Barry MacKay, a former top 5 player, notable broadcaster and tournament director in Northern California, died Friday in San Francisco after a long illness. He was 76.
A tall net rusher with a massive serve, MacKay, grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and was a high school champion. He led the University of Michigan to the NCAA title in 1957. He made an immediate impact on the circuit, helping the U.S. to a 3-2 victory over Australia in the Davis Cup final.
The next year at Wimbledon, he upset Aussie great Neale Fraser and reached the semifinals before losing to the legendary Rod Laver 11-13, 11-9, 10-8, 7-9, 6-3.
In 1960, he became the United States' top -ranked player, when he won five tournaments, including Los Angeles. There, he took out his good friend Butch Buchholz, 7-5 in the fifth set in the final. Buchholz would later become the tournament director of Miami.
Even though he was known as a serve-and-volleyer, MacKay developed enough variety to win the Italian Championships on red clay and the U.S. Clay Courts. MacKay enjoyed a 20-year career and made five U.S. Davis Cup appearances (1956, 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1960).
Mackay would then joining Jack Kramer barnstorming tour, going up against the likes of Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad, Pancho Gonzalez and Pancho Segura. In 1966, he relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area and in 1970, became the tournament director of what is now known as the SAP Open in San Jose and at that time was played at the Berkeley Tennis Club. The jovial Mackay consistently recruited the likes of Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi to the event. He sold his share in tournament in 1995 to the owners of the NHL San Jose Sharks and remained tournament director for a number of years before being replaced. The Sharks group will move the event out of the Northern California in 2014.
MacKay was also familiar voice on tennis TV broadcasts, working at the U.S. Open, Wimbledon and the French Open, as well as a number of American tournaments.
"He’s such a first class person," Agassi once said. "It's hard to think of another person who so clearly loves his sport."
—Matt Cronin