Mark McCormack

Mark Hume McCormack (November 6, 1930 – May 16, 2003) was an American lawyer, sports agent for professional athletes (particularly in golf and tennis) and a prolific writer. He was the founder and chairman of International Management Group, now IMG, an international management organization that handles the commercial affairs for sports figures and celebrities.

Early life, education

McCormack was the only son of a Chicago publisher named Ned McCormack. He graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1951, where he played on the golf team. He earned his law degree from Yale Law School, and briefly served in the United States Army. He was an accomplished athlete in his youth, and had an excellent golf game, qualifying as an amateur for the 1958 U.S. Open Golf Championship, but he missed the cut. After his Army discharge, he worked for a few years as an attorney at the Cleveland law firm, Arter and Hadden.

Business career

McCormack partnered with Don Taylor during the 1950s in arranging one-day golf exhibitions for professionals in cities around the United States. In 1960, after realizing the potential of sports in the television age, McCormack parted ways with Taylor and signed golfer Arnold Palmer as IMG's first client. Palmer, who had become golf's dominant superstar, was soon followed to IMG by rising stars Jack Nicklaus and then Gary Player.^[1] McCormack aggressively promoted the so-called Big Three of golf during the 1960s, raising their incomes dramatically, while building IMG's business.

IMG expanded into tennis a few years later, and helped fuel the quick growth of that sport as it entered the so-called Open era in the 1970s, with the development of an international tour for male and female players. IMG and McCormack's clients eventually included sports figures Björn Borg, Chris Evert, Pete Sampras, Michael Schumacher, Derek Jeter, Charles Barkley and model Kate Moss. He also handled special projects for Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev and Pope John Paul II. In the 1990s, IMG would become Tiger Woods' first agency.

Writer

McCormack wrote numerous books, including the bestselling What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School, which spent 21 consecutive weeks at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, and The Terrible Truth About Lawyers. His annual publication The World of Professional Golf, first published in 1967, became an equivalent to Wisden for golf fans, and included in its pages the first (unofficial) world ranking system.

Originates rankings for golf and tennis

The system used to calculate McCormack's World Golf Rankings was adapted in 1986 to become the Official World Golf Ranking system, with McCormack chairing the rankings committee made up of representatives from all the major golf tours. McCormack pioneered a similar system for tennis rankings. McCormack met his second wife Betsy Nagelsen