Gary Thorne
 
 
As the person who was fortunate enough to succeed
Gary Thorne as the Black Bears' radio announcer,
maybe I can add a little to Dave King's comments on
Gary Thorne's background.
 
Thorne is a native of Old Town, which borders on
Orono.  He attended UMaine, but well before it had
a hockey program.  He served in the Army, during
which time he went to Georgetown Law School.  He
returned to Maine and had a successful law practice.
 
As a high school student, he began working at WABI
radio in Bangor.  He continued his interest in broadcasting
at every stop in his career.  I'm a little fuzzy on this
part, but I think he first broadcast hockey games while
he was at Georgetown.  What team, I don't remember.
 
When the first puck was dropped at Alfond Arena in
November of 1977, Thorne was there to broadcast the
game...on WABI.  He continued through the 1986-87
season.  His last Maine game was the Hockey East
championship game in 1987.
 
During that winter, he was hired by the New York Mets
to broadcast their games on radio.  Because of his
commitments to the Mets, he was unable to finish that
season with the Black Bears.  He was in Florida with the
Mets when Maine played its first-ever NCAA games
at Michigan State in March, 1987.  The exposure in
the New York market led to him being hired by the
New Jersey Devils to begin the 1987-88 season.
ABC and ESPN came along a couple of years later.
 
For the record, Thorne was never the voice of Maine
baseball.  That distinction has gone to George Hale for
better than thirty years.  Thorne was the voice of
the Maine Guides minor-league team in Portland, a team
of which he was part-owner the season before he went
to the Mets.  In fact, that is where he was "discovered"
by the big leagues.