William Nack was born on February 4, 1941. He graduated from the University of Illinois, then served two years in the U.S. Army. After he was discharged, he got a job at the newspaper Newsday. He covered local politics before switching to sports during the eleven years he was there. He worked at Sports Illustrated for 23 years. He retired in 2001 and then wrote freelance articles for publications including ESPN and GQ. He received seven Eclipse Awards for excellence in writing about horse racing, the first in 1978 and the last in 2003.
His book, Secretariat: The Making of a Champion, was published in 1975 and was adapted into a movie starring Diane Lane and John Malkovich in 2010. Nack appeared in the movie as a reporter and served as a consultant. An article that he wrote about Rocky Marciano served as the basis of a 1999 film about the undefeated boxer. In 2017, Nack received the PEN/ESPN America Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing. He died from complications associated with cancer on April 13, 2018 at the age of 77.
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