Mike Lange's favorite goal call, how 'Lange-isms' started and which was the first

Even at Heinz Field during Pittsburgh Steelers training camp, the buzz was all about Mike Lange’s retirement.

After 46 years broadcasting Pittsburgh’s NHL team, the Penguins announced Monday that Lange would be stepping down from the broadcast booth before the 2021-22 season.

Roughly 30 minutes before Steelers practice started, I found myself in a deep-dive conversation with some other veteran Pittsburgh reporters such as Jim Colony and Guy Junker — who have been around Lange for much of his storied play-by-play career.

We were debating our favorite Lange goal calls, how they started, which one he used first and what was his all-time best.

Let’s start with that last point. Because apparently, Lange has his own nomination. As Pens television play-by-play voice Steve Mears mentioned on Twitter, Lange always told him that his favorite goal call ever was Mario Lemieux’s Game 1 winner against the Chicago Blackhawks during the 1992 Stanley Cup Final.

This is the call that Mike Lange has told me that he is most proud of in his 46 years with the Penguins. I could listen to it the same way that I listen to a favorite song over and over. Game 1 of the 1992 Stanley Cup Final. ? pic.twitter.com/QRwxD6iSIR

— Steve Mears (@MearsyNHL) August 9, 2021

Yup. Mike leaned into that one full throttle. For good reason.

As for his famous “Lange-ism” catchphrase goal calls, we all have our favorites.

• Buy Sam a drink and get his dog one, too

• Look out, Loretta

• Scratch my back with a hacksaw

• Michael, Michael Motorcycle

• He beat him like a rented mule

But which one was first? And how did the tradition get started? Well, based on this account from Lange via the Penguins YouTube channel, it was “great balls of fire!”

And some other broadcasters are to be thanked for it.

Lange — a native of Sacramento, Calif. — said during that interview that he got the idea to use catchphrases from Bill King, who used to call games for the San Francisco/Golden State Warriors, the Oakland A’s and the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders.

“He used little phrases when touchdowns were scored or during a basketball game,” Lange told PensTV. “I just loved it. I just thought it was fantastic the way he did things. He didn’t use a lot of them. But I said to myself when I was entertaining the idea of being a broadcaster, ‘If I get the chance, I’m going to do that. That is exactly what I want to do.’ I didn’t know it would get as extensive as it did during the course of the years. But I did want to do something. I was entertaining the idea of something that would be a different wrinkle. So I experimented with it when I got into the business on the pro side with the Phoenix Roadrunners.”

There, Lange worked with Al McCoy, who eventually went on to the Phoenix Suns and has called their games for 49 seasons since 1972.

“He used the phrase ‘great balls of fire,’” Lange recalled. “And when he left to go to the Suns, I asked him, ‘Can I use ‘great balls of fire’?’ And he said, ‘Of course you can.’”

And the rest is history.

Lange put a few more arrows in the quiver during that season. Then he went to San Diego, calling games for the Gulls. Eventually, he landed in Pittsburgh, where Myron Cope and Bob Prince and their unique quirky turning of phrases were already part of the broadcast tradition.

So Lange fit right in, and it felt like he had a blank canvas to be creative within the city.

“It was as if God said, ‘Listen, I’ve got a place for you. If you want to be a goofy broadcaster, here’s where you want to go.’ So he put me in Pittsburgh,” Lange said. “And it’s ideal. And it just grew from there.”

Well, I’ll be cow-kicked!

Congratulations, Mr. Lange, on a retirement well-earned and a legacy perfectly carved.