Keith Jackson: One of the Greats is Gone

This is the Statt Mann Baby. Time to Scatt a little bit.

Tough hearing about Keith Jackson’s death this weekend. He didn’t wake up Saturday morning at the age of 89.

I worked with Keith some forty years ago at a Los Angeles television station.

One evening we got into a deep conversation about our dreams and wishes. One of his? He wanted to own and operate a specific hardware store on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.

Never forgot that conversation. What was more fulfilling, though, was learning that Keith never forgot me. He acknowledged me while he was working on a Wide World of Sports show with Jackie Stewart at Riverside Raceway.

He even picked me out months later when I passed him on the television lot. He was in conversation with some videotape engineers but wondered why I passed without speaking. Eventually I wondered the same thing.

I learned through the years that that’s who Keith Jackson was. He was more than a Hall of Fame broadcaster. He was a Hall of Fame man. A good man who took the time to remember people whether they could help him or not.

And, in that industry, there aren’t enough of them to lose one of the greats.

Peace.