Before he became the New Jersey Devil’s radio play-by-play broadcaster, Matt Loughlin graduated from SHU in 1979 with a degree in marketing. Loughlin said that he was trying to decide between Seton Hall and Rutgers.
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Photo via Twitter/@MattLough[/caption]
“When I visited Seton Hall it just struck me as just a nice place, warm and inviting,” Loughlin said. “I was accepted at Rutgers but in the end I decided that Seton Hall was the place for me.”
Loughlin said that after his last final of his freshman year he knocked on the door of WSOU to see how he could get involved. Loughlin said that he was always interested in sports and the sports director at the time said “what you put in is what you’ll get out.” Loughlin said he drove up from his Sayreville N.J. home that summer to try and cover as many events as he could. “There was a buzz, there was an energy, and I thought this is pretty darn cool,” Loughlin said.
Before he started his SHU career, Loughlin said he got turned on to WSOU when he was a senior in high school and WSOU covered the SHU baseball team as they competed in the College World Series, but Loughlin said he never thought he would be linked to WSOU. Loughlin said he was approached by a cable company located in East Orange when they were covering a game at Walsh Gym, and he would travel to East Orange around classes and his WSOU work to gain experience.
Last April Loughlin was inducted into the WSOU hall of fame. “Following in the footsteps of so many other great people who have come out of WSOU and have gone on to do great things in this business was incredibly humbling, incredibly rewarding, and a very special honor in my life,” Loughlin said.
For the past two years, Loughlin has also taken on mentees as a part of WSOU’s alumni mentorship program. Loughlin said he got involved in the program after receiving an email from the station and he said he thought it was a great opportunity to go back to his alma mater and help out. Loughlin advised students not to turn any opportunity down, because you never know where a road will lead.
Mark Maben, WSOU general manager, said he knew of Loughlin from his longtime career in media, but didn’t know he was a SHU alumnus until he started working at the station in 2004. “Matt has been always generous with his time as his schedule permits,” Maben said. Maben said that Loughlin has taught students at WSOU the importance of being prepared, and sometimes being over prepared, for broadcasting games. “He’s down to Earth, he’s very approachable, he really cares about current students, and he’s just genuine,” Maben said.
Matt Ambrose, a senior journalism major and the current sports director at WSOU is Loughlin’s mentee this year. Ambrose said he first met Loughlin when he came to speak to his sports casting class his sophomore year. Ambrose said that it has been cool to get feedback on his broadcasting from a professional.
“Matt is an example of what you should get out of your experience at WSOU,” Ambrose said. “To see him follow that same path that I am taking right now is definitely inspiring.”
“I can never thank WSOU and Seton Hall enough for what it provided me and I think that’s part of its legacy,” Loughlin said. “I was very fortunate that in the end Seton Hall said ‘we will accept you’ and I took up that offer, because it’s been such an instrumental part of where I am now.”
Veronica Gaspa can be reached at veronica.gaspa@student.shu.edu
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