Sports Broadcasting Legend Jim McKay Dies

Long before the SpoFi debates over whether something was a sport, I remember, as a kid in the '70's, watching WWOS and just accepting that cliff-diving, jai alai and drag racing were sports. I mean, they were featured on WWOS, so they must be sports.

posted by geekyguy at 12:36 PM - reply - flag:

Thanks, Jim. I spanned the globe with you.

posted by hawkguy at 01:02 PM - reply - flag:

posted by tommytrump at 01:12 PM - reply - flag:

. for those who don't realise what the dot means, it is something started at MetaFilter that has carried over.

posted by terrapin at 01:18 PM - reply - flag:

Wow, I had no idea he was in his 80's. He has always seemed youthful and vibrant. As far as sportscasters go, Mr. McKay never annoyed me - and that is high praise in this field. The olympics won't seem the same without him. Rest well, Mr. McKay.

posted by Joey Michaels at 02:18 PM - reply - flag:

His voice will live on in my head (along with the others).

posted by justgary at 02:31 PM - reply - flag:

He seemed to be everywhere in the world of sports. I remember an "American Sportsman" episode where he went pheasant hunting with Bing Crosby and Phil Harris. He will be missed.

posted by budman13 at 02:44 PM - reply - flag:

He seemed timeless, like he would just go on and on. He was the best. Rest in peace.

posted by lil'red at 03:01 PM - reply - flag:

I will always remember his enthusiasm during his coverage of the Olympics, truly a great man.

posted by kickerofelves at 03:17 PM - reply - flag:

posted by Spitztengle at 07:07 PM - reply - flag:

Who? .

posted by Drood at 08:26 PM - reply - flag:

See ya Jim. I'll miss you.

posted by Ironhead at 10:09 PM - reply - flag:

Very soon, Jim will be annoucing Evel Knievel's motorcycle attempt to jump the Pearly Gates. That is, if he can get a Heaven pass for Evel and clearance to do the jump. .

posted by THX-1138 at 10:35 PM - reply - flag:

The thing that I liked most about Jim McKay -- and why it made him perfect for WWOS and Olympic coverage -- is that he approached every sport with respect. He did his homework and came to each assignment with appreciation for the athletes' performance. Nowadays, when sportscasters are so narrowly focused, so proud of their ignorance, and so contemptuous of any sport outside their little cabbage patch, we sure could use more like Jim McKay.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:06 AM - reply - flag:

What a very very cool and great guy.... "The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat" .

posted by Sprdave32 at 08:22 AM - reply - flag:

What Ms. Bat said. .

posted by steelergirl at 10:42 AM - reply - flag:

posted by opel70 at 12:59 PM - reply - flag:

I lived in Baltimore County in the early '80s when Jim McKay was at the peak of his popularity. He was very much identified with the horse breeding set in northern Baltimore County. My (then) soon-to-be-wife and I frequently took walks past his place in Moncton, and we were always struck by the way his grounds were kept. He had a special place with us, and the news was not welcome in our house. I never knew he had been in the Navy during WW2, and had skippered a minesweeper. That's a very rough, dangerous, and unrewarding job, and anyone who can do it is made of some stern stuff. Now he's featured in the Wide Universe of Sports, where there is no agony of defeat.

posted by Howard_T at 04:24 PM - reply - flag:

McKay's coverage of Munich was one of the most unforgettable stories in broadcast news history. I must've seen him say "they're all gone" a dozen times this weekend and it never lost its impact. ESPN Classic ran some old Wide World episodes this weekend in a six-hour block devoted to McKay. I had forgotten how goofy and adventurous the show was, but a 1960s clip of four men climbing the Eiffel Tower with their hands and no safety precautions was a great reminder. I don't think his show ever could have found an audience in this thousand-option entertainment universe, but it was one of the best things about the weekend when I was growing up in the '70s.

posted by rcade at 10:01 AM - reply - flag:

I don't think his show ever could have found an audience in this thousand-option entertainment universe, I think it would have done well, but we would have known it as: wideworldofsports.com or jim-mckays-sports.com And it would have been a weekly blog that contained amazing clips, commentary from Jim McKay, inciteful guest commentary from the athletes involved in the clips, and 50,000,000 stupid f*cking messages from morons about how they saw this clip on youtube, or it's fake, or anyone can do that, or McKay sucks.

posted by grum@work at 11:23 AM - reply - flag:

* "...the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat"

posted by BornIcon at 01:56 PM - reply - flag:

I remember watching the Seoul olympics 20 years ago and being disappointed that NBC had the coverage of it, mostly just because Jim McKay didn't work for them. Also, they only played their stupid John Tesh olympic music instead of the awesome trumpet stuff.

posted by LionIndex at 03:47 PM - reply - flag:

^{BornIcon: I may be wrong here, but I think the asterisk means "asshole", not "sigh." Alternatively, it means "accomplishment tarnished by use of performance enhancing drugs."}

posted by rcade at 04:05 PM - reply - flag:

My bad .

posted by BornIcon at 05:57 AM - reply - flag:

Saturday, June 07, 2008

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