I became friends with Milt after his retirement, as I often joined him in the press box, where he sat as "PA Emeritus" for years. I never tired of his stories, always told in Milt's generous way of finding the bright side of everything. I wrote the following story for the November 1999 issue of Western New York Hockey Magazine. I hope it helps you get to know Milt a little...
"The First Voice You Would Ever Hear"
Some of you reading this don’t know who Milt Ellis is. Some of you reading this can’t believe that there are people reading this who don’t know who Milt Ellis is. After all, he introduced himself to us before every Sabres game played at the Aud.
Milt was King of the PA before the Sabres even came to town, announcing goals and penalties for the Bisons hockey team for a few years before then. Having worked for a printing company, Milt went to Syracuse University for radio announcing, while his wife, Alicia pursued a PHT degree — “putting hubby through,” as Milt says.
In 1963, Milt began working at WDCX, a job from which he retired only last year. When he was program director there in October of 1966, he got a call from Stan Barron, then the Public Relations Director for the Buffalo Bisons hockey team. (For those of you who don’t remember Stan, he was the sports director at WBEN who reported high school contests as much as the national leagues, knowing that the coverage was equally important to the parents of participants in each.) Stan’s question: The regular public address announcer had to quit, would Milt take the job? The star is out, and a new star is born.
Now you can hear him, right? “Third Buffalo goal...” “Ladies and Gentleman, Erie County law prohibits...” “Philadelphia penalty...” Once his foot was in the door, Milt’s voice was the one you heard before, during and after every game over the public address at the Aud, and even into the first season at the Marine Midland Arena before his retirement in 1997. He’s seen it all, and he was probably the first one to tell you about it, too.
“In the 1970s, Joe LaMentia, who was the head of the off-ice officials in Toronto, got me tickets to the game and introduced me to Paul Maurice [the PA for the Toronto Maple Leafs]. I told [Maurice] he was my idol. I had patterned my style after him.” Milt couldn’t recall what Maurice’s response was, but it may have been a dry “Thank you for attending tonight’s game at Maple Leaf Gardens.” Milt feels that the announcer should convey information impartially, and not be a cheerleader. When asked about the announcers today who work the crowd up with their own enthusiasm, Milt — a man who would say nothing if he had nothing nice to say — said nothing. Maurice himself retired from the Leafs only last summer, barely seeing through the transition to the new Air Canada Centre.
What you may not know about Milt is that he “bleeds blue and white.” He’s been a closet Maple Leafs fan all along, first following the team in 1955. When asked who his favourite visiting team was, there was no hesitation: “No question, it’s Toronto. Maybe Montreal is a close second.” (I can only assume that the Leafs fans at ice-level are better behaved than the last row of the Oranges/300-level.) “Toronto fans are unique. They’re students of the game. Mrs. Imlach said that watching a game in Toronto is like watching a game in a library.” Watching a game with Toronto fans in Buffalo may be a little more playground than library, but Milt cannot be swayed on his preference.
Having missed only a couple of games due to surgery, there isn’t much that Milt didn’t see. In all that time, he recalls only a single game in which no penalties were called, which made for a safer game in the off-ice official box. “Once in the Aud, Ulf Samuelsson took a penalty that... well, he didn’t appreciate. He came into the penalty box, slammed the door, and then punched the wall. I was leaning on that wall from the other side, and I saw stars!” Not the cup-robbing kind of stars: the cartoon kind, with birdies. The kind that makes it difficult to then say “Ulf Samuelsson” over the PA.
When the Russian teams played here, it presented a different kind of challenge for Milt. “In the week before the games, I would carry around 3-by-5 cards with the spelling and pronunciation of the Russian names, to practice.” A real professional, Milt always confirmed the pronunciation of the visiting players before taking his spot on the bench pre-game, and rehearsed them before game time. It was always good to hear the players’ names at least once without the taint of a Buffalo accent. In spite of the lead of a certain goaltender, poor Derek Plante was always bastardized into “plah-yunt” by the Buffalo fans, while Milt tried to restore him to a more elegant “plont” when the opportunity arose.
In all of his years of hockey announcing, Milt’s favourite game remains the quadruple overtime playoff game against New Jersey. “That had to be the most exciting game ever.” Of course, you have to ask Milt to find out whether he thinks the game is exciting, because Dave Hannan’s game-winning goal in the wee hours of the morning was announced with the same poise and indifference as every other event that night, including the Erie County smoking laws.
Milt’s retirement from the rink mike was quietly marked by a brief pre-game ceremony at the season home opener of the second year at MMA. When I asked about all of the rumours about illness, aliens, and communist conspiracy, he answered only, “There just comes a time when you know, ‘I’d better quit now.’” As with Maurice, a new building offered the perfect timing. After all these years, Milt finally found out that the view is a little better from higher up, and can be seen in the 200-level for most home contests with Alicia or the grandchild of the night.
You’d think retirement would give him more time at home with Alicia, who has put up with this hockey thing for three decades now. It turns out that she’s at the heart of it. “In college, I took Alicia to a Syracuse Warriors (AHL) game in the War Memorial She loved it. She fell in love with hockey. She will still watch one hockey game and listen to another on the radio.” Before cable graced the Queen City, Milt would go up on the icy, snowy roof in the winter to adjust the television antenna for Hockey Night in Canada on Channel 5. When I asked what Alicia had to say about her beloved’s rooftop exploits, he pretended to lean out a window and shout up, “A little more to the left — just hold it there!”
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