A veteran of the U.S. Navy, McKay died of natural causes in Maryland. The Museum of Broadcast Communications has called the Wide World of Sports the most successful and longest running sports program in the history of television. They’re all gone, he said. McKay called that day the most important of his career.
I knew him to be smart, literate, and quick on his feet — and there wouldn’t be any need for someone to write his copy. “He meant so much to so many people. McKay memorably reported the news that eleven Israeli hostages had been killed.
Mr. McKay’s triumphant introduction to the program included the lines the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat, a statement that became well-known to television viewers.
ESPN, the sports partner for ABC, said Mr. He was the anchor when events turned grim with the news that Palestinian terrorists kidnapped 11 Israeli athletes.
He was 87. He covered the police beat for the Baltimore Evening Sun newspaper before becoming the writer, producer, director and star of WMAR-TV, the city’s first television station.
“He had a remarkable career and a remarkable life,” said Sean McManus, McKay’s son and the president of CBS News and Sports. ”
McKay was the first sportscaster to win an Emmy Award. McKay also covered 12 Olympics, but none more memorably than the Summer Games in Munich, Germany.
McKay called that day the most important of his career. Arledge recalled in Roone. McKay can be seen singing an Irish song in an old kinescope, and as the credits roll in this documentary, he reprises the theme song, crooning, ‘We’re going to chase all your blues away/Gonna make you feel just like the real McKay,’ Richard Sandomir reported in 2003. “He meant so much to so many people.
Mr. Arledge recalled in Roone. He covered the police beat for the Baltimore Evening Sun newspaper before becoming the writer, producer, director and star of WMAR-TV, the city’s first television station. It was left to McKay to tell Americans when a commando raid to rescue the athletes ended in tragedy.
McKay, born in 1921 in Philadelphia as James Kenneth McManus, graduated from Loyola College in Baltimore.
McKay also covered 12 Olympics, but none more memorably than the Summer Games in Munich, Germany. Roone Arledge, who later became the president of ABC Sports, called Mr.
McKay died of natural causes in Maryland. McManus became Mr. McKay called that day the most important of his career. “I don’t know what else would match that.
He was host of ABC’s influential “Wide World of Sports” for more than 40 years, starting in 1961. He was 86. McKay a mainstay of ABC Sports, one of our great and truly classy professionals. S.
