Our apologies, Bruce.

Australia, we may think we’ve become cosy with the man who’s given so much to sports lovers in this country over the decades, but in fact, we hardly know him at all.

Unfortunately, we’ve got proof. Chances are, each and every single one of us (who don’t know him personally, at least) have been pronouncing his surname incorrectly for years.

“You are renowned for getting names correct and everything correct, but have we been making a mistake with how we pronounce your name?” McAvaney was asked on RSN radio on Tuesday.

“Well, my father once said to me, ‘Why don’t you tell everyone we’re McAvaney (pronounced Mac-a-vanny) and not McAvaney (pronounced Mac-a-veiny)?’” the legendary sports broadcaster replied.

“I said, ‘Dad I don’t really care.’ He said, ‘Oh well I do’ but he’s no longer with us dear old dad so it is McAvaney (Mac-a-vanny) but everyone calls me McAvaney (Mac-a-veiny).

“I’ve been called worse.”

But such is McAvaney’s character, he’s not fussed Australians have been butchering the pronunciation of his surname.

“No (I don’t mind). It’s quite strange isn’t it because you do try and get everyone’s name right when you’re calling ... it’s never bothered me. I don’t know why and it still doesn’t so keep McAvaney (Mac-a-veiny) as long as you like,” he said.

A Channel Seven icon who’s been in our loungerooms for Olympics, Australian Opens, Melbourne Cups and AFL grand finals, it’s fair to say McAvaney is synonymous with some of the greatest moments in Australian sport.

But above all, his first love has always been, and will always be, horse racing.

McAvaney is one of Australia’s most respected TV personalities.Source:News Limited

“That’s where it started, that’s the beginning, that’s where it really started burning as a kid and when I retire, whenever that may be in the future, I’ll follow a lot of sports but the sport I’ll follow most closely will be horse racing,” McAvaney said.

“The connect was with my parents and also with (TV presenter and race caller) Bill Collins ... we would hear Bill’s calls and I just got turned on.

“My parents and Bill, they’re the three people who really shaped me as a kid in terms of my love for racing.”

It may seem like all’s going swimmingly when Bruce is behind the microphone, but what we hear doesn’t always relay the truth about what McAvaney’s feeling. The 63-year-old has called four Melbourne Cups in his career, and he says the pressure to perform is unlike anything he’s ever experienced.

“It’s so nerve-racking,” McAvaney said. “There are few things that really scare me in my job but the four Melbourne Cups I did, honestly it was such a relief to get through them.

“It is a difficult thing to do, not only emotionally but technically as well.

“It’s nearly the most difficult thing in all sports broadcasting, because you can call so well for 11-and-a-half months of the year but if you get one wrong it’s the Cup and you’re no good, so the pressure’s enormous.

“We went to bigger binoculars at the time I was calling, and to hold them tight on your stand when you’re getting excited is a hard thing to do and you start to shake a little. Then you’re looking at horses making a run three and four deep and you’re trying not to blur them.

“I believe it’s the most difficult thing in sports broadcasting in this country.”

The mark of great athletes is they make the difficult things look easy. We can say the same about McAvaney when it comes to commentating.

An icon of Australian sport.Source:News Corp Australia