R.I.P. Jim McKay

RIP Jim McKay. I wish there were some more like you today.

 

I thought the same thing.

 

They need to do at least an hour (preferably 2) on ABC, in primetime, or it's an absolute crime.

 

I had the pleasure of hearing Jim McKay speak at a collegiate journalism conference held at Churchill Downs in 1993 the weekend of the Derby Trial. Trip was a highlight of my college years.

Wasn't old enough to remember Munich when it happened, but I'll never forget the story S.I. ran about McKay in an Olympic preview years later. As I recall, it talked about the famous telegram from Cronkite, as well as the poem McKay sought out to read during the closing ceremonies -- "To An Athlete Dying Young," by A.E. Houseman.

R.I.P to someone who made a name for himself and did it with distinction and class. He will be missed.

 

Have the HBO documentary on tape - I'll be digging it out this week (the Munich sequence is absolutely chilling). The old paperback is back somewhere at my mother's house - I read it in high school.
An Olympics without Jim McKay is like, well, a Red Sox home game played somewhere other than Fenway Park.

 

Had a conversation today where we tried to come up with names of famous sports "hosts" -- as opposed to baseball play-by-play men, football play-by-play men or others associated primarily with one sport -- who were peers of or even pre-dated McKay. Couldn't do it. Seems like it was him, then everyone else (both chronologically and qualitatively).

Thoughts? Anyone?

 

Well, there was Cosell, who took a highly different path. But they were relatively in the same time frame.

Love him or hate him, Howard was a larger-than-life figure for a huge part of his career.

 

BINGO!! You hit the nail right on the head.

Sportscasting now is about the sportscaster. Instead of telling the story and giving the facts, they want to entertain you.

I compare it to nicknames. Nicknames of old were great things. The Sultan of Swat. . . The Splendid Splinter. . . The Four Hoursemen. They told the story.

Nicknames now are the first letter of first name plus the first (or first several) letters of last name. Tracey McGrady is T-Mac. BORING!!!

 

HBO is re-running the McKay documentary as I type this and it looks like it'll be re-aired on Sunday.

 

I was somewhat curious that Jim Nantz gave one of the eulogies at McKay's funeral, wondering why someone he worked with from ABC didn't do the honors (I realize McKay had relationships with a great number of sportcasters, but I'm thinking McKay's kid running CBS news and sports might have had something to do with it). That said, seeing how ABC has turned everything sports-related over to ESPN, there really isn't anybody left. And as great as ESPN is, it still doesn't match ABC during the Roone Arledge era.

 

Something I had forgotten: At the start, McKay was not ABC's studio host for the 1972 Olympics. Chris Schenkel was, with McKay doing track and gymnastics.

But when the news broke, for whatever reason, Arledge wanted McKay out front.