ORLANDO, FLA – “What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments but what is woven into the lives of others.” – Pericles (influential Ancient Greek statesman and orator)
In its simplest form, a legacy is thought of as how a person is remembered after he or she is no longer here. It is the measure of how they interacted with and treated others.
Scott McKenzie was MC at the Turner Cup banner raising in 2013 (Photo courtesy of F. Medina & G. Bassing/Orlando Solar Bears)
Over the weekend, the Orlando Solar Bears began a year-long celebration of the tenth year of existence of a Solar Bears hockey team – six in the original International Hockey league and the start of the fourth in the ECHL. The first event was celebratory and sad because it marked the passing of both time and a physical body while honoring the spirit of a husband, father, beloved local radio personality, musician and member of the Solar Bears extended hockey family.
Scott Friedman – better know to Orlando radio listeners as Scott McKenzie – was the morning drive DJ on WOMX-FM (MIX 105.1) in Orlando, the last of many stops in a 36-year career in radio. He was a devoted husband to his wife Fran and loving father to his daughter. He was a dedicated colleague to his co-workers and competitors alike. Lastly, for six years between 1995 and 2001 he was the public address announcer for the IHL Orlando Solar Bears.
During the off-season, Scott lost a long and very courageous battle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Saturday night, the Solar Bears celebrated Scott’s life with a moving tribute and dedication of the hockey PA booth at the Amway Center in memory of the man long-time hockey fans in the region considered to be “the original Solar Bear”.
“He was an amazing husband and father. We were married 25 years and Lauren will be 24 next week. He was just everything,” Fran said following the emotional ceremony. “He was funny, he was loving, he was caring and sensitive. He had it all together.”
Fran said that Scott’s love of hockey came from growing up in the Cleveland, Ohio area and an uncle who was more than willing to share his love of the game. One can just imagine the excitement when Scott arrived at home in 1995 and told his wife about his new “job” as the arena voice of a hockey team.
“He was very excited because it was going to be as close to the rink as he had ever been,” Fran said. “I think he was most nervous about announcing the players [names] correctly. That was the thing he had the most trepidation about but then he got that and he really got into a groove.”
Scott wanted to make the games fun for the fans. He began a tradition of throwing candy over the glass to the fans in the seats behind the booth at the old Orlando Arena (Fran had the crucial role of buying the candy that Scott tossed). He began using catch phrases like “he shoots, he scores” after Orlando goals and “put your paws together for your Orlando Solar Bears” during player introductions. The lines became as much a part of the game experience as the players on the ice.
Solar Bears chaiman Joe Haleski (left) and president Jason Siegel present jerseys to Scott McKenzie’s wife Fran and daughter Lauren (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina/Orlando Solar Bears)
He also managed to find a way to incorporate daughter Lauren into the fun and making her a celebrity. He developed line such as “stop whining and get in the penalty box” and “icing, ha ha” which he then had Lauren record to use as audio drops during games. Those drops have stood the test of time, being used by several teams who have called Orlando home.
“I probably didn’t take it in at the time because I think I was three or four [years old],” Lauren recalled. “Now looking back on it, I do [appreciate and understand] and it is hilarious that my giggle is still being played today.”
Scott was behind the mic when the Solar Bears won what would be the final IHL Turner Cup title in 2001. He never got to emcee a victory celebration because days after the clinching game, the league folded and the Solar Bears went into a decade-plus hibernation. Eleven years later, the Solar Bears reemerged but Scott was not well enough to return to his post.
The job eventually went to one-time radio competitor turned colleague and most importantly twenty-year friend Paco Lopez.
“Ironically when I spoke to Jason Siegel (team president) and the Solar Bears organization [about the position] originally, I went to Scott and asked Scott for some advice. My biggest concern to be honest was having to follow in Scott’s footsteps because I knew how much he was loved by Orlando Solar Bears fans,” Lopez said. “I said ‘Scott what do I do, how do I do this?’. He said ‘you know what, don’t worry about it man, just go in there, have fun and it’ll all come together. Do what you love doing’. He went from being a competitor to being a friend to being a mentor. It was a little intimidating because I knew he had set the bar high but like I said if I’ve got to be second to anybody, I don;t mind being second to Scott McKenzie.”
