Perhaps Big Brown just couldn’t bear to run without one of the sports biggest fans watching, Jim McKay, legendary sports casting legend, has died at 86. His list of accomplishments is too long to place here, but he won numerous awards and took sports reporting to new levels that is, in many ways, responsible for the success of today’s sports dominated cable channels like ESPN.
Jim McKay, as far as I was concerned, was the voice of sports when I was growing up. From his heart stopping coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympics, one of my earliest memories, to his role as host of ABC’s Wide World Of Sports, McKay defined sports announcing. One of the things I was looking forward to this summer was McKay’s reporting at the Olympics. He had previously covered 12 of them.
I’ll have to double check if there is a tribute to McKay at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex here in Orlando, but if there isn’t, it’s time for Disney to put one in. Sports Illustrated and ESPN.com both have tributes on their websites today.
From all here at The Disney Blog our condolences to McKay’s family and his family at ABC sports.
Update: See a wonderful tribute poem by Abe Jones added in the comments.
MUCH MORE THAN SPORTS
James Kenneth McManus
September 24, 1921 – June 7, 2008
We heard the, “thrill of victory,
and the agony of defeat”
We all knew when he said it
That, we’d be in for a treat.
Through the, “Wide World Of Sports”
He showed us places, never seen
From the North Pole to the South
And all of those, in between.
He spent years spanning the Globe
And brought us news and sports
And from the Olympics in Munich
He gave us all, those sad reports.
His passion was the sport of kings
Founder of the, “Maryland Million Day”
His love of horses and their races
Lasting, until his final day.
A legend in the sports industry
But, he left us so much more
Showed, it’s how you play the game
It’s not how much, you score.
This World will be a lesser place
Without his great charm and wit
Yes, he surely will be missed
Much more, than just a little bit.
Del “Abe” Jones
06.08.2008
[email protected]
“Mankind’s greatest accomplishment is not the revolution of technology it is the evolution of creativity ” copyright Del “Abe” Jones 1984
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