BREAKING: Penguins Play-By-Play Legend Mike Lange Dies

The longtime voice of hockey in Pittsburgh has gone silent.

Mike Lange, the play-by-play man for the Pittsburgh Penguins for nearly five decades, died Wednesday at age 76.

There was no immediate word on the cause of death, but health issues had been the primary reason he left the broadcast booth.

Lange, a native of Sacramento, joined the Penguins in 1974, after a stint with the San Diego Gulls of the Western Hockey League.

He left the team after one season because it was in bankruptcy and called Washington Diplomats soccer games, but returned for the 1976-77 season and never left again.

Lange became renowned both locally and around the hockey world for his creative goal calls and sayings, including “Buy Sam a drink and get his dog one, too,” “He’s smiling like a butcher’s dog,” and, after the Penguins had secured a victory, “Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has just left the building.”

Until the arrival of Mario Lemieux in 1984, Lange was probably the most popular member of the organization, and he is credited with keeping interest in pro hockey alive here when the Penguins weren’t doing a very good job of that.

In 2019, the Penguins honored Lange by naming the media level (press box) after him. They also had a pregame ceremony recognizing his contributions to the organization a few months after he retired.

Lange received the Foster Hewitt Award, tantamount to induction in the broadcasting wing of the Hockey Hall of Fame, in 2001.