“September 5th” is a new film from our sister company, Paramount, about the television coverage of the infamous Palestinian terrorist attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics. We have thoughts on that day from Sean McManus, who, until recently he recently ran CBS Sports and, before that, CBS News. But in 1972, he was just a teenager, in Munich, watching his famous father, ABC sportscaster Jim McKay, deliver the terrible news to the world…
In September 1972, I was a sophomore in high school and my mother, sister and I accompanied my father to the 1972 Munich Olympics. The organizing committee was trying to help erase the memory of the 1936 Olympics overseen by Adolf Hitler None of the security guards carried guns, and they all wore light blue suits, making them the “peaceful games”.
The start of the Games was spectacular, with stars like Olga Korbut and Mark Spitz.
Then, in the early morning hours of September 5th, everything went horribly, horribly wrong.
The ABC sports crew heard gunshots coming from the Olympic Village. My father was summoned from the pool where he was doing laps. He sat in the anchor chair and for the next 15 hours covered the first terrorist attack live on television.
McKay: “Arab terrorists, armed with machine guns, went to the Israeli team headquarters and immediately killed one man. Since then, they have held 14 more hostages.”
I joined my father in the studio and stayed by his side until the early hours of the morning.
The professionalism of the men and women of ABC Sports was remarkable as they faced the most horrific of circumstances and presented it to a live audience of over 900 million people.
At about 3:30 in the morning, my father was having a conversation with Peter Jennings and [sports commentator] Chris Schenkel. And you could tell he had received some news through his earpiece.
ABC Sports
He looked at Peter and said, “You know, my father used to say that our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized. Well, our worst fears have been realized tonight. Now they say there there were 11 Israeli hostages; two were. killed in their rooms Nine have been killed at the airport tonight.
We went home early in the morning. My father asked the reception for his key. The concierge handed him a telegram. We read it together. “Jim, you were fantastic yesterday. You and your industry have reason to be proud. Congratulations, Walter Cronkite.”
I get emotional when I talk about this, because my father at that very moment was the perfect combination of objectivity, professionalism and, perhaps most of all, humanity.
To watch a trailer for “September 5th,” click the video player below:
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Story produced by Gabriel Falcon. Editor: Ed Givnish.