The Original Mr. Olympics

Once upon a time — a few days before they lit the torch for Athens 2004, if memory serves me — your humble blogger penned his usual preview of the planned Olympic broadcast coverage for the Ottawa Sun.
(at least it was 'usual' procedure for seven Games while I was there).
Often, those pre-Olympic columns would revolve around an interview with the CBC's then-dean of the Games, Brian Williams (now at TSN). A veteran of the sporting Big Show that I dubbed the network's "Mr. Olympics" before those Summer Games in Greece (it was such a good reference that Peter Mansbridge used it to introduce the esteemed Mr. Williams before the Mother Corp.'s coverage of the opening ceremony in Athens. Undoubtedly a coincidence ... but I digress).
While we Canadians have set our clocks, so to speak, to Williams' direction of prime-time coverage of the Games over the years — gawd, we're gonna miss him in Beijing this summer — another TV broadcaster south of the border had already set the standard for how an Olympics should be presented.
To me, ABC's Jim McKay was the original Mr. Olympics, a distinction and honour he is most worthy of wearing. And this isn't just being said out of necessary respect on the day on which McKay passed away at age 87.
For someone who developed a passion for all things Olympics at a young age, McKay was the gold standard for it all. The man you trusted to give you the straight goods from wherever the Games were being held (a dozen times in all), back when ABC was America's Olympic network (pre-1990s, for those who don't recall).
Of course, McKay is most famous for his work on that terrible day in Munich in 1972, when he carried us all through what would end up being the darkest moment in Olympic history: The massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by Arab terrorists.
"They're all gone," McKay told us when the awful news was confirmed, the tone of his voice truly offering up all that needed to be said.
While McKay's longest association was with ABC's often wild and wacky Wide World of Sports — the anthology show that gave us "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” — I will always remember him as the man who spoke in front of the five rings so many times.
Forever, he'll be Mr. Olympics to me.