EXCLUSIVE: Bruce McAvaney reflects on his incredible career after being inducted into the TV WEEK Logies Hall of Fame

Frankie the dog gives a present to everyone who arrives at the door of Bruce McAvaney’s home in Adelaide. When the TV WEEK photographer arrives, Frankie gives him a tennis ball.

It’s a fitting present from the dog belonging to the first sports broadcaster to be inducted into the TV WEEK Logie Hall Of Fame. Bruce joins the likes of Graham Kennedy and Bert Newton, something he finds “overwhelming”.

“They’re stars, and I feel like I’m a broadcaster,” he says. “So I feel honoured.”

Of course, Bruce, who turns 69 this week, is much more than just a broadcaster. To generations of Australians, he’s been the voice of the AFL, the Melbourne Cup and some of the greatest Olympic victories.

“To be able to attend and publicly express yourself in big moments is a privilege, a joy, a thrill,” he says.

Bruce was just five years old when he declared to his sports-mad family that he would call the Melbourne Cup one day.

“I practised a fair bit when I was a kid,” he recalls. “I’d get the racing paper out.”

At 11, he wrote to famous race-caller Bill Collins, asking for advice on how to become a race caller himself.

“I think he probably said, ‘Get a good education,’ which didn’t go down well with me at the time! I was hoping he’d say, ‘Well, why don’t you come to Flemington and join me?'”

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