Ralph Strangis is due in London on Thursday for some soccer binging, just another 55-year-old college student blowing off steam after last week’s final exams at the University of North Texas.

The Dallas Stars’ former play-by-play announcer and American Wrestling Association straight man on KMSP-TV might recalibrate to watch Friday’s Game 5 between the Stars and Wild at American Airlines Center, his former office.

A year ago this week, Strangis retired from broadcasting after 25 seasons with the Stars, a career that started in 1990 alongside Al Shaver in Minnesota and continued when the franchise moved to Dallas.

Early in the next chapter of his life as a playwright, history buff and world traveler, Strangis is plowing ahead with a busy schedule but acknowledges this series is tugging at him nostalgically.

“I try not to trip over anything I left behind, but this would have been a fun one,” Strangis said last week. “I was joking to Mike Modano that this is the one we always wanted.”

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‘A dream come true’: Wild sign Jonas Brodin to seven-year, $42 million extension What Strangis always wanted, since he taped his first sports broadcast on a reel-to-reel at age 11, was to be at the microphone in the Met Center booth.

During high school at Totino-Grace (same as Wild play-by-play TV announcer, Anthony LaPanta) he worked in cable access, calling Bloomington Jefferson hockey games. Then he landed a gig at Channel 9 broadcasting AWA All-Star wrestling matches.

In 1990, Strangis auditioned to be Shaver’s partner on North Stars radio broadcasts, winning over the team’s original voice to secure his dream job.

Three years later, the North Stars moved to Dallas, Shaver retired to British Columbia and Strangis inherited his play-by-play chair, teaming with Daryl “Razor” Reaugh in 1996. The popular duo stayed together 19 years and called the Stars’ 1999 Stanley Cup championship.

“Yes! Yes! Yes! The Stars win the Stanley Cup, the Stars win the Stanley Cup!” was Strangis’ signature call when Brett Hull potted the controversial overtime winner in Game 6 at Buffalo.

After 25 seasons and more than 2,000 games, however, Strangis sought new challenges. He shocked the Stars and Dallas sports fans when he walked away on April 23, 2015, following three lockouts, two franchise bankruptcies and a relocation.

“It was kind of a crazy ride, but Al Shaver gets to keep his 26-year record,” he said.

Strangis fielded several calls last week from media interested in relitigating former Stars owner Norm Green’s decision to move the franchise south — the NHL back-room intrigue, Twin Cities stadium politics and a sexual harassment lawsuit against Green that left a seven-year hole in Minnesota’s hockey soul until the expansion Wild started playing in 2000.

“Norm’s an easy target for obvious reasons, but there were a lot of things happening in Minnesota that conspired against him and the North Stars,” Strangis recounted. “Nobody locally really wanted the team or to deal with the arena issue.”

Green, who sold the team to Tom Hicks in 1996, still lives in the Dallas area and attends Stars games.

Speaking of ancient history, Strangis is an undergraduate student again, 37 years after taking his last class at the University of Minnesota. He is pursuing degrees in history and corporate training and development, and had three exams last week.

Strangis, a recovering alcoholic who has been sober almost 30 years, is a motivational speaker and fixture on the Dallas-area lecture circuit.

He also is a player in the city’s theater community, having landed a speaking role in the 2006 college basketball tale, “Glory Road.”

His big project this summer is producing and acting in “The Big Kahuna,” a play about three traveling salesmen of varying stripes trying to land a big client at a convention.

Strangis is playing the part mastered by Kevin Spacey in the 1999 indie film, which also starred Danny DeVito and Peter Facinelli. He also writes a weekly cultural column for the Dallas Morning News.

His 19-year-old daughter, Savannah, is following in the old man’s footsteps. She is interning this summer as a producer at Toronto-based Rogers Sports Net.

“My life is good,” Strangis said. “I read something in the (Dallas) Morning News one day; a guy from Harvard said having 25 years experience in one thing was different than having 25 one-year experiences. That hit me right between the eyes.

“Having the same job year after year was a great job. But I wanted to do something else.”

Had he lasted one more season, Strangis would have been able to close the circle between Minnesota and Dallas.

“It’s too bad in that sense. It would have been fun,” he said. “But I don’t have to deal with ticket requests.”