"Geoffrey Mason, who had a five-decade career in sports television and was best known as the coordinating producer for ABC's coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games hostage crisis, has died. He was 85. ESPN said Mason died Sunday in Naples, Florida. He died of natural causes, according to his family. "Geoff was a giant visionary in television, never seeking credit."
"Over the course of his career, Mason worked on eight Olympics. As a young producer on Sept. 5, 1972, he was in the control room in Munich, Germany, when the Palestinian militant group Black September stormed the Olympic village and took Israeli Olympic team members hostage. ABC provided continuous coverage for 22 hours, culminating in a failed rescue attempt where six Israeli coaches and five athletes died. Jim McKay broke the news with, "They're all gone.""
"Mason was a consultant on the script and every aspect of production for the 2024 feature film "September 5," which recreates what it was like in the ABC control room that day. The international broadcast center in Munich was 100 yards away from where the hostage crisis was taking place in the Olympic village. The movie recreates the moment when West German police stormed the control room and pointed guns at Mason's face."
Geoffrey Mason died at 85 in Naples, Florida of natural causes. He had a five-decade career in sports television and was best known as the coordinating producer for ABC's coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games hostage crisis. Mason worked on eight Olympics and was in the Munich control room on Sept. 5, 1972, when Black September took members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage. ABC provided 22 hours of continuous coverage that ended with a failed rescue attempt in which six Israeli coaches and five athletes died. Mason consulted on the 2024 film September 5, advising on the control-room recreation and production details.
Read at ABC7 Los Angeles
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