that aren't aware, the, you know, Providence Bruins or the AHL affiliate for the Boston Bruins, it's like AAA baseball.

Yeah, right.

AAA Hockey.

And I have students that call games on Friday nights.

Yep.

So, you know, they train, they study, they work at it.

And you know, we're not gonna, you know, put students out there that can't do the job.

But I've got two or three kids who are, they could go to work in the pros tomorrow.

They're ready to roll.

And that's what really our students do all the work.

Our students, you know, we, they do all of our, you know, we have, you know, you know, we're an NCAA Division 3 athletic department.

So our students call football, basketball, baseball, softball, lacrosse, field hockey, soccer, everything and hockey.

Even though we don't have a hockey program at Dean, we align ourselves with.

Because we have a lot of students who either play in hockey who are interested in hockey because, hey, we're in the Northeast, right.

And so we have aligned ourselves with several, you know, junior programs as well, in addition to the, the AHL Providence Bruins.

And our students are getting hockey play by play experience all over the place.

So it's working out real well.

It's exciting stuff.

And how hands on are you?

Are you an actual professor there as well, or do you have like actual alternate professors comes in or special guests?

Oh, all of the above.

I, I run the sports broadcasting program at Dean.

Our communications program has about 10% of those.

And out of those, out of that 10, we've got between 50 and 60 sports broadcasting majors.

So we've got, you know, some, some burgeoning, you know, Joe Bucks, you know,.

Some women and men in the, in the bullpen ready to go.

Yes, we do.

And you know, and, and you know, these kids are all, you know, out in the summertime working in summer baseball programs.

I just, you know, one of my former students just got a job as the play by play voice of the minor league baseball team in High Point, North Carolina.

Well, that's great.

It sounds like a great opportunity for the students as well.

I want to swing back over more to your career just so we can learn a little bit more and hopefully inspire some of these students of yours.

Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Maybe they'll check us out right here on the Blind Knowledge podcast, shout out to you guys over there at Dean College.

But can you give us, I don't know, maybe two or three really spectacular highlight moments within your career?

Sure.

Well, first of all, I'm very lucky to work for an organization that's won six Super Bowls.

So in my time I've actually hosted and been at the mic for eight AFC championship games and seven of those we've won.

So each of those have been, you know, signature moments for me.

I would just, and I was just mentioning in fact the, one of the first ones that I did back when the, the Patriots.

2001.

So it would have been the first year Gillette Stadium for the, the season opener that year, you know, when, you know, you play the, the Thursday night game.

Right.

Sir Elton John was the, the musical guest at Gillette.

He made the appearance there and I believe the game we were broadcasting on, I, I want to say it was on abc.

I can't remember at the time if it was an ABC game.

ESPN ABC game.

Sorry.

They got Elton John up in the air with his piano.

He's up on, above the, the, he's above the end zone, you know, overlooking where actually where the Optum Club is now.

If you know anything about.

And you know, all the spotlights are on.

And so I had to wait for a cue from abc.

And so I'm going live to a worldwide audience introducing Sir Elton John.

And I gotta admit that that still gives me chills thinking that I got a chance to do that.

That's the kind of stuff I was wondering and hoping for with this question.

Because that is like a life changing highlight moment.

Whether you are a sports broadcaster, journalist, or just a person in general doing whatever, picking up trash, if you're able to see a highlight moment like that, that is huge.

All right, give me another one, John.

What, what else we got here?

Well, that moment actually led me to, you know, getting other voiceover work, you know, with NBC, with espn, with.

With several other entities.

So that was a perk in itself just because, you know, you, you're working with cues, you're working with producers, they're like, hey, you sound good.

I got a project that you might be interested in.

And so that kind of started, you know, you know, some voiceover stuff.

And, and that's something that I'll probably try to look to do a little bit more of when I try to get into that world, casting and teaching.

Because you can kind of do it almost a little bit on your, on your own time, or at least more so on your own time, you know, as a broadcaster, you know, you know, for Providence College in the Big east, it's, you know, major college high, major Division 1 basketball.

I'd have to say that the Friars winning Big east championships and the team being in the NCAA tournament, those are all signature moments when I was a younger man.

In fact, it was my first year as an announcer for the San Antonio spurs in the NBA.

I'm all of 23 years old when I got this job, but it was a good, you know, right place, right time, took advantage of it.

And it was the night that the spurs clinched the Midwest Division championship.

So it was my first taste of winning a title.

And this for the spurs, you know, if you know anything about, you know, the spurs or the NBA back in that early 80s time frame, they were already successful, but they were winning division titles.

They were getting to the, to the conference finals, and they couldn't beat the Lakers.

