Al Trautwig, a Mainstay in the TV Booth at Madison Square Garden, Dies at 68

New York Times

25-02-2025

Al Trautwig, who brought sports fans along with him to New York's Canyon of Heroes, champagne-doused locker rooms and the medal podium at the Olympics over a broadcast career that spanned more than three decades, died at his home on Long Island on Sunday. He was 68.
His death was confirmed on Monday by his son, Alex Trautwig, who said that the cause was complications from cancer.
In the largest U.S. media market, one where no detail is too minute for newspaper back pages and sports talk radio, Mr. Trautwig was a familiar face on New York Rangers and Knicks broadcasts for a generation on MSG Networks. He also covered Yankees games before the team created its own cable network in 2002.
The son of Long Island had a wider audience: he covered 16 Olympics, most recently for NBC and focusing on gymnastics. His work earned him four national Emmys and more than 30 New York Emmys, his son said. He was also named New York Sportscaster of the Year in 2000.
Mr. Trautwig's death was announced earlier on Monday by Alan Hahn, an ESPN Radio host and a studio analyst for MSG Networks, who described him in a social media post as a mentor and teacher.
'Al Trautwig had an amazing voice and knew how to use it the way a tenor could bring depth and intensity to a song,' Mr. Hahn wrote.
Mr. Trautwig's ascent on cable television coincided with a New York sports renaissance in the mid-1990s, one that has yet to be replicated. It was largely defined by the 1994 hockey and basketball season, and cemented by the Yankees dynasty that began in 1996. In 1994, Madison Square Garden was living up to its self-styled moniker as 'the world's most famous arena,' hosting Knicks and Rangers games — and celebrities — as both teams made deep playoff runs.
Both of the arena's tenants made the championship round and each series went the full seven games. The Rangers won the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1940 and the Knicks lost to the Houston Rockets. Mr. Trautwig was in the center of the action, including in Lower Manhattan, where a ticker-tape parade through the Canyon of Heroes culminated. He emceed the ceremony, while New York's mayor, Rudolph W. Giuliani, presented the players with keys to the city.
'In 1940, we know that the Rangers went to a small room at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto and held a private party,' Mr. Trautwig told viewers before the ceremony. 'There was no ticker-tape parade, no parade at all. Very few people even knew when the Stanley Cup arrived in New York, but this is what a 54-year wait will do.'
The timing could not have been better for Mr. Trautwig, who was also a mainstay of MSG's Yankees broadcasts. Starting in 1996, the team won the World Series four times in five years, including a 2000 victory over the crosstown New York Mets.
'Al was a staple on MSG Networks' Knicks, Rangers and Yankees coverage for more than 30 years, and his passion for the teams he covered was undeniable,' MSG Networks said in a statement on Monday. 'He leaves behind one of the great legacies in New York sports broadcasting history.'
Mr. Trautwig left MSG in 2021 when it did not renew his contract, Newsday reported last year. At the time, he said that he did not hold a grudge against his longtime TV home.
His last Olympics broadcast for NBC was in 2016. At the time, Mr. Trautwig sparked controversy when he would not acknowledge that the grandparents of the star gymnast Simone Biles had become her adoptive parents. When a viewer criticized the description he used on air at the Games in Rio de Janeiro, Mr. Trautwig responded on Twitter: 'They may be mom and dad but they are NOT her parents.' He later apologized.
Born Feb. 26, 1956, in Oceanside, N.Y., Alan Trautwig was the son of the late Otto and Martha Trautwig.
In addition to his son, Alex Trautwig, he is survived by his wife, Cathleen Trautwig, whom he met as a student at Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y. He worked at the student radio station and graduated from business school at Adelphi in 1978. He was a nonathlete member of the Adelphi Athletics Hall of Fame and was an adjunct professor at the university.
Mr. Trautwig's success also brought him other opportunities on both the big and small screens. He had a cameo in 'Cool Runnings,' the 1993 Disney movie about the Jamaican bobsled team that competed at the 1988 Winter Olympics. He also appeared in an episode of 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' and in the 1996 sports comedy 'Eddie' that starred Whoopi Goldberg.
Sweeny Murti, a senior contributor for MLB Media, noted on X that a photograph of Mr. Trautwig interviewing Derek Jeter hangs on the press level at Yankee Stadium. The photo was reposted by the Yankees play-by-play man Michael Kay.
'He was meant to be on the air,' Mr. Kay wrote. 'Smooth. Unflappable.'