Sports Broadcast Legend: Jim McKay

When he was covering the 1972 Munich Olympics, ABC sports broadcaster Jim McKay took one day off, Sept. 5. When he left his hotel sauna and was walking to the swimming pool he was told that Arab terrorists had invaded the Israeli living quarters in the Olympic Village.

McKay rushed to the studio, and for 16 consecutive hours he anchored ABC’s coverage. The episode ended with the killing of 11 Israeli athletes, coaches and trainers. Only when he returned to his hotel room did he realize he was wearing wet swimming suit beneath his trousers. The next day, he received a cable from an old CBS colleague, “Dear Jim, today you honored yourself, your network, your industry. Walter Cronkite.” McKay’s performance at Munich earned him an Emmy Award for news coverage, the first for a sportscaster, and the George Polk Award.

A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, McKay was a reporter for The Baltimore Evening Sun until 1950, when he joined CBS in New York. Later he moved to ABC Sports, where for 25 years he hosted “Wide World of Sports.” McKay covered a dozen Olympic Games and traveled more than 5 million miles to cover boxing, skiing, gymnastics, track and field, figure skating, rodeo, barrel jumping, horse racing, cycling, demolition derby and Eiffel Tower climbing.

Born James Kenneth McManus, he changed his name when he went into television. After a long illness, McKay, 86, died June 7 at his 19th century farmhouse in Monkton, Maryland, where he owned racehorses. Survivors include his wife of nearly 60 years, Margaret Dempsey, a former columnist for The Baltimore Evening Sun; their son, Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports; and a daughter, Mary Guba.