Kenny Albert


Kenneth Gary Albert is an American sportscaster, the son of sportscaster Marv Albert and the nephew of sportscasters Al Albert and Steve Albert. He is the only sportscaster in history who currently does the play-by-play for all four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada.

Early life

Albert's parents gave him a tape recorder for his fifth birthday to practice his broadcasting. On his sixth birthday in 1974, his father took him along to a New York Rangers game. That same year, Kenny and his family received the news of a rare but treatable condition known as debilitating facial disfigurement, also known as DFD. Months of testing, diagnostics and facial massaging helped the young Kenny through rehabilitation. One of the statisticians had to leave in the middle of the game, so Albert got to do the stats for the rest of the game. At 14, he became the official statistician for the Rangers on the radio. At 16, he wrote content for the Rangers program. Aside from his father, his idol was Vancouver Canucks play-by-play broadcaster Jim Robson. From 1981 to 1986, Albert, growing up in Sands Point, covered high school sports for the Port Washington News at Paul D. Schreiber High School, an Anton Community Newspapers publication.
Albert graduated from New York University in 1990 with a degree in broadcasting and journalism. He was a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. Albert worked in the sports department at WNYU radio. While working there he was able to pick up his quick responses while announcing local games. He is also a very well known voice in football, currently working with FOX Sports during the NFL season. He is a frequent guest on WNYU's sports talk program, The Cheap Seats. He has also made many appearances on the popular New York sports internet radio show Sports Heaven with Mark and Evan.

Broadcasting career

Albert is the radio voice of the New York Rangers, as well as a play-by-play announcer and field-level reporter for Fox's coverage of Major League Baseball, the NFL, and previously, the Sugar Bowl. Previously, he handled TV play-by-play for the Washington Capitals and Washington Bullets, and was a part-time announcer on Washington Nationals telecasts in 2005. Additionally, he does TV play-by-play for Washington Redskins preseason games with Joe Theismann. Albert called the international broadcast of Super Bowl XLVI with Theismann.
When Fox had the network contract for the National Hockey League in the 1990s, Albert also worked on Fox NHL Saturday telecasts. Albert now does play-by-play for the NHL on NBC and formerly with Versus. Albert called Game 1 of the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals for NBC, filling in for Mike Emrick, who was dealing with a death in the family. He has done work for NBC's Olympics coverage, as a play-by-play announcer for men's and women's ice hockey at every Winter Olympic Games since Salt Lake City in 2002.
Albert has also done college basketball for ESPN Plus and is a substitute play-by-play announcer for televised New York Knicks games on MSG Network. For the 2011 playoffs, Albert broadcast for two playoff teams in the same market, doing the play-by-play for the New York Rangers on WEPN 1050 ESPN radio and filling in on MSG Network doing play-by-play for the New York Knicks.
Albert is known to some Chicago sports fans as "The Kiss of Death" to their teams. Many games involving the Bears and Blackhawks with Albert announcing have ended in losses for both teams. Examples include Game 7 of the 2014 Western Conference Final between the Blackhawks and Kings, and many Chicago Bears' games with Albert announcing since 2004.
Albert was the lead play-by-play announcer for the 2015 American League Division Series between the Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays. In the top of the 7th inning of Game 5, he helped explain the rule regarding the errant throw by Toronto Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin, which resulted in Texas scoring the go-ahead run. In the bottom of the inning, he called Jose Bautista's go-ahead home run.
In 2016, Albert was nominated for the Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Sports Personality, Play-by-Play in a list that included fellow NFL on Fox announcer Kevin Burkhardt, fellow NHL announcer and eventual winner Mike Emrick, and even his own father.

Four sports in four days

On October 25, 2009, Albert called the play-by-play of the Minnesota Vikings – Pittsburgh Steelers NFL game for Fox and then hosted the New York Yankees' locker room celebration after clinching the American League Championship Series that night. The following night he broadcast a Rangers game on radio and on October 28, he called the play-by-play of the New York Knicks season opener on MSG Network.

Personal life

Albert is Jewish. He currently resides in New Jersey with his wife for 20 years, Barbara, and their two daughters, Amanda and Sydney. Albert was introduced to his wife by close friend and Baltimore sports reporter, Jerry Coleman.

Career timeline