Jay Kersting's Blog

James Kenneth McManus was known to most of us as Jim McKay when we welcomed him into our homes.

Whether for "ABC's Wide World of Sports" on Saturday afternoons or for days on end during the Olympic Games every four years, Jim McKay was a welcome presence throughout my lifetime.

It is for that reason, that I will sit here at write an entry on a Saturday afternoon.  In fact, it seems very appropriate. 

First, here is an obituary from the New York Times. 

And from ABC News. 

I want to take this time to share my thoughts on Mr. McKay (McManus) as well. 

First, I credit my mom for getting me interested in sports in the first place.  Not that Dad wasn't interested, but I think his experiences with professional athletes soured him a bit.  So, when I was angry that "The Six Million Dollar Man" wasn't on because of some stupid thing called the Olympics, Mom sort of had me give it a chance.  I didn't know, nor care where this Montreal place was.  But, I watched any way.  Besides, Steve Austin just wasn't an option.  Dammit.

That was my first memory of watching a sporting event on television.  And it was Jim McKay who brought the package into my home. I vaguely remember Bruce Jenner running around the track after winning the Decathalon.  (Which he has done again by completing at least ten different plastic surgeries.  But, I am getting off topic.) 

Jim McKay was simply the best.  Unlike sportscasters who are known for their play-by-play calls only, Jim McKay could do that and did it masterfully.  But he was usually bringing us the less mainstream events on ABC's Wide World of Sports.  And the Indianapolis 500 or the Kentucky Derby.  But what made Jim McKay the best at what he did was that he was the great American storyteller.  While everyone remembers that call by Al Michaels at the end of the 1980 Olympic Hockey game against the Soviet Union (the game that allowed the USA to play for the Gold Medal), few recall that Jim McKay helped build the enthusiasm for the television audience.  McKay knew what the rest of us didn't, that those college boys beat the Red Army.  Remember, the game was a tape delay.  McKay let you know that you didn't want to miss this game without telling you why.  I remember watching that game while my parents were playing cards over at the Gotz's.  Mom and Dad were playing Bridge while Jim McKay was showing a poker face.

What a lot of people just a few years older than me remember about Jim McKay was how well he handled his duties seven and a half years earlier in Munich during those Summer Olympic Games. 

I was two years old and I have little to no direct memory of those games.  I only recall Mark Spitz and I think we had some posters of him in a closet somewhere, but that is it.  But since I am a history junkie, I have seen many documentaries that used the ABC Sports and ABC News coverage of those events.  The man in the center of things was, of course, Jim McKay.  Everything was run through the set that McKay was camped in.  When "all hell had broken loose" at the airport then night it all came to an end, the people of the United States learned everything through the calm and direct voice of Jim McKay.  Nothing of the sensationalism that you would see on CNN, Fox News or MSNBC today.  Factual, accurate, calm, attributed and most importantly from the voice and face we trusted in Jim McKay. 

So, when Jim McKay told us what his father had told him, that "our greatest hopes or our worst fears are seldom realized.  Our worst fears have been realized tonight.  They have now said that there were eleven hostages; two were killed in their rooms yesterday morning, nine were killed at the airport tonight.  They're all gone."  Calm and unsensational.  The news was sensational enough.  McKay knew this and didn't have to add to it.  And he was the right man and the right time to deliver this sad and angering news. 

(In fact, if the media culture of 1972 was like it is now, Jim McKay would have probably been offered the evening news anchor gig following the games.)

Later, McKay would continue to host the Olympic Games in Sarajavo, Los Angeles and Calgary.  In 2002, he returned to covering the Olympic Games in with a small role at NBC.  (ABC lent his services to NBC.) 

I found this role to be almost a slap in the face and I really got angry with Katie Couric, who I thought was more than a bit condescending toward him.  She didn't deserve to be in the same room with the man, though I doubt it was intentional on her part.  She was just out of her class.  But who is in the same class as Jim McKay?

His death this morning is a sad bit of timing.  Jim McKay was not only known for being the host in our homes for the Kentucky Derby, but the other Triple Crown races, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes.  But he was also a great champion for horse racing.  It was his favorite sport.  He started the Maryland Million.  Today, he passes away as Big Brown, at the time of this writing, is poised to become the first Triple Crown winner in 30 years. 

This past week, I thought about making an attempt to reach him for a follow up if Big Brown was to win.  I didn't act on it.  I will regret that, because in setting that up, and knowing that it would not happen now, I might have had a chance to speak, even briefly, with one of the greats. 

Jim McKay, you are missed already.  And James Kenneth McManus, may God rest your soul.  And we all owe Him thanks, as we do your family, for sharing you with us all these years.

--------------------------

Feel free to hit the comments link to add your thoughts on the passing of Jim McKay.  Thank you for reading this entry.  More may follow on Monday.