Couldn't beat the Lakers.

Now the spurs have actually ended up.

They've won, what, four NBA championships, I think, since that point in time.

But that was well after, unfortunately, I left the team and moved up to the Northeast.

But they were becoming old hat at that, so it wasn't any big deal.

They were trying to treat it as, you know, hey, been there, done that, right?

So I went into the locker room right after I got off the air and because one of the marketing guys said, hey, you know, I need you in the locker room.

Can you come in and help me out with something?

I'm like, sure, you know, because back then, you know, you helped that everywhere.

It was really a mom and pop shop, the way that they ran things.

But I enjoyed it because I learned so much about how a professional franchise is run, right?

And so I go into the locker room, and George Gervin, the Iceman himself, he's sitting, you know, he's standing right there in his locker.

I think he, you know, there was no, like, celebration.

There wasn't any, like, you know, stuff.

There was no.

These guys were like, they were pros.

And I was so in awe of that.

And my buddy was over standing next to Ice, so Ice is sitting there and, you know, and so I said, hey, congratulations, Ice.

And so he says, you want a picture?

Well, let me see now.

Do I want a picture?

That's a loaded question.

But I said, you know, I shouldn't be doing this.

He's like, ah, you work for the team.

So Jim, my, my buddy, the marketing guy, he, he, he, he has the, the camera in hand already, and I'm sensing a setup because I see guys start to hover around where we're, we're doing, you know, the photo.

And so Ice and I are taking this picture, and I'm, you know, shaking him with the soul brother handshake, right?

And then as soon as Jim snaps it, he goes, okay, we're good.

Immediately, boom.

Guys start jumping and yelling, and I get doused with champagne and beer and, and that's when the celebration starts.

Sure.

Wow.

And I, I did, you know, of course, I'm wearing a tie and a blazer.

Oh, you didn't have a punch on?

Oh, I, I, that's, I had my, you know, my work clothes on because I just gotten off the television broadcast.

I was doing the, the cable TV coverage of the spurs when they clinched, you know, the Midwest Division title that night.

And so it was, it was a setup.

They just said, hey, let me call, let me call the rookie in here, because I was the rookie to everybody, and I'm always the rookie with the last name like, I got right.

1983.

Wow.

That's pretty cool.

Yeah, pretty cool.

You know, and even through, even through a moment like that, you still go to celebrations even to this day.

You try to act like you've been there, you know.

Yes.

And that's, and I think that's, you know, the way that you should do it.

But I, I, it never gets old.

It never gets, I mean, everything that we've done, every championship game, you know, that we've hosted at Gillette, every game that I get a chance to broadcast in the postseason, you know, on radio or tv, you know, everything that we do, it's, it's a pleasure, it's a privilege.

It's truly been a perk professionally to me, and I will never, ever, ever take it for granted because so many people don't get a chance to experience that.

I'm one of the very lucky ones.

That's a beautiful thing right there.

How about some inspiration or some advice for any inspire aspiring broadcasters?

Voiceover, voiceovers.

I don't know what the proper linguistics is there, but, you know, just someone trying to get into the industry or maybe isn't just in the industry, maybe working on fiverr upwork, just trying to find work, you know, what kind of advice would you give them?

Network your ass off.

I, I really can't put it any more succinctly.

Yeah, you know, it's, it's so much easier nowadays to, to network, you know, with the Internet.

So you can, you know, do that, you know, through social media.

You know, as long as you can take social media, you know, seriously for a moment or two.

Because obviously a lot of people use it to goof on others and to pick on others and use it for the wrong reasons.

But social media is a great tool.

LinkedIn is a marvelous tool.

And so, so I, I try to connect with as many people.

I usually don't turn down requests on LinkedIn, even if I don't know people, because I know people want to make professional connections.

And you just don't know when you might be able to use somebody yourself.

You don't know when you might be able to connect with somebody that might be able to help you.

And I find that people like to connect.

Yeah.

So, you know, LinkedIn is great.

And then, you know, and then I use Twitter professionally.

Twitter can be a cesspool sometimes, just like all of them can be.

But, but I use Twitter professionally and I try to keep things above board and I found that I don't, you know, follow every, you know, Tom, Dick and Harry out there, but at the same time, I would expect everyone to follow me either, unless you felt like you could gain some use from following me.

And, and look, I use social media for entertainment purposes like everybody.

I do.

Some of them, you know, really make me, you know, hashtag lol, Right.

I mean, and I love it and, and it's fun because it's a great way to spend some idle time.

But I try not to get too caught up in it.

And I remember that I'm there for a reason.

I am there for a professional purpose as well.

