The hosts made for an incongruous sight on the sands of Sunset Beach and Makaha, attired in blue coats or headquarters-mandated tan blazers with ABC Wide World of Sports logos while attempting to do surf meets for television broadcast.

But in time the network got it right, eventually putting them in aloha shirts.

Once the pioneering sports series got the feel of surfing, it showcased Hawai'i's sport on a global stage, exciting imaginations and winning converts around the world.

If Wide World of Sports was the vessel for surfing's voyage of international discovery nearly a half-century ago, then sportscaster Jim McKay was its eloquent, engaging skipper. McKay, who died this past weekend at age 86, was the face and voice of the ground-breaking program that took niche sports to mainstream audiences in their living rooms.

Few sports — or places — gained more from the Wide World of Sports exposure than surfing — and Hawai'i — in the 1960s and early 1970s.

At the beginning of Wide World of Sports, in 1961, surfing was a curious novelty for TV like cliff diving, with which it initially shared some billing. "Surfing was, oh man, it was like a sport from another world (for distant viewers)," recalls State Sen. Fred Hemmings, who was featured as both a competitor and later side by side with McKay, a commentator.

McKay's stature lent validation to the emerging sport. "Everybody knew Jim McKay," recalls Gerry Lopez, who still prizes a sun-bleached Advertiser photograph of an interview with McKay after winning the Hawaiian Masters in 1973. "Before he did it (on ABC) the only people interested in surfing were surfers."

Surfing quickly grew to be one of the more popular Wide World segments. "At one time we had more network coverage of surfing than any other event(s) originating in Hawai'i," Hemmings recalls. The Makaha International, Duke Kahanamoku Classic, Pipeline Masters and tandem events all got coverage.

For many years in its remarkable 1961-1998 run, Wide World of Sports opened with a montage that featured surfing shots. Its signature phrase "thrill of victory ... and agony of defeat" would be reflected in the tears in Clyde Aikau's eyes after he won the Duke and its $2,000 winner's check in the 1970s.

"I don't think he even knew, until they told him, how much money he had won," McKay said at the time.

McKay, though new to surfing, found the sport fit well within the program's framework and embraced it. "(McKay) was very good at his job and also had a great human feel for the sport," Hemmings said. "He was a wonderful man and a true icon of sports broadcasting. He wasn't just a play-by-play announcer."

That would be underlined by his comprehensive and sensitive reporting on the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.

McKay did a wide variety of sports for ABC and even doubled on the Hawaiian Open and Hula Bowl, but the more indelible mark here came through the association with surfing.

To this day, whether travels take them to Peru, France or the landlocked U.S. Midwest, Lopez and Hemmings say they have long since ceased to be surprised by the number of people who come up to them and say, " 'I remember you from Jim McKay and the Wide World of Sports.' "

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.