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What: “The Real McKay: My Wide World of Sports,” by Jim McKay

Publisher: Dutton

Price: $24.95

Sometimes nice guys do finish first. Jim McKay is a gold-medal winning announcer, and a gold-medal winning person. His book is like the man himself--a joy to be with. McKay’s story shows hard work pays off, and so does being in the right place at the right time.

He opens with a look back at the murder of 11 Israelis at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, then gets into the life of Jim McManus, McKay’s real name. He writes about growing up in Philadelphia and about meeting his wife, Margaret, when they both wrote for the Baltimore Evening Sun. That newspaper job led McKay into a television job during the industry’s early days in the late 1940s. And his TV job in Baltimore led him to WCBS-TV in New York. But he was out of work in 1961 when Roone Arledge offered him a job as the host of what was supposed to only be a summer-replacement show. It ended up being more than that. The show: “ABC’s Wide World of Sports.”

It was his boss at WCBS, Dick Swift, who asked him to change his name so he could host a show called “The Real McKay.” It was also Swift who set up a meeting between Arthur Godfrey and McKay. It was Godfrey who offered McKay advice that stayed with him forever.

“First, always be yourself on television,” Godfrey said. “That camera has an X-ray quality to it, son; it spots a phony every time.”

McKay hardly portrays his life as perfect. A nervous breakdown almost ended his career before it flourished. Two days after CBS asked him to do commentary on ski racing at the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley, he showed his hands to Margaret and they were shaking. A neighborhood doctor said he was just burned out and prescribed tranquilizers. But they only made things worse. So did a trip to Florida. McKay was depressed, and it became worse when he saw Chris Schenkel doing his assignment at Squaw Valley. A psychiatrist in Connecticut--and Margaret--saved McKay, and his career. He worked the Rome Olympics for CBS that summer.

There have been some recent troubles for McKay, who is still working part time for ABC. He and Margaret have both had heart surgery, and Margaret recently had a kidney removed. But generally life is good. Their son, Sean McManus, is the president of CBS Sports.