Before tip-off of the Lynn English-Lynn Classical boys basketball game on Saturday afternoon, there was a special tribute for broadcaster John Hoffman, who was presented with a plaque for his broadcast work over the last 40 years.
When his name was called, Hoffman said he never imagined such an honor.
“I could never have dreamed that I would be doing what I’ve been doing this long, which is announcing these games,” Hoffman said. “It all started from a phone call by my wife, who put me in touch with the cable station from Lynn and it just evolved from there.”
Hoffman said one of his favorite parts of the job was meeting great people.
“The friends I have made, the people I’ve met, been associated with, and worked with made my job a real easy task and a fun one at that,” Hoffman said. “The real heroes are the kids with the cameras that do all the heavy lifting and make me look good. People always say to me in your last days, ‘if you can count the number of good friends on one hand, you have done very well.’ I need a lot of hands because I made a lot of great friends.”
Hoffman also feels blessed for having such a supporting family by his side.
“I have a great family that has given me the support, time, and energy to push me to help me do this work,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman also added he fell in love with broadcasting, and sports, because of his father.
“I now have announced everywhere that my father announced when he was doing this work,” Hoffman said. “Boston Garden, the old arena is Boston, the new TD Garden, but once I got to Gillette [Stadium] to do a couple Super Bowl games, I looked up and said, ‘Dad, I got you, you were never here – I am one up.’”
Jerry DiStefano can be reached at [email protected]
