James Kenneth "McKay" McManus

Over the last few weeks, fate has continued to remind me that I am not the "young whipper snapper" I like to think I am. More often than not, I will make a comment about something with a reference from years gone by only for the recipient of said comment, who is young enough to be my child, to have a look of puzzlement on their face like, "what are you talking about?" I was once again reminded just last night as I was watching a DVR'ed episode of FOX News Channel's politically incorrect late night comedy panel show parody, "Red Eye."

On the panel of this episode was comedian Joe DeVito, lawyer Brooke Goldstein and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. In discussing the MTV show 'Skins' and how children are not being raised with any kind of moral teaching anymore, in a joking response to a non sequitur comment from host Greg Gutfeld's sidekick Bill Schulz, Governor Huckabee replied "I think Captain Kangaroo is the most dangerous show for kids. Yelling at Grandfather clock to make him wake up! (pause) There are only a handful of people watching who even know what that means." I KNOW! I WATCHED Captain Kangaroo when I was going up in the 60's! The panel had no idea what Governor Huckabee was talking about. That got the laugh. For those who don't know. Grandfather Clock was always asleep. The other characters on the show got a big chuckle from waking him up all the time. Wow! I. Am. Old. To drive the point home further, this morning in perusing the Video On Demand of the DVR, I found the 2003 documentary of the late ABC Sportscaster, Jim McKay. McKay, died in 2008 of natural causes at the age of 86. I had seen this when it first aired on HBO in 2003. It was written and narrated by McKay himself.

McKay was born James Kenneth McManus. He wanted to be a big time newspaper sportswriter. He loved story telling. And while a huge sports fan, he was always more interested in the people behind the box scores and that is what he wanted to write about. If not for a chance offer to be a part of the first TV station in Baltimore, WMAR, we would have never heard of Jim McKay. We might have heard of a newspaper writer named Jim McManus instead. But after a few years at WMAR, opportunity knocked in the form of a new show in New York City and did McManus want to be a part of it. It was basically the same thing he had been doing at WMAR, a little bit of everything on air, just to do it in New York City. One small problem. The show had already been named, "The Real McKay." McManus would have to change his name to match the show. McManus agreed. Hence, "Jim McKay" was born.

During the documentary, it showed how this little known sportswriter became one of the best known sports reporters ever even though he never did a Super Bowl or World Series. But he did host the Kentucky Derby's, Indy 500's and many of the British Open's for ABC.

McKay found himself to be at the center of many historical sporting events. In part thanks to his sports show, "Wide World of Sports" which was the catalyst of the modern day sports reporting on the athletes themselves and not just what they do on the field of competition. It was the show that spawned these classic cultural words that are used today, mostly out of context, Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport... the thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat... the human drama of athletic competition... This is ABC's Wide World of Sports!

As the old video and film clips played documenting McKay's professional life, it became too apparent that I remembered many of these things as they were originally broadcast. You can't really say broadcast live since international satellite broadcasting didn't really start to happen until the late 60's and only then cost a small fortune and was saved for really truly exceptional events like coronations or the Olympics. Some big event that the coverage could be planned for. Not like now where all you need is a computer, camera and an Internet connection. Many of the events shown are now etched in the cultures collective memory. Jim McKay was there. Sadly, he will be best remembered for his coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympic murders. His finest moment broadcasting. An event he said that haunted him 30 years later. It was that broadcast that truly showed he "had the right stuff." Many of the big names in television news at the time recognized him as being the right man in the right place at the right time for that story. The legendary Peter Jennings, who himself in later years would become a beloved anchorman, stated in an interview, that at the time, he could not do what McKay did on that broadcast. He watched in awe how he guided the viewing audience through that terrible time with such dignity and integrity to get the the story right the first time, knowing that back home in Ohio, a family was wanting to know the fate of their loved one. As Roone Arledge, then ABC Sports President stated, "we all knew we were not reporting for the nation, but the Berger family. We had to get it right the first time." McKay's old friend and former co-host in the early days, Walter Cronkite sent him a telegram while still in Munich congratulating him on the coverage he had done and that it was recognized at the competitors shop. Not ABC, but Jim McKay owned the story as no one reporter in the world could. It was one of the the most important stories of the 20th Century, and Jim McKay is the only name that you remember with it.

And speaking of the Olympics, McKay's little ABC show, "Wide World of Sports" pretty much single handedly created America's love for ice skating and gymnastics. Back in the day, ABC was a far third place in just about all categories. ABC's Wide World of Sports was an attempt to find a niche within the sports reporting world with little known sports or off the wall sports. Arledge went around the world buying the rights to all kinds of things for pennies on the dollar to air on WWoS. Things like ski jumping, demolition derbies, barrel jumping, rodeos, gymnastics, track and field, just about any kind of off the beaten path sporting event or sports that didn't play on the other networks. McKay was perfectly suited for the job. This was to not only be the box scores, but to know the people of the events. WWoS went to gymnastic events of all kinds, track and field events and such all around the world. It was the 1960 US/USSR Track and Field broadcasts from the Soviet Union that took WWoS from a summer replacement program to a permanent place on ABC's schedule. This was the first broadcast by an American network from the Soviet Union and while the event wasn't available live in the US, ABC did record it on a new invention called "video tape" and flew the tapes back to New York for broadcast a week later. McKay made both sides human, even the Soviets got praise when they did well, something that hadn't been done before and was received with positive viewer reaction. Because of the accomplishments of McKay and WWoS with track and field and gymnastics and ice skating, events that NBC and CBS hardly touched, when ABC got the rights to broadcast the Olympics in the US market, McKay was the natural choice and became known as "Mr Olympics." Even after ABC lost the rights to the Olympics, the public expected McKay to be a part of the broadcast in some way and both CBS and NBC honored him by negotiating with ABC to allow him to be a part of their Olympic broadcasts until his retirement in 2000. You just couldn't have the Olympics without him. In 2008, NBC who had the rights to the games, dedicated the broadcasts to McKay after his death.

To me he will always be THE BEST sportscaster, period. There will never be another Jim McKay and the current crop of sportscasters are all too aware of it having grown up watching him and wanting to do what he did and are in his debt. The ones coming along? They have no idea whose shoulders they are standing on. They should get a clue.

Yeah. I am now officially old.

footnote - Sean McManus, President of CBS News and Sports is McKay's youngest child.