McManus on McKay, A Father And Mentor

I read with sadness of the death of sportscaster Jim McKay this weekend. McKay was before my time, and, as a veteran sportscaster, outside the ambit of most of my interest, but I had read a great and moving article about him a year and a half ago that I remembered well. It was by his son, CBS News & Sports president Sean McManus, on the back essay page of Best Life magazine, and it was in that essay that I learned that McKay's sports coverage had veered into the tragic, reporting on the horrendous events of the 1972 Olympics in Munich, when the terrorist group Black September struck inside the Olympic village, killing eleven Israeli athletes and officials, plus a German police officer.

McManus had been with his father that day, and he recounted it in his essay:

My dad talked about those values a lot--doing your job, living up to your responsibilities--but it wasn't until September of 1972, on a day that changed our lives forever, that he showed me exactly what he meant. I was 17, and my dad had taken our family along to Munich while he covered the Olympics. September 4th was meant to be his day off, and he was going to take a swim and then he and I were going to spend the day together touring Munich. That morning he called me and said, "Something's come up. I've had to go to work." I asked if I could join him, so he sent a car for me and I camped out in the control room with Roone Arledge and the rest of the ABC team. It was then that I saw what was happening: Terrorists had taken members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage.

My dad was in the anchor chair, reporting on the events, for 18 hours straight. Up until then he'd been a respected sports commentator, but hardly a big celebrity. But the grace and determination he showed during the ordeal made him a household name, especially with those famous words: "They're all gone." I remember riding back with him after it was over, when the outcome couldn't have been worse. He was exhausted, and all he said to me was, "I think we did the job that we were asked to do." We got back to the hotel, and he undressed. He still had his swimsuit on under his clothes.

McManus said that there had been "probably 1,500 letters and telegrams" about that event waiting for McKay when they returned, including one from Walter Cronkite. Years later, McManus was named president of CBS News, and his father cried when he told him that Cronkite had called him "boss."

In the essay, McManus said that his father "always told me a man had to live up to his job...I try to follow not only my dad's words, but his example: As long as I do the job I'm asked to do, everything else will be all right."

A Lesson in Hanging Tough [Best Life]
Jim McKay, 1921-2008 [MSNBC]