Former popular Sport Journalist and basketball official McDonald passes away

The local basketball fraternity, sports fans, and others in the Diaspora are in deep shock and grief after learning of the death of former Guyana Chronicle Sport Journalist Al McDonald, who died on May 25 while being treated for burns to his body at a hospital in Florida, in the United States.
“Al Mc”, as he was called in his later years after effecting a name change to Al Naisan Vivian Chapman, was one of the foremost sport 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.
His remains are to be cremated today, Monday, June 8 in Florida and his ashes are to be returned to Guyana according to his sisters Pauletta and Aubrey.
Reports are that he was trapped in an apartment fire in Florida on May 10, where he suffered 30 per cent bodily burns, according to one of his sons Sean. He later perished owing 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 – went on to form the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) in 1976 and became its first President, with Frank Fraser as Secretary and Neville Rigby as Treasurer.
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 1980s.
He and his family migrated to the United States of America after he had travelled there to cover the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984.