So, you know, and of course Twitter is where a lot of news outlets and news entities break stories anyway, and so that's why I, I follow a lot of people on Twitter.

But between Twitter and LinkedIn, yeah, I keep a Facebook profile.

Profile, yes, I have an Instagram profile, but that's about as much as I can handle.

I never got onto Tick Tock and I'll tell you why.

I just don't have the time for it.

You don't strike me as a Tick Tocker, although it would be an interesting.

You know, all of my students, all of my students run Tick Tock because that's just, yeah, today Generation Girl Tick Tockers.

And I get it, it.

But I tell them, guys, I've got more than I can handle.

So if you want to reach me on social media, best thing I can tell you is either A, get a Twitter handle or B, follow me on Instagram, you know, and, and, and then, then we can converse that way and we can do business that way and we can share that way, we can promote that way.

But I find that Instagram is probably at least a, a sort of a medium ground.

I'm not, you know, so square that, you know, I mean, I do have a Facebook profile, but I use, I use my Facebook mostly for personal stuff, you know.

Sure.

And I find that most old people, quote, unquote old, they use Facebook still for that as well.

But I know a lot of people aren't on Facebook because of that, because younger people tend to go to more some of the newer social media outlets that are out there, which is fine.

So I find that Instagram is kind of halfway in between, which is why I keep a, an active, you know, Instagram profile and try to go that route.

But I didn't get on Snapchat, didn't get on.

I don't, I won't do Tick Tock.

And it's not because I hate it.

I just don't have the time for it.

I feel like if I'm going to put an effort into it, I need to put some effort into it and keep up the Profile, you know, incentivize somebody to actually follow me.

Right.

And if I don't feel like I could do that, I'm not going to waste your time as well as mine.

So that's why I chose, I keep Facebook for personal stuff, even though some professional stuff just slide over.

And then Twitter and Instagram for and, and LinkedIn.

I should consider LinkedIn because it is social media as well.

And LinkedIn is all professional.

It's strictly professional, which is what I like about it.

So I would say network using, you know, your social media profiles like that, and reach out to people, but don't reach out to people and say, hey, can I have a job?

Yeah, not the way to do it.

Reach out to people and say, you know, hey, I really, you know, love what you do.

Followed you for a while and hopefully you have and you're not, you know, like, you know, lying to them and just say, hey, you know, you got any advice for someone who's trying to break into this, you know, engage people?

That's really all you need to do, you know, because a lot of people love to give their opinions.

A lot of people love to give their opinions.

Opinions are like belly buttons.

Everybody's got one.

A lot of belly buttons.

Just engage them, ask them an opinion and you'd be surprised at how many people would love to give you their take.

And, and, and I think in that, in that instance, then if you develop some kind of relationship and something pops and they remember you from a previous occasion, hey, guess what?

You're already halfway ahead of the game.

This is how you get gigs.

Oh, that's good advice.

I'm actually going to take on some of that advice because I'm always looking to get further into this industry and, and see if I can make it, you know, an ongoing full time career.

John Rug, I'm gonna let you go, man, because I know you got things to do and I so appreciate you taking the time.

I'm so glad we could finally get this to happen.

Well, I'm, I'm, I'm privileged you asked me, so thank you for the time and thank you for the, the great line of questioning and a chance to, you know, promote what we do at Dean and a little about what I still do professionally.

I've had a great ride.

I'm looking forward to a few more years.

And hey, if I can help, by all means.

You can follow me on Twitter @jr broadcaster, right?

That's also my handle on Instagram @jr broadcaster.

Find me on LinkedIn too.

You want to find me on LinkedIn as well.

I'd be happy to, you know, to hook up with you that way.

And, and, you know, like I said, that's a great tool to do that.

And I am all about networking.

That's one things that I, I really preach.

So I'm happy to be a contact for, for anybody that feels like they want a little bit of a boost, you know, in their, in their industry travels.

That's amazing.

All right, everybody, John Ruck, we're gonna let him go right now.

John, we'll see you next time.

Thanks, Joe.

It's been my.

There he goes.

There he goes.

Wow.

That's a guy that I look up to and had to look up to because I used to go to Patriots games as a kid with my grandfather, my uncle, you know, and it's like, who's doing the voiceovers?

Who's that guy in the loudspeaker for another Patriots first down?

That was John Rook, man.

He's a broadcaster.

He's a voice of Patriots.

He's a journalist, he's an all around good fellow and he's over at Dean College to check out Dean College.

If you look to get into broadcasting, this has been another edition, another episode, another groovy time here on the Blind Knowledge podcast.

Check us out [email protected] My name is Joey B. I am going to go check you next time.