If there was one person whom I could point to as being the key person in forming me into a sports fan from a young age, that person wouldn't be a star athlete or coach. It would be an announcer - Jim McKay. No one has ever been better at conveying the real emotion that goes into sports - any sport. As he would say each week in the intro to "Wide World of Sports", it was "the human drama of athletic competition" that he understood and perhaps was better than anyone at getting through to the audience.
Jim McKay died today at his home in Maryland at the age of 86. Most obituaries will (rightfully) lead with his coverage of the Munich Olympics tragedy, the former newspaper police beat reporter thrust into the role of television newsman telling the world about the most horrific of all crimes. And having covered 12 Olympics, the link between the event and McKay is strong.
But what made McKay such a great Olympics host is what made him perfect for his "Wide World of Sports" duties. He was able to take a sporting event - any sporting event - and decipher the real emotion of the competitors. It might be the Gran Prix in Monaco, or a table tennis championship in China, or demolition derby from Florida - for the men and women competing, these events meant the world to them, and he owed it to them to get that across to the audience.
In his autobiography, he tells of broadcasting from the World Barrel Jumping championships from upstate New York in the 1960s. The leading competitor was trying to break a world record for barrels cleared (something like 17), one that was considered to be unbreakable by those in the barrel jumping world. And when this person made his attempt, and set the world record, the crowd reacted as if it was a home run in Game 7 of the World Series. The crowd rushed the ice to carry him off on their shoulders; his wife came to greet him in tears; and as McKay noted in his book, it was hard not to get caught up in the excitement, and why not - for this group of people, this was the biggest event in their worlds. His job was to make sure that the rest of us understood that feeling, even if our interests in barrel jumping were limited.
As I've mentioned, I'll always link Jim McKay and the Indianapolis 500 in my mind. I think that Jim McKay was such a unique motorsports announcer for me because he didn't try to be oblivious or dismissive of the dangers associated with the sport. In fact, he quit broadcasting the 500 for several years in the 1970s after becoming tired of seeing brave men be carried away in stretchers or body bags. But at the same time, it's that ever-present danger that makes auto racing such a uniquely compelling sport - you care because it's not just hyperbole to say that the drivers are "putting it all on the line" every race.
I'll leave with Jim McKay's commentary (along with Sam Posey) of the final few laps of the 1982 Indianapolis 500, and Rick Mears' frantic attempts to catch and pass Gordon Johncock. I'm sorry if you don't get goosebumps the same way I do. There never will be another broadcaster like Jim McKay, not that I can see. Announcers today feel the need to resort to shouting, screaming and other vocal tics to let you know that THIS IS INTENSE!!! Jim McKay was able to convey that ten times over with half the volume and frenetics, because he actually felt the emotion.
