AUGUSTA, Ga. – On the final day of his tenure as chairman of CBS Sports, Sean McManus headed to Amen Corner at Augusta National Golf Club to soak it all in one more time and have a conversation with his father, who passed away in 2008.
“My father,” he said, “loved Amen Corner almost as much as I do.”
McManus, 69, is the son of Jim McKay, who hosted ABC’s “Wide World of Sports,” covered 12 Olympics and became one of the most familiar faces in sports broadcasting. McKay also worked at CBS from 1950-61 and hosted coverage of the Masters from 1957-60. On a media Zoom call last week, CBS’s Jim Nantz recounted how McKay got a telegram the week of the 1960 Masters to call this young, fledgling producer at ABC Sports named Roone Arledge.
“My understanding is there was a payphone on one of the outer walls of the clubhouse and Mr. McKay called and spoke to Arledge and he offered him the job to host this idea of a show he called ‘Wide World of Sports,’ ” Nantz said.
McManus practically was born to work in sports, growing up traveling with his father to a wide array of sporting events. He was hired by ABC Sports in the fall of 1977 and started as a production assistant at its New York City studio. Speaking at a cocktail reception at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February, McManus noted, “the first trip I ever took as a production assistant for ABC Sports was here to Pebble Beach. Pleased to say I have a better room now than I had then.”
He joined CBS Sports as president in December 1996. This is the 69th straight year for the Masters on CBS, making it the longest current relationship between a network and sporting event.
“You think about 74 years with the McManus family having their fingerprints on an event,” Nantz said. “It’s pretty cool to think three-quarters of a century. His dad had a mark on the tournament, Sean had a gigantic mark on this tournament for 28 years. … The symmetry of that being the last show that his dad ever broadcast for CBS. … It’s pretty amazing.”
CBS Sports commentator Jim Nantz with CBS Sports president David Berson (right) and chairman Sean McManus before the semifinals of the Final Four in the 2014 NCAA Mens Division I Championship at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. (Photo: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports)
CBS has been a partner of the PGA Tour since 1968, and the network this season is broadcasting 18 events during the FedEx Cup season. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan commended McManus at Pebble Beach for his leadership style.
“He’s a very direct, tough-minded, convicted business person, highly respected by everybody on his team, and everybody he works with. And I’ve never seen those traits and seen so much love. It goes back to the person that I see in Sean McManus,” he said.
As McManus began considering his retirement two years ago, he decided that this year – with CBS broadcasting the Super Bowl in February, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in March and the Masters in April – was the right time.
“When I was deciding what was going to be my last event,” he said, “It was clear to me that Augusta National should be my last event. One of the great privileges of my life and my career is the opportunity to be so closely associated with Augusta National and the Masters. And when I look back on my career, I think I will do so with the most pride around Augusta National and the Masters.”