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Broadcasting Legend Jim McKay Dies At 86
HOFN.com Staff

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Monkton, MD – Jim McKay was the lone face on the Mount Rushmore of broadcasters. That’s how friend and colleague Dick Stockton described McKay, who died today of natural causes at 86 on his farm in Maryland. McKay’s voice was emblematic describing the “Thrill of victory, the agony of defeat” for ABC’s Wide World of Sports.

His calm voice told us, “They are all gone,” the mourning call when Palestinian terrorists butchered Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. “I had to control myself. I was full of emotion,” McKay recalled. “But when you are a professional, it is important to communicate what it is like, to capture the moment.” Sports, McKay said, lost its innocence in Munich.

McKay was the only broadcaster to win an Emmy both for sports and news for his Munich reporting, in addition to the prestigious George Polk award. “In the long run, that’s the most memorable single moment of my career,” said McKay, who was also in the studio for the United States’ “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union, which earned him another Emmy. “I don’t know what else would match that.”

He won 12, the last in 1988. ABC calculated that McKay traveled almost 4.5  million miles on reporting trips. He covered more than 100 different sports in 40 countries. In 2002, McKay received the International Olympic Committee’s highest honor—the Olympic Order.
 

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