An Interview With Brendan Burke

The fascinating thing about life is that everyone has shared experiences that nearly everyone can relate to, and then there are others who have had certain other experiences that many simply dream about. I have grown up on Long Island as a fan of the Yankees, Jets, Islanders, and, recently, the Knicks. The closest I have ever been to stepping on a professional sports field was the May 2017 Yankees game I attended with my cousin, aunt, and father. Our family sat in the front row, and although the Yankees ultimately ended up losing the game by a final score of 4-1, I still had a phenomenal experience receiving two baseballs that had been used during the game. I was blown away by the massive size of the players that stepped on deck in the batter’s circle about 20 feet in front of me, and the amount of power these players were able to use to their advantage in order to hit a baseball 400 feet from home plate. However, while many fans, young and old alike, are blown away every time they step through the front gates of the stadium, for Burke, it was just another day at work with his father.

Burke grew up in a household where attending sports events was quite normal. For the Burkes, not doing so was more out of the ordinary. Burke spent a lot of time at sporting events as a result of his father’s occupation as a sportswriter for The Record and The Ledger, covering both the Yankees and Mets. Burke attended countless games, spoke with hundreds of professional athletes before he graduated high school, and was able to have the entire 1994 Yankees sign his cast after an injury. To boot, Burke recalls attending an All-Star Game with his father, announcing the game into a tape recorder. All of these experiences were nothing out of the ordinary for Burke, yet these all are things the rest of us could only dream about.

The majority of Burke’s childhood was spent in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. Burke attended high school in nearby Paramus Catholic High School, where he played hockey. After graduating, Burke attended Ithaca College and played on the club hockey team there. Burke was fortunate enough to attend a smaller college, which provided him with many opportunities to announce collegiate sporting events. Burke even recorded a tape for his prospective employers while attending a Cornell Women’s Hockey game.

Being selected as the youngest broadcaster to announce an ECHL All-Star Game was exciting for Burke. He felt comfortable from day one and did not believe that his age would be a factor when it came to his job. From 2008-2013, Burke broadcasted games for the Peoria Rivermen of the American Hockey League. While he was the lead broadcaster for the Rivermen, Burke was able to add to his resumé and fill in for the Rivermen’s National Hockey League affiliate, the St. Louis Blues, as their broadcaster for select games. While Burke wishes that an unfortunate event was not the reason for his call-up, he credits this as a time in which he was able to gain a lot of play-by-play experience and create a reputation for himself in the NHL sphere. Following his tenure with the Rivermen, Burke made the move with the Rivermen to Utica and became the play-by-play man for the Comets, as well as the head of the public relations department, succeeding in both roles. Since 2013, Burke has called outdoor high school hockey for Fox Sports North in Minnesota and has called both college hockey and college football, too. To boot, Burke has begun calling both Premier Lacrosse League games and nationally televised NHL games for NBC Sports Network.

In August of 2016, Burke was named the New York Islanders’ lead broadcaster, adding to the very short list of Islanders play-by-play people, and has held the role ever since. The list also includes Jiggs McDonald and Howie Rose. During his tenure as the Islanders broadcaster, Burke has been on air during many fantastic and memorable games. However, Burke does not have one particular game that sticks out most to him since they all feel like another day at the office. Burke’s phrases may not be as memorable as his colleague Butch Goring’s, which includes “shopping in the toy department,” or Mike “Doc” Emerick, who notably had more than 100 words just to describe a pass. However, during the NHL’s playoffs recently held amid the pandemic, Burke’s quote “Game one to the Island'', initially used to describe the Islanders’ win over the Florida Panthers in the “Play-In Round,” resonated with many Islanders’ fans, creating a great sense of unity for all of them. While Burke does not know what the future holds, he certainly enjoys spending time with his two children, his daughter Quinn, his son Liam, and his soon arriving third child with his wife, Mary.