Barry MacKay obit

 

Barry MacKay: 1935-2012 / Tennis standout ran Bay Area tourney

He was not on the list.

Barry MacKay, the man largely responsible for a golden era in Northern California tennis, died Friday in San Francisco after a long illness. He was 76.

Mr. MacKay was a world-class player in the 1960s and a longtime broadcaster of major events, but he is known locally as the director of the annual men's tournament on the professional tour. He purchased a controlling interest in the event in 1970, when it was known as the Pacific Coast Championships and played at the Berkeley Tennis Club, and he later started a company known as BMK Sports, through which he organized and promoted the event.

Thanks to Mr. MacKay's influence, the event drew such stars as John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg in the late 1970s and early '80s, by which time it had moved to Daly City's Cow Palace.

Regrettably, that event has lost its luster and is about to leave the Bay Area altogether. The SAP Open, held at San Jose's HP Pavilion, drew mostly second-tier players over the years and was recently sold and moved to Memphis, meaning that the 2013 event will be the last in the Bay Area until further notice.

Originally from Dayton, Ohio, Mr. MacKay won the 1957 NCAA men's singles title to clinch the team title for Michigan. He competed on five U.S. Davis Cup teams from 1956 to 1960, reached the 1959 Wimbledon semifinals, and earned the No. 1 seed at the 1960 French Open. He was ranked No. 1 in the United States in 1960 and won the Bob Hope Award that year as Amateur Athlete of the Year.

Mr. MacKay turned pro in 1961 and played three years on Jack Kramer's barnstorming tour along with some of the sport's all-time greats. He spent 30 years broadcasting Wimbledon and the U.S. Open for various networks, and as recently as 2008, he was NBC's play-by-play announcer for Olympic tennis.

"Barry will be remembered as one of the transitional figures in the game's growth," said Oakland tennis journalist/historian Joel Drucker. "Back in the '60s, he'd always say, 'One day we're going to be playing tournaments for $100,000 in prize money,' and they thought he was crazy. He was a big-serving, highly competitive player, and his vision, spirit and generosity were all bigger than life."

Barry's closest friends were his agent, Donald Dell, tennis historian, Bud Collins, Stanford Tennis Coach, Dick Gould, College Hall of Famer, Mike Franks, and player/broadcaster, Brad Gilbert.

Starting in the 1970s, MacKay became a Tennis Broadcaster. In 2001, he helped launch Tennis Channel as a Broadcaster. Over his 30-year broadcasting career, MacKay teamed with Arthur Ashe, Bud Collins, Donald Dell, Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Jimmy Connors, Chris Evert, John McEnroe, Pam Shriver, Tracy Austin, Justin Gimelstob, and Leif Shiras. He was the on-air voice for American broadcasts of the U.S. Open, Wimbledon, French Open, Australian Open, and many ATP and WTA tournaments. He also provided color commentary, play-by-play, and lead analysis for The Tennis Channel, DirecTV, and Versus. He spent 30 years with HBO broadcasting Wimbledon, and the US Open on USA Network. He provided color commentary on Fox Sports Network, and served as the play-by-play announcer for the NBC Sports coverage of tennis at the 2008 Summer Olympics in China.