Most people know Todd Angilly as the guy who sings the anthem at the Garden and points at the Bruins bench when he’s done. I wanted to know how a kid from Rhode Island ends up on that spot of ice, and it turns out the answer includes almost none of the things you’d expect.
Todd almost had to leave college after his freshman year because his family couldn’t afford it. A woman in the bursar’s office talked him down and helped him find a way to stay. He later went to the New England Conservatory for opera and then got turned away at audition after audition. He was cooking at Fenway when someone heard him singing in the kitchen. A week after 9/11, he sang the first game back. In 2017 he was pouring drinks inside the Garden when he got pulled off the bar with 15 minutes’ notice to fill in for Rene Rancourt. Two years later, the job was his.
The part of the conversation that stuck with me most had nothing to do with hockey. Todd has spent his career as a probation officer and in reentry work, helping people coming out of prison find jobs, and he tells the story of one man who went from a ten-year sentence to a CDL, a cement truck, a marriage, and a house. He also talks about his work with Christopher’s Haven and the Thomas Smith Foundation, and about the phone call from his late father after every game telling him to stop taking liberties with the anthem, then adding “but you sounded good.”
He’s modest about all of it to the point of arguing with me. That’s probably the point.
Follow Todd at @bostonanthemsinger.
