South Australian honour for broadcaster McAvaney
Legendary sports broadcaster Bruce McAvaney OAM will be inducted into the South Australian Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame at the SA Racing Awards on Saturday night.
McAvaney will be inducted in the associate category, recognising his lifelong contribution to South Australian racing as a broadcaster, advocate and passionate supporter of the industry.
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas will attend the event at Morphettville’s Wolf Blass Event Centre and take part in McAvaney’s formal induction.
Born and raised in Adelaide, McAvaney began his broadcasting career with radio station 5DN, calling the Oakbank races after calling his first-ever race meeting at Mindarie-Halidon in 1977.
He moved into television with ADS-7 the following year, working as a sports presenter and producing the weekly racing program Racetrack. He later became Seven News Adelaide’s Chief Sports Presenter before moving to Melbourne in 1983.
McAvaney went on to become one of Australia’s most recognisable sporting voices. His career has included coverage of every Summer Olympic Games from Los Angeles in 1984 to Paris in 2024, along with Commonwealth Games, athletics, tennis, motor racing and more than 1,000 AFL matches, including 20 Grand Finals.
Despite the national and international scale of his career, racing has remained one of McAvaney’s great passions.
He led Racing.com’s first Adelaide Cup broadcast in 2018 and continues to play an important role in Seven’s coverage of the Adelaide Racing Carnival. He has also served for many years on the selection panels for the South Australian Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame and South Australian Champion Racehorse of the Year.
