Mike Lynch has always said he’s been fortunate to be working where he grew up.
“I don’t have to Google ‘Havlicek stole the ball,'” he said Thursday. “I don’t have to look up Carlton Fisk’s home run, or when the ball went through Bill Buckner’s legs. I lived it.”
Lynch, a Swampscott native who was a member in good standing of the town’s football glory days, announced Thursday he is stepping down as the head anchor of Channel 5 sports. But he’s not retiring from the station, or the job. He’s just stepping back from being the main man.
“I’m healthy,” he said. “I still have a lot of energy for what I do. But 37 ½ years is a long time. I started at Channel 5 on Final Four weekend of 1982.”
Lynch says he has no grandiose plans, and stresses that he’s not going anywhere anytime soon either.
“In this job,” he said, “there’s never a time when you’re not working. It’s all-encompassing. I get up in the morning and the first thing I do is check Twitter to make sure I haven’t missed anything. And it’s also very difficult to hit the ‘pause’ button when you cover four teams that are always contending for championships.”
He gave an example of what his day Thursday was like.
“I’m on the air at 4 p.m., and again at 5,” he said. “Then I’ll be on at 6 and 7. Then the Bruins play at 7:30, and I’ll be on again for the 11 o’clock news.
“So what I’m doing is hitting the ‘pause’ button,” he said, “so I can do some things I wouldn’t have time to do otherwise.”
Lynch, a 1971 Swampscott High graduate, parlayed his high school experiences into a career. He began broadcasting in 1974 for the old WLYN in Lynn as a color commentator for high school games.
Lynch also used his high school connection to forge a definite niche in the Boston sports scene. He began the weekly “High Five” segments that feature high school athletes, and his annual Thanksgiving night show where he does extensive wrap ups of all the day’s football games is can’t-miss TV. He still plans on doing both in his new capacity at the station.
Lynch was the starting quarterback for the Big Blue in the late ’60s and early ’70s, and was calling signals for much of the team’s 32-game unbeaten streak. He was a sophomore for the Blue when Dick Jauron was still patrolling the gridiron at Blocksidge Field.
Lynch didn’t have to go far to learn all there was to know about the Big Blue tradition. His father was the late Dick Lynch, who was a principal assistant for head coach Stan Bondelevitch. And he played both football under his father’s tutelage and basketball, where the elder Lynch was the head coach.
After a year of prep school, Lynch went to Harvard, where he played football, and kicked the winning field goal in the 1975 Harvard-Yale game. After a stint on the radio, Lynch joined Channel 5 in 1982.
During his career at Channel 5, Lynch says he has seen many changes. The biggest, he said, is the technology.
“Everything right now is instant,” he said. “You have a big story now, it’s on Twitter instantly. The business is so mobile.
“When I started, and went to spring training, we’d have to ship a tape back to Boston. We’d get to the airport at 1 p.m. and hope it got back to Boston in time. Now, it’s instantaneous.”
Lynch also transcends broadcast eras at Channel 5. When he started, the station was a powerhouse.
“I worked with Chet Curtis, Natalie Jacobson and Dick Albert,” he said. “In that equation, I was the insignificant right fielder. I have worked with some great people.”
Of course, he’s being humble. Lynch was voted Massachusetts “Sportscaster of the Year” by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association in 1985-1991, 1999, 2003 and 2006-2012 for a total of 16 times, the most honors of anyone in the history of the award. In 1987, SportsCenter 5 won the United Press International Award for “Best Sports Reporting” in the country.
His last day as sponsor anchor will be Aug. 15.
