Legendary Rangers national anthem voice John Amirante has died

Even as his appearances at the Garden became more infrequent, the fan love for John Amirante never faded. The rare few times over the past three years he trotted out on the Garden ice to sing the national anthem before Rangers games, the cheers were deafening — no matter if it was a preseason or a playoff game.

And that same love continued to pour out Tuesday, when the Rangers announced the legendary singer had died at the age of 83.

“It is with great sadness our Rangers family shares the loss of legendary anthem singer John Amirante,” the team shared on Twitter. “Our thoughts are with his wife Ann, his children and the entire Amirante family. We will forever remember and miss John.”

The run for Amirante started with his first anthem on Nov. 2, 1980, and within a few years, he was singing the anthem before every Knicks and Rangers game. The peak came before Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup final between the Rangers and Canucks, when his anthem was drowned out by the fans, who were about to witness the team’s only championship since 1940.

“I have been coming to this building since 1968 when it opened,” television commentator Sam Rosen said on that historic broadcast, “and I have never heard anything like this.”

“Oh please … Cloud 9. … I was floating,” Amirante told The Post in 2012. “I couldn’t even hear myself out there on the ice. I thought the ceiling was gonna come down!”

Amirante grew up in the Bronx and was a Rangers fan from the pre-WWII era, singing along with dance bands at Cardinal Hayes High School. According to Newsday, he got a job as a design engineer at John McMullen’s naval architecture firm, which eventually got him his first anthem gig before a Mets-Astros game.

He would eventually estimate that he sang the anthem over 1,000 times, and also added Yankees games — and once George Steinbrenner’s birthday party.

But the relationship with the Rangers soured as Amirante’s health became a little more fragile in his later years. Before a game in the 2015 playoffs, he was told it would be his last performance, and he was heartbroken.

So were the fans, who took to social media and created an uproar. The Garden eventually agreed that he would sporadically come back to sing, which he did over the past three seasons — to much applause. His final performance was on Feb. 25, before a game against the Red Wings.

@media only screen and (min-width: 1025px){
video::-webkit-media-controls-enclosure{display: none !important;}
}

“Rest In Peace John Amirante. You will be truly missed at The Garden #legend,” tweeted young defenseman Brady Skjei.

One of Amirante’s most stirring recent performances came before Game 6 of the 2014 second-round series against the Penguins, with the Rangers down in the series, 3-2, and carrying with them the emotional baggage of Martin St. Louis’ mother unexpectedly dying in the days prior.

As Amirante sang, the crowd went ballistic. The tone was set, and it exploded when St. Louis scored the opening goal off his thigh en route to a 3-1 victory and eventually a run to the Stanley Cup final.

“Thoughts and prayers to the Amirante family,” St. Louis tweeted.