Jim McKay
Encyclopedia : J : JI : JIM : Jim McKay
James Kenneth McManus, better known by his professional name of Jim McKay (born September 24, 1921 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), is an American television sports journalist. McKay is best known for hosting ABC's Wide World of Sports (1961–1998)—his "...thrill of victory, agony of defeat" introduction for that program has passed into American pop culture—and television coverage of twelve Olympic Games. McKay has also covered a wide variety of special events, including horse races such as the Kentucky Derby, golf events such as the British Open, and the Indianapolis 500.
Honors
McKay has won numerous awards for journalism, including two Emmys and the George Polk Award just for his sports and news coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympics. In 1988, McKay was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.Munich
While covering the Munich Massacre in 1972, McKay had taken on the job of reporting the events as Roone Arledge fed them into his earpiece. After the botched rescue attempt, he came on the air with this statement:"Our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized. Our worst fears have been realized tonight. They've now said that there were eleven hostages; two were killed in their rooms yesterday morning, nine were killed at the airport tonight. They're all gone."[link], [link] [link]
1994-present
In 1994, he was the studio host for the World Cup coverage, the first ever held on American soil. In 2002, ABC "loaned" McKay to NBC to serve as a special correspondent during the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. Jim McKay's son Sean McManus[link], has made a name for himself as he now serves as president of both CBS Sports and CBS News. Jim McKay also covered the 2006 FIFA World Cup for for ABC.See also
External links
- http://www.americansportscasters.com/mckay.html
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.