Barry MacKay

Barry MacKay

MacKay in Michigan, 1957
Country (sports)	United States
Born	(1935-08-31)August 31, 1935 Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Died	June 15, 2012(2012-06-15) (aged 76) San Francisco, USA
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Turned pro	1961 (amateur tour from 1953)
Retired	1974
Plays	Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Singles
Highest ranking	No. 4 (1959, Lance Tingay)[1]
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	SF (1959)
French Open	QF (1960)
Wimbledon	SF (1959)
US Open	QF (1959)
Professional majors
US Pro	SF (1961, 1962)
Wembley Pro	QF (1961, 1962, 1967)
French Pro	QF (1961, 1963, 1967)

Barry MacKay (August 31, 1935 – June 15, 2012) was an American tennis player, tournament director and tennis broadcaster.^[2] While competing in college for the University of Michigan, he won the singles title at the 1957 NCAA Men's Tennis Championship to clinch the team title for Michigan. He was also a finalist in the 1957 NCAA doubles competition with Dick Potter. He competed on five United States Davis Cup teams from 1956 to 1960 and was a doubles finalist at the U.S. Open in 1958, with Sam Giammalva. He reached the singles semifinals at Wimbledon in 1959, losing to Rod Laver. He was seeded No. 1 at the French Championships in 1960, and reached the quarterfinals. He had won the Italian Championships in early May, beating defending champion, Luis Ayala, in five sets. MacKay has twice won the Pacific Coast Championships, first in 1959, and again in 1960, when he won ten more tournaments, to earn the No. 1 ranking in the United States. Also in 1960, he won the Bob Hope Award for the Amateur Athlete of the Year.

Mackay died in San Francisco on June 15, 2012 after a long illness.^[3]

Early years

MacKay was born in Cincinnati and grew up in Dayton, Ohio. He was the Ohio State High School Tennis Champion in 1952.

Playing career

MacKay enjoyed a 20-year career as an amateur and a professional tennis player. He started in the early 1950s as the Ohio state high school champion. From there, he enrolled at the University of Michigan and played under tennis coach William E. "Bill" Murphy. He practiced often with Andy Paton,Jr, who made him a better player. He won five Big Ten Conference championships while at the University of Michigan -- singles championships in 1956 and 1957, and doubles championships with partner, Dick Potter, in 1955, 1956, and 1957.^[4] In June 1957, when MacKay won the singles title at the NCAA Men's Tennis Championship, defeating Sam Giammalva in five sets at Salt Lake City, the Michigan Wolverines captured their first and only NCAA Team Championship. He was the first Big Ten player to win the NCAA singles title, was a runner-up for the doubles title with partner, Dick Potter, losing in four sets to Crawford Henry and Ron Holmberg of Tulane, and was the first Michigan player to be named as an All-American.

MacKay also played on five United States Davis Cup teams in 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1960. The 1958 Davis Cup team of Alex Olmedo, Ham Richardson, and Barry MacKay beat Australia for the Championship.

After winning the NCAA Singles Title in June 1957, MacKay played amateur tennis for three additional summers. In 1959, at Wimbledon, he lost in the semifinals to Rod Laver in 87 games over five sets 11–13, 11–9, 10–8, 7–9, 6–3. In 1960, he was ranked as the No. 1 amateur in the U.S. after winning eleven tournaments: Atlanta, Buffalo, Dallas, River Oaks, River Forest (U.S. Clay Courts), Rome (Italian Championship), New York Indoors (Nationals), Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tuscaloosa, and Victoria, Australia. MacKay defeated defending champion, Luis Ayala, in the final of the Italian Championship in five sets and was seeded No. 1 at the 1960 French Championships, where he lost in the quarterfinals in straight sets to Orlando Sirola.

In 1961, MacKay turned professional. He played three years with the Jack Kramer Professional Tennis Tour. MacKay recalled the Kramer Tour, "Matches were played in one city after another on a nightly basis across the country and around the world. It was a barnstorming type of tour."^[5]

Directing tournaments

In 1964, MacKay moved to California and worked for Jack Kramer on the International Professional Tennis Tour. He remained with Kramer through the late 1960s. In 1970, MacKay bought a controlling interest in the Pacific Coast Championships in Berkeley, California. In 1973, he started a company named BMK Sports, which operated his major tennis event. MacKay sold the tournament in 1995.^[5] MacKay had served as tournament director and promoter for more than 12 annual events, highlighted by two U.S. Davis Cup finals.

Donald Dell, a longtime friend, remained his business agent until he died. Dick Gould, legendary coach at Stanford University, was a close personal friend in the Bay Area.

Broadcasting career

Starting in the 1970s, MacKay became a tennis 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, 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 and DirecTV. 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.^[6]

Death

Mackay died in San Francisco on June 15, 2012 after a long illness. He is survived by his wife, Michele and daughter, Kelly.^[7][8]

Honors

• Inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1980.
• Inducted into the Cincinnati Tennis Hall of Fame in 2003.
• Inducted into the NCAA Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987.
• Presented the Bob Hope Award for "Amateur Athlete of the Year" in 1960.
• Honored by Bob Kramer at the Los Angeles Open Hall of Fame in 2005 for winning the event.
• Honored by Indian Wells tournament March 14, 2013 for his contributions to Tennis.

See also

• University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor

References

External links

• Barry MacKay at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Barry MacKay at the International Tennis Federation
• Barry MacKay at the Davis Cup
• The Tennis Channel: Profile of Barry MacKay
• Alumni Update: Barry MacKay (1955-57), March 2007
• 1957 NCAA Singles Champion
• U.S.Championship Doubles finalist in 1958
• Barry MacKay at the Internet Movie Database