The sports world lost one of it’s best voices on Saturday with the announcement of the passing of Jim McKay. Jim McKay was the Walter Cronkite of sports broadcasting. He was a trusted friend we invited into our living rooms every Saturday since 1961 when he began hosting “Wide World of Sports”. 

I was only 9 years old when “Wide World of Sports” first aired on ABC. I remember watching it at my friend’s house. Our neighbors, the Nylins, were big winter sports enthusiasts and it was because of them that I came to love skiing, nordic jumping and figure skating.  ABC and Jim McKay brought these and so much more to the American public.

I think back with fondest memories at all the expert commentators at Jim McKay’s side. Bob Beattie for skiing, Dick Button on figure skating and many other great co-hosts that brought you “up close and personal” with the athletes and their sports. Because of  Roone Arlidge and Jim McKay, you not only saw a variety of sports, you learned all about them.

ABC also made huge strides in sports broadcast technology. Remember seeing the Hannenkamn from a camera attached to the ski racer’s helmet? Slow motion showed the physics of ski jumping and the rotations of the triple lutz. Iso-cameras showed the racer’s ski catching the slalom gate. Jim was always there to highlight the nuances of each sport. He was always well prepared. Jim knew his stuff.

Most people recollect the most important broadcast of his career. Jim McKay held the hand of the viewing public worldwide with his calm and steady reporting about what would turn out to be the blackest day in Olympic history, the massacre of the entire Israeli Olympic team in Munich in 1972.

As a long time viewer of WWS,  I understood how hard that telecast was for Jim McKay. It was a loss of innocence for Jim and all of us. As with the assassination of the Kennedy’s and Martin  Luther King , Jim McKay and the world were stunned to think that such evil was possible. The Olympics were meant to bring the youth of the world together in peace to pursue personal excellence in sport. Jim McKay put aside his personal feelings and physical comfort and was there around the clock to keep the world informed.

Jim McKay was a consummate professional.