During the baseball off-season, Jerry worked as a fishing tour guide on the banks of the White River in the Ozark Mountains for $4-$5 per day. Although he didn’t know it then, he was learning the trade that would become his life’s work and make him one of the most famous outdoor sports celebrities in the world.

It all started when Jerry was asked by a local Little Rock television station to give fishing tips during some of the evening news telecasts. The popularity of those segments gave way to the idea of producing a half-hour show called The Fishin’ Hole, produced and hosted by Jerry McKinnis. He worked hard to gain distribution for his show through syndication, contacted as many local TV stations as he could and eventually worked his way up to airing The Fishin’ Hole weekly in 110 markets.

A major turning point in Jerry’s career came in 1979. He was a pioneer cable subscriber and watched with amazement from his living room as ESPN first came on the air with SportsCenter. He remembers thinking “What a great idea! An all-sports network. This is going to be a huge hit.” A few months later he was able to secure an appointment with the original founders of ESPN at their offices in Bristol, CT. Back then the offices for ESPN consisted of a couple of trailers and a satellite dish, and the meeting changed his life.

ESPN became the permanent home of The Fishin’ Hole, which is now the network’s longest-running weekly show (36 years and counting!). Jerry McKinnis is largely credited with pioneering the entire outdoor broadcast genre of television programming. As most know, ESPN’s Saturday morning lineup consists of an entire block of outdoor programming, much of which is produced by J.M. Associates. In addition, J.M. produces the Stihl Timbersports Series, the Wallmart FLW Bass Fishing Tour, and the annual U.S. OPEN Racquetball Championships broadcast on ESPN2. J.M. Associates also played a key role in the development and production of ESPN’s new Outdoor Games, touted as the Olympics for hunting and fishing. At 64 years of age, Jerry McKinnis still travels the world making amazing quality television for ESPN.

In the midst of all this, at 38, Jerry’s went through an unwanted divorce, and a friend introduced him to racquetball as a way to keep his mind off his troubles. He was immediately hooked and found himself on the community owned courts 4-5 times per week. His athletic background served him well as he gradually moved up to compete against the best players in town. After taking his lumps for a year or two he worked his way up to the Open division at the young age of 42! He then started playing in tournaments and introduced all four of his children to the game (Shannon, Mark, Mike, and Matt). 

For the past 26 years he’s never looked back, playing racquetball religiously 1-3 times per week, even now. Shannon, Mark, and Mike no longer play due to back problems that plague most of the family, but Matt endures the pain and has become one of the best Men’s Open players in Arkansas. 

“Racquetball has been a very important part of my life.” Jerry recalls “It has helped me through some tough times and still offers one of the few opportunities for stress relief in my busy schedule.” 

In the early 90’s Jerry joined forces with Hank Marcus and the IRT to produce the first real high-quality broadcasts of professional racquetball. Using on-screen graphics and delving into the personalities of the players, McKinnis created the first prototype program of what televised pro racquetball could be if the money was ever raised to do it right. He used his strong relationships with ESPN to get six different one-hour shows on the air over a three year period. 

For the past five years Jerry and his staff at J.M. Associates have produced the annual U.S. OPEN Racquetball Championships broadcast on ESPN2 and continued to develop new and innovative ways to present the sport to the public. To this day, Jerry’s dream is to help the sport of racquetball achieve worldwide acclaim by producing a regularly televised series of weekly shows. 

After a recent meeting with ESPN executives he was able to secure an improved time slot for this years U.S. OPEN broadcast — to air June 18th at 1:00 pm EST — for the purpose of testing the market for viewer interest. “It is absolutely critical that everyone who loves this game tune in to ESPN2 and watch this show” he reported after the meeting. “Then we need everyone to contact ESPN via e-mail, fax, and mail to let them know that we all want to see more racquetball.” 

Although McKinnis is as busy as ever, he still finds time to play racquetball whenever he’s not on the road. The sport is very fortunate to have Jerry as a loyal enthusiast and, hopefully, sometime soon his dream (and ours) of regularly televised pro racquetball will come true!