The Real Mckay

The voice most closely associated with the Olympics is that of 80-year-old Jim McKay, who joins NBC as a guest essayist during the Salt Lake City Games. Here are some things you may not know about him:

•He was a painfully shy child. When he was a 12-year-old route boy for Collier's and Women's Home Companion magazines, his younger sister, Mary Lou, had to knock on doors to collect payment because he was too timid.

•He was a U.S. Navy officer in World War II and was discharged a lieutenant after spending four years on a minesweeper, escorting convoys from Trinidad to Brazil.

•Born James McManus, he was a reporter for The Sun in Baltimore in 1947 when a colleague asked him to host a variety show on a new medium. McKay's face became the first seen on Baltimore television. Three years later he changed his name at the request of a producer who wanted him to host a program called The Real McKay.

•His wife of 53 years, Margaret (above, with Jim), was a fellow Sun reporter. Before their first date, at a game between the Baltimore Colts and the San Francisco 49ers, she correctly predicted it would end in a 28-28 tie. He and Margaret, who's his manager, are minority owners of the Baltimore Orioles.

•During the 1968 Games in Grenoble, McKay's first researcher, Dick Ebersol (now NBC Sports chairman), crouched behind McKay's desk and handed him index cards with information while McKay was on air.

•He has won 13 Emmy Awards, but he says his most prized honor is a cable he got after his marathon coverage of the Munich Olympics massacre. It read, "Today you honored yourself, your network and your industry." It was signed by Walter Cronkite.

•McKay is believed to be the first person to hit a golf ball over the Great Wall of China. "Right into history's most unplayable lie," he says.

•Unlike most broadcasters, he regularly writes his own copy. His most memorable phrase? "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat."