"They're All Gone."

jason_els

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With those words, ABC sportscaster Jim McKay told the American public that eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team were murdered in Munich.

Now McKay himself is gone, passing away this morning at the age of 86.

Nothing bores me more than watching sports on TV. Nothing. I'd rather watch The View than watch TV sports. Really. Oddly enough though, I watch the Olympics voraciously; as if all that pent-up male need to watch sports on TV encapsulates itself into two weeks every two years. I'll watch everything from curling to dressage to the athlete biographies. I'll even record one event while watching another. For some unfathomable reason I can even watch softball.

I think Jim McKay has a lot to do with that. For those of you old enough to remember what Jim McKay and ABC brought to us for four weeks every four years, you can't help but remember that time fondly. McKay brought an elegant dignity to sportscasting. I think of him as the Walter Cronkite of sports. He was genuinely enthused about the events he covered, there was no question in that, yet he wasn't bombastic. He wanted to bring us details, to explain what we saw, be informed about the people and places. Jim McKay was a journalist first, explaining complicated matters succinctly and with such quiet enthusiasm that he never came across as patronizing.

The Olympics were Jim McKay's best moments, "From the thrill of victory, to the agony of defeat." I am barely old enough to remember to Munich. I had no concept of what had happened beyond that some people were killed in a place called Germany. McKay brought the news to America with the care and concern of a dear friend calling to tell you a loved one had died. In later years he would be with us through many more Olympics, joyfully showcasing even the most mundane and unpopular events. McKay could do that because every event for him was special. It didn't matter if competitors would become household names or if the sports themselves were popular, these were men and women, famous and obscure, competing on the world stage and somehow, McKay's respect for all of them made you respect them too.

For a long time I kept hoping that the Olympics would return to ABC but that hasn't happened, and now my main reason for wanting that return has gone. Bob Costas is a nice guy, but he's no Jim McKay even though he tries very hard to model him.

I'm very sorry for those of you who don't remember him. You missed one hell of a class act.

He had been the host of ABC's Wide World of Sports since the days of black and white. But it was on that tragic day, Sept. 5, 1972, that he became the very image and voice of the Games&#8212;Mr. Olympics.

Something in his tone and demeanor spoke to people's hearts during those long hours when everyone waited for word of the hostages' fate. Was it the sound of solace in his voice? His reassuring manner? The sense that he could be trusted in a moment of crisis? Probably all of these. The fact is that when McKay's shoulders fell and he announced plaintively, "They're all gone," the mantle had been conferred on him. He's an enthusiastic man, a bright-eyed optimist who forever sees a medal being won, not lost. Yet it was the tragedy that let him be seen as he'd never been seen before.

When the terrorists struck that Tuesday morning in '72, McKay had just come out of the sauna at his hotel and was getting ready to take a swim. It was supposed to have been his only day off during the Olympics. ABC Sports president Roone Arledge could have chosen Schenkel or Howard Cosell to report the story, but he summoned McKay. "There's a steadiness there. Jim has a depth and a sense of the moment," Arledge says. "He has a descriptive ability and can stay on the air for a long time. He would have made a wonderful anchorman at a convention or in an election. In that sense he's very much like [Walter] Cronkite." -Sports Illustrated
 
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marleyisalegend

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this is AWFUL. my heart goes out to them and their families, loss of life AND this talent is unacceptable. i didn't read the article so maybe this was addressed but i hope the culprit(s) are caught/dealt with.
 

Principessa

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"They're all gone."
I remember that broadcast and Jim McKay. I remember my mom tearing up as she explained to me what was going on while keeping an eye on our huge floor model television set.

Our Sundays were not complete without ABC's, Wide World of Sports.

I agree with you Jason and couldn't say it better.
"McKay brought an elegant dignity to sportscasting. I think of him as the Walter Cronkite of sports. He was genuinely enthused about the events he covered, there was no question in that, yet he wasn't bombastic. He wanted to bring us details, to explain what we saw, be informed about the people and places. Jim McKay was a journalist first, explaining complicated matters succinctly and with such quiet enthusiasm that he never came across as patronizing."
He will be missed. He was one of the great ones.

FWIW- I find Bob Costas attractive in a New England Prep School sort of way; but he ruins it when he opens his mouth. He often reports on sports he doesn't like, care about, or understand with a smug, condescending air. Jim McKay would never have done that.


 

jason_els

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this is AWFUL. my heart goes out to them and their families, loss of life AND this talent is unacceptable. i didn't read the article so maybe this was addressed but i hope the culprit(s) are caught/dealt with.

:hmmm:

I'm certain the families of the murdered athletes, Mr. McKay, the nation of Israel, and the Olympic community appreciate your sentiment and outrage.
 

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this is AWFUL. my heart goes out to them and their families, loss of life AND this talent is unacceptable. i didn't read the article so maybe this was addressed but i hope the culprit(s) are caught/dealt with.

For Marley and the other younguns here who couldn't possibly remember that day in September, as you weren't to be born for at least another 10-15 years. I have linked the Wikipedia summary of that terrorist attack. :cool:

The Munich massacre occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by Black September, a group with ties to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization.

By the end of the ordeal, the terrorist group had killed eleven Israeli athletes and coaches and one German police officer. Five of the eight terrorists were killed by police officers during an abortive rescue attempt. The three surviving terrorists were captured, and were later released by West Germany following the hijacking of a Lufthansa airliner, a release that has led to speculation that West Germany had helped stage the Lufthansa hijacking.[3][4]

Israel responded to the massacre with Operation Spring of Youth and Operation Wrath of God, a series of Israeli air strikes and assassinations of those Israel claimed were planners of the killings. It has since been claimed[who?] that evidence against those killed was uncorroborated[5] and it is known that one innocent civilian was mistakenly killed by Mossad agents in Norway.[6]


The dead of the Munich massacre


Shot during the initial break-in:
Shot and blown up by grenade in D-HAQO (eastern) helicopter: (according to the order in which they were seated, from left to right)
Shot in D-HADU (western) helicopter: (according to the order in which they were seated, from left to right)
Shot on airstrip:
Terrorists shot dead by German police: