william nack secretariat sports illustrated

His words for Newsday, Sports Illustrated and other publications, including ESPN, matched the greatness of his subjects, from Secretariat to Bobby Fischer to Jackie Robinson to A.J. He died Friday in Washington, D.C., at the age of 77, leaving behind not only his wife, Carolyne Starek, four children and several grandchildren, but also an amazing body of work borne back ceaselessly into the past. Bill did everything by heart - he was the most passionate sportswriter those of us in the business ever knew. At a moment's notice, he could recite it in English and Spanish. So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.īill Nack knew the ending to 'The Great Gatsby' by heart, not just that last line, but the entire final page. William Nack's words matched the greatness of his subjects In 2010, Disney produced a movie version inspired by Nack’s Secretariat book, with the author consulting on the project and also making a short cameo.You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser He would win a number of awards for his wordsmithery, including seven Eclipse Awards, the top honor for America’s turf writers, and the ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sportswriting just last year. Nack would write for SI until 2001, when he broke out on his own, freelancing for titles such as GQ and ESPN. Five years after Secretariat’s Triple Crown run, Nack would join the staff of SI, where he’d end up covering a range of subjects, including, of course, horse racing (see: “ Pure Heart,” which first published in 1990). Nack first cut his teeth on the journalistic trade at Newsday, where he covered politics and the environment, eventually switching over to turf writing in the early ’70s. On April 13, Nack passed away at the age of 77, according to Sports Illustrated. William Nack’s 1975 book about Secretariat. Though he’s been gone since 1989, Secretariat-and his incredible two- and three-year-old campaigns-has lived on in the words of journalist and biographer William Nack, who penned Secretariat: The Making of a Champion two years after the horse’s historic run. It punched the horse’s ticket to the Hall of Fame, too. Secretariat, the much-lauded 1973 Triple Crown-winning Thoroughbred-who later weathered a stunning defeat in the Whitney Stakes at Saratoga Race Course-has gone down in history as one of the top horses to ever set foot on any racetrack, let alone Saratoga’s.

William nack secretariat sports illustrated