Jack Armstrong Biography
John Joseph "Jack" Armstrong (born January 3, 1963) is an American sportscaster, working primarily for the Toronto Raptors on TSN and NBA TV Canada. Armstrong is also the college basketball *yst for TSN and a former college basketball coach.
Personal
Armstrong is the son of Irish immigrants and was raised Catholic. His father, who was from Castlebar, County Mayo, died when Jack was age seven and his mother Mary raised him alone. Armstrong graduated from Fordham University in 1988 with a master's in Communication. He has three brothers: William, James and Brendan.
Jack is married to Dena Armstrong, who was the women's soccer coach at Niagara University. They met at Niagara University, when they were both coaches. They are the parents of three adopted sons. They live in Lewiston, New York just across the Niagara River from Ontario.
Armstrong is a fan of the Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres and the Toronto Raptors.
Coaching career
From 1989 to 1998, Armstrong was the lead basketball coach of Niagara University. In the 1992–93 season, he led the Niagara Purple Eagles to a 23–7 record and was named the New York State Division I Coach of the Year. His overall record with the team was 100-154.
Broadcast career
Armstrong is currently an NBA *yst for TSN and the on-air in-game broadcaster for the Toronto Raptors NBA team. He has been a part of the broadcast team since 1998. Armstrong has two catch-phrases that he uses during game broadcasts: "Helloooo" and "Get that garbage outta here". The "get that garbage outta here" phrase was also used by Armstrong in commercials for the City of Toronto government to encourage keeping garbage out of recycling materials. Most recently, following the Raptors’ signings of Montreal natives Chris Boucher and Khem Birch, he would use “Bonjour” instead of "Helloooo" whenever a big play such as a block or dunk would be made by those players.
Armstrong is a 3 time winner of the Canadian Screen Award for Best Sports *yst in a Sports Program or Series.
On Thursday, July 31, 2008, it was announced that Jack Armstrong would take over The Chuck Swirsky Show effective August 18, 2008, alongside Doug MacLean on the Toronto, Ontario AM sports talk radio station The Fan 590. The show's name was later changed to The Game Plan. In 2009, Doug MacLean left the show and was replaced by Eric Smith.
References
External links
- Bio from TSN.ca
- Jack Armstrong's NCAA coaching record on sports-reference.com
