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Former Sport Journalist & basketball official Al McDonald passes away in the US
Kaieteur Sports – The local basketball fraternity, sports fans, and others in the Diaspora are in deep shock and grief after learning of the death of former Chronicle sports journalist 72 years old Al McDonald, who died on May 25 following burns to his body while being treated at a hospital in Florida, in the United States.
‘Al Mc’ as he was called in his later years effected a name change to Al Naisan Vivian Chapman, one of the foremost sports journalists of Guyana, who had a penchant for basketball from the mid-1970s until 1984 when he left these shores to cover the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Al McDonald
His remains are to be cremated on Monday, 8th June in Florida and his ashes are to be returned to Guyana according to his sister Pauletta and Aubrey.
Reports are that he was trapped in an apartment fire in Florida on May 10, where he suffered 30 percent bodily burns, according to one of his sons Sean, and was taken for treatment, but later perished due to the extent of his burns on May 25, while receiving treatment in hospital.
Al said he was introduced to the fineries of covering basketball by Joseph ‘Reds’ Perreira and was the journalist to the Central, American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Santo Domingo with the National Men’s team in 1975.
Later that year he was sent to Linden as the Chronicle’s sports correspondent where he, after consulting with the Linden national players Harold ‘Zar’ Caesar, Gavin ‘Poppy’ Kendall, Clifton Brusche and Hubern “Zunty’ Clarke to form the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) in 1976 and became its first president, with Frank Fraser as Secretary and Neville Rigby the treasurer in 1976.
Two years later, the roving journalist went back to Georgetown and in 1980 due to his administrative skills, he became President of the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA). Al also served as the Public Relations Officer of the Guyana Olympic Association from 1982 to 1984.
AL was also known as a key reporter for the well-known sports magazine Sports Special which was published by Robert Sam back in the early 980s.
He and his family migrated to the United States of America after he had traveled there to cover the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984.
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