Pete Weber and Terry Crisp understood the assignment from day one.
Calling their first Nashville Predators game together in September 1998, a preseason game against the Florida Panthers in Huntsville, Alabama, forward Patrick Cote got into three fights. Then, a few weeks later, the Predators were shut out 1-0 in their inaugural home opener against those same Panthers. More fights, more penalties, and another loss.
“We had an idea what we had in front of us,” Weber told The Tennessean on Oct. 28.
At that point, it became clear. To make the Predators an attractive television product, they needed to be part of the entertainment. To grow a community of hockey fans, they first needed a community of “Pete and Terry” fans.
It’s clear they succeeded.
Weber and Crisp will be inducted into the Predators’ Golden Hall, making them the fourth and fifth members of Nashville’s hall of fame, joining general manager David Poile, defenseman Shea Weber, and goaltender Pekka Rinne. The induction will take place on the Ford Band Stage at Bridgestone Arena during the first intermission of the Predators game against the Calgary Flames on Nov. 1 (2:30 p.m. CT, FanDuel Sports Network).
The duo was together on television through 2014, after which they moved to radio. Weber is still the “Voice of the Predators” on 102.5 The Game, while Crisp retired in 2022.
“When you think about the Predators, there is a strong chance that the first people who come to mind are Pete and Terry,” Predators CEO Sean Henry said in a team release. “They are synonymous with the franchise.”
Few Predators fans would disagree.
Weber and Crisp were the perfect broadcasting tandem for a nascent hockey audience in Nashville. Weber led the broadcast with pinpoint play-by-play detail, buttressed by an encyclopedic knowledge of hockey, always able to recall the perfect anecdote. Crisp supported with a hefty laugh, an eye for how the game should be played, and a comedic sense that blended Martin Short with Rodney Dangerfield.
“We had it right away, the chemistry,” Weber said. “Which is funny, because the first time I stood in front of him, he didn’t remember that I’d interviewed him years before. When we met, I had to tell him we’d met before.”
For every game, Weber would prepare reams of notes − mostly on a computer, which Crisp referred to as a “tick tick” for the sound it made as Weber typed away. Crisp kept his notes written on cards that he would refer to occasionally. Mostly he just riffed.
“We knew how to make it work. I didn’t have to gesture to him or anything, he just knew when to step in,” Weber explained.
Their harmony was exceptional. When Weber would describe a fumbled pass at the blue line leading to an odd-man rush, Crisp would explain how he’d deal with a player who made such a foolish play. After Weber’s exuberance following a game-tying goal, Crisp would detail something 10 feet behind the play that allowed it to happen. It was as much the “Pete and Terry Show” as it was a hockey broadcast.
And for a team like the Predators, that was the only way to make it work.
The first five seasons were not pretty. The Predators had no offensive stars, averaged 29 wins a seaspn and weren’t close to the playoffs. But Weber and Crisp made every broadcast fun, telling jokes, pranking each other, and even dressing up in Halloween costumes − the most memorable was in 2001, when Weber went as Tennessee football coach Philip Fulmer with Crisp as Vanderbilt football’s Woody Widenhofer.
But fans get watching. Not only for the hockey, but to learn about it. In the early days, Weber and Crisp hosted “Hockey 101” classes at Bridgestone Arena. They would often repeat those lessons on the broadcast − explaining what icing is, what it takes to have a good power play, or how a wrist shot works. They lectured and fans listened.
“(Weber and Crisp) did just as much – if not more – to develop our fan base as anyone else, including our players and coaches,” former general manager David Poile said.
Alex Daugherty is the Predators beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Alex at jdaugherty@gannett.com. Follow Alex on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @alexdaugherty1. Also check out our Predators exclusive Instagram page @tennessean_preds.