Now He's Gone, Too

Jim McKay was a bit short in stature (somewhere around 5'6") but he was HUGE in the world of sports television. Among other things he was a regular host and/or commentator of golf, horse racing and Indy 500 events. I actually came across him myself in 1987 when a family friend who worked as a technician for ABC invited me to join him at the Indy 500. As I was eating breakfast in the press tent before the race, Mr. McKay came in and had a little breakfast himself a few tables away.

However he was best known for two things: Wide World of Sports and the Olympics. Just about everybody knows the sound of his voice: "The thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat." That poor skier. As a kid I often made it a point to watch WWOS on Saturday afternoons and see where in the world (literally) Jim and company were broadcasting from that day. But he was probably most widely remembered for his coverage of the '72 Munich Olympics and broadcasting the tragedy of the murderous massacre that occurred. (Sidebar: "Munich" was an excellent movie, though not for the faint of heart.) At the conclusion of those events, his words on the air were simple yet tragic:

"When I was a kid my father used to say our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized. Our worst fears have been realized tonight. They have now said there were eleven hostages; two were killed in their rooms yesterday morning, nine were killed at the airport tonight. They're all gone."

Sadly, now he's gone, too, but leaving us as a pioneer in his field. Most definitely, he lived a full life. Pretty cool.