"He was a tremendous man."

I received an e-mail yesterday. The title made me stop for a second. Then, I opened it, read it, and said, "Oh my god!"

I lost a friend.

The Notre Dame hockey team's final regular-season home game Friday, although a victory, wasn't without a pang of sadness.

The program announced Friday afternoon that radio play-by-play announcer Mike Lockert, 43, died unexpectedly late Thursday night or early Friday morning.

No further details of Lockert's death were available late Friday.

"It's just devastating to me," Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson said after his team's 5-0 win over Michigan State. "I got to know Mike real well. I was just dumbfounded (Friday) morning when I found out. There's nothing I can say except that he was a part of our team.

"It's not just so much about the voice but the man behind the voice. He was a tremendous man."

The hockey program honored Lockert with a tribute prior to its game against Michigan State, which included some of his recent radio calls and a moment of silence.

Lockert, who hailed from Los Angeles, had been the radio voice of Notre Dame hockey for seven seasons. He previously served as both the media relations director and radio announcer for the South Bend Silver Hawks baseball team, the job which brought him to South Bend.

"The journey for me has seen its ups and downs," Lockert wrote of his college hockey broadcasting career for ccha.com, the Central Collegiate Hockey Association's Web site, on Feb. 13, 2008. "But it is a journey that I would not want to detour in any way, shape or form.''

Many of you may not know Mike Lockert. Your life would have been much better if you had.

I met Mike in 2002 when he started as the radio announcer in South Bend. We had a few things in common. There was hockey: I was still broadcasting it for the Green Bay Gamblers and he had just wrapped up working for the Huntington (WV) Blizzard of the ECHL before moving to South Bend. Then, there was broadcasting: We both loved it.

He has this way of making you laugh. And even though he is gone I will always say that Mike has this way of making you laugh. That's because between bouts of sadness and anger at his passing I have been remembering the times he made me laugh and that is making me laugh.

There was the way he tried out a German accent when teasing me about my heritage. It was a cross between Sgt. Schultz and Dr. Strangelove.

There was the way the chair in the visiting radio booth in South Bend had an poster of Ron Burgundy on it to welcome me to town one time. In Mike's mind, Ron Burgundy was based on my hairstyle. We had a good laugh and quoted some movie lines and I got back to work. Later, I shut the door to the radio booth and there was another Ron Burgundy poster on the door. I laughed even harder.

In 2004, Mike and I got to work a couple of innings together. It was on the radio broadcast of the All-Star Game in Cedar Rapids. Those few innings were a lot of fun and Mike and I got in the game action and made Kernel broadcaster John Rodgers and the rest of the crew in the radio booth crack up more than once.

There are a lot more and I've been remembering them.

Then, there was 2005. By that time, Mike hadn't been on the radio for a few years due to the Silver Hawks not having a radio contract. But, he stayed on as the media relations director. The Timber Rattlers and the Silver Hawks met the the MWL Championship Series that year. South Bend won the first two games in South Bend. The Rattlers won the next two in Appleton to set up Game Five.

South Bend would win the game and the Championship and I was little down since it was the end of the season and the Ratters had lost. But, right after I wrapped up the post-game show, Mike walks into the booth. Smelling of champagne and smiling ear to ear he congratulated me and the Rattlers on a geat season.

Most of you know that I hate losing. But, that day, it didn't seem so bad.

But, yesterday and today have been pretty bad. Here's why:

I talked to Mike about two weeks ago. He was excited, as usual. Notre Dame was playing very well. But, he wanted to talk about his new summer job. He was going to be broadcasting for the Green Bay Bullfrogs. He asked about the market. I told him that -- of course -- we could never speak or hang out with each other again and we had a good laugh about that.

He called right before our Tuesday staff meeting and I had to cut the call short to get into it. He wished us luck on the remainder of the pre-season preparations. I wished him luck on the rest of the hockey season and I promised that I'd be in touch before the baseball season started.

I guess that promise is a broken one.

Mike was only 43 years old and he did a lot in those 43 years. Here is a link to the story at WNDU-TV. Click on the link for their story on last night's game. Hear more from coach Jackson and Tim Connor, the hockey SID for the Irish. Read the comments. Get to know Mike.

And keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Friend of Mine by John Hiatt.

Friend of mine
Has gone away
Like a light from yesterday
Lost in space
Somewhere they say
This friend of mine

He could sing
Like a child
A mother's dream
So sweet and mild
Or big and mean
Loud and wild
This friend of mine

His voice is still
Like the night
Rustling winds
Of angel's flight
Take him home
To the light
This friend of mine

This friend of mine