When the ECHL Solar Bears honored the IHL championship team with a banner raising in February of 2013, it was only fitting that Scott be the master of ceremonies. Fran said being invited to be a part of the long-overdue ceremony allowed her husband to relive all the memories from those IHL years.
“He was very touched. He was very excited,” she said. “It was reliving how much fun he had and seeing it from a different vantage point. It was tremendous for him.”
Knowing that the team was going to be marking ten years of the Solar Bears brand, Lopez and Siegel were already planning to honor Scott before he passed away suddenly in August. Through the entire planning process, Lopez said that Siegel put the focus on Scott and giving the fans one more chance to show their love and appreciation to the iconic voice.
The hockey PA box was dedicated in Scott McKenzie’s memory on Saturday (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina/Orlando Solar Bears)
“We fully expected to have Scott there,” Lopez said. “When Scott passed away, one of the thing I respect Jason for was that he didn’t want to do this so that it would be about the Solar Bears. He wanted to do this so that it would be about Scott.”
Lopez asked for and was granted permission to take the lead on the project. He wrote the script from the heart and with Fran and Lauren helping out by providing pictures and audio clips, he put together all the pieces and handed them over to the team’s creative people to produce a video tribute that brought tears to the eyes of the over 9,000 fans who attended the game.
How powerful was the tribute? Even Lopez himself was moved to tears when he saw the final product for the first time.
“I saw it for the first time Monday night when we did our walk-through and I got choked up despite the fact that I wrote the script and knew what it said. To hear it and realize that it as an epitaph as opposed to a tribute but it was both. Though he’s not with us any longer, Scott will be with us moving forward forever.”
The video tribute was followed by team chairman Joe Haleski and Siegel presenting Fran and Lauren with jerseys that had the name McKenzie and the number 1 on the back. At that point, the team surprised everyone by unveiling a dasherboard that said McKenzie over the number 105 (a nod to MIX 105.1) flanked on either side by a microphone. Then Lopez read the announcement that the PA booth would be named “the Scott McKenzie PA Booth” as a lasting tribute to the impact Scott had on hockey and the entire Orlando community.
“It was very, very touching. I got on the ice and it was overwhelming. I tried not to cry too much,” Fran said. “I knew about the video because we had sent them some of the pictures but I had no idea about the dedication. That was very, very touching and a beautiful tribute to Scott.”
Throughout the days and weeks since her father’s passing, Lauren has come to understand just how much Scott meant to people well beyond their family. From millions of retweets of the hashtag #OrlandoLovesScott on Twitter (which for a time topped the trending list) to a record amount of money raised by the Leukemia and Lymohoma Society’s “Light The Night Walk” (more than $450,000 as of last week) that was dedicated to his memory, Lauren began to really see the connection Scott had with so many.
“I wish I had seen it earlier. It’s just so special and he was so special,” she said. “The fact that they raised so much money last week at the Light The Night fundraiser just showed how much the city cared about him and loved him.”
As for Lopez, every time he crosses the Amway Center ice to head to his post, he will be reminded of his friend Scott and their bond. Seeing that dasherboard will carry with it the inspiration to be both a better announcer and a better man – just as Scott McKenzie would have wanted it.
“I knew Scott for almost twenty years and I never once in my entire twenty years heard Scott say anything negative about anybody. Even more, I never heard anybody that I knew that knew Scott say that he ever said anything negative about anybody,” he said. “Scott McKenzie was just the consummate professional on the radio and behind the mic at Solar Bears games. He was the consummate friend. He was the guy we all aspired to be.”
Artwork courtesy of WOMX-FM Orlando
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