Three words from ABC-TV’s Jim McKay, delivered at 3:24 a.m. in West Germany, brought the world to a standstill.
“They’re all gone.”
Dead were 11 members of the Israeli delegation to the Summer Olympics in Munich.
It began Sept. 5, 1972, a Tuesday a half-century ago today. Just before dawn, eight members of a Palestinian terrorist group, aptly called Black September, broke into the Israelis’ apartments in the Olympic village. Two who resisted were killed in early moments of the attack. Nine others — athletes, coaches and team officials — were held hostage in a tense standoff that lasted some 18 hours, riveting the world.
TSN Archives: The ‘Munich Massacre' at the 1972 Olympics (Sept. 13, 1972, issue)
McKay anchored ABC’s coverage for 14 hours straight. In the rush to come in on what was supposed to be a welcome off-day at the Games, he wore his swimsuit under his slacks,
Correspondent Dave Dorr wrote for The Sporting News:
Tuesday, September 5, was to have been a day of rest at the Olympic Games. A day to see the actors at Spielstrasse. Listen to the flutes. Catch the subway and shop in downtown Munich. But when this city awoke from a night of beer drinking and gemuetlichkeit, it found an army of uniformed men surrounding the eight-foot-high fence of the Olympic village.
That the Olympics could be used as a political tool and a public showcase for acts of terrorism was a fear which had been whispered quietly among members of the International Olympic Committee since violence erupted at Mexico City in 1968.
Late in the evening, the terrorists and hostages were transferred by helicopter from the Olympic village to a military air base, where they were to board a plane bound for an undetermined Arab country. A surprise rescue attempt by West German authorities went awry almost immediately when they underestimated the number of terrorists. It would be hours, into Sept. 6, before McKay would solemnly confirm the awful news.
"Our worst fears have been realized tonight,” he said. “They have now said that there were 11 hostages. Two were killed in their rooms yesterday morning. Nine were killed at the airport tonight. They’re all gone.”
(All but three of the terrorists were killed, too. The survivors were taken into custody, but they were released by the West German government on Oct. 29, 1972, in exchange for the crew and passengers from a hijacked Lufthansa flight.)
Understand the in-the-moment U.S. media landscape at the time. No 24-hour news channels, no internet, no satellite radio. Columnist Joe Falls would write in The Sporting News: “I left Munich on the morning the killings started in the Olympic village and didn’t know what had happened until my plane flew clear across the Atlantic Ocean and landed in Detroit.” Falls lamented missing “the biggest story of my life,” tragic as it was.
TSN Archives: Where do Olympics go from here (Sept. 13, 1972, issue)
On the ground in West Germany came the immediate question: What of the Games?
Columnist Melvin Durslag, on site in Munich, would write in The Sporting News: “Understandably, a lively discussion developed here over whether the 1972 Olympic Games should have resumed following the unspeakable disaster visiting one of the delegations.”
But when the suffocating shock began to wear off, Durslag added, a lot of people got angry at themselves.
“Is the world to retreat to an attic?”
The column was part of The Sporting News’ coverage, signaled on the cover in all-caps: “OLYMPIC IDEAL BATHED IN GRIEF” though TSN being TSN, the cover subject was “Exciting Rookie Carlton Fisk of Red Sox”.
Inside, Dorr wrote from Munich: “What had been planned as a festive moment was surrounded by sadness. For five years Germany had worked to make the Munich games the happiest of all Olympics, seeking to erase forever the stigma of 1936 at Berlin and Hitler's tyranny.”
“If the Olympic movement is to continue,” said U.S. shot-putter George Woods, a silver medalist, “we are going to have to find a way to keep the politics out. Otherwise ... well, who knows?"
But therein lies the fundamental truth: There is no way to keep the politics out of the Olympics. They've always been political and always will be. How else can you describe an event where athletes wear their countries’ colors (or aren't allowed to wear their country's colors), the winners’ national anthems are played and countries' medal counts cyphered?
TSN Archives: U.S. basketball’s chaotic loss to Soviets (Sept. 23, 1972, issue)
If not for the horror of Sept. 5, 1972, those Games 50 years ago might be remembered for U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz winning an astounding seven gold medals.
Or Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut, the “Sparrow from Minsk,” who won three golds and brought a heretofore unseen acrobatic style to the sport.
Or maybe Team USA’s disputed loss to the Soviet Union in the men’s basketball gold medal game, a stunning end to America's streak of 63 consecutive Olympic victories and seven straight gold medals.
But that would bring global politics back into the discussion, wouldn't it?
Instead, The Sporting News’ primary coverage of the 1972 Olympics ran under a headline: “Munich: Murder, Mourning, Medals”.