Sportscaster Jim McKay

[Bill O'Neill]

Peter Q. George wrote:
> I will never forget at the age 12 with the '72 Munich Olympic Games, watching the tragic events unfold on live television when McKay's solemn announcement that all of the Israeli athletes were killed by terrorists..... "They're all gone.".  Even today (36 years later), watching that clip still gives me the shivers.  RIP Jim McKay.  
Not only was that a key point in world history, but it was a changing 
point in television. What was, essentially, a sports broadcast, morphed 
into a hard-news broadcast - and one that was more than sufficient.  The 
world got a little more serious that day; when that happens, there's a 
'ratchet-effect' in that there is never a complete roll-back.  9/11 was 
an obvious example.  As for McKay, as integral that he was to any 
broadcast that he was on, he never made it about him.  Someone McKay's 
his playbook and no one has ever recaptured it.

Bill O'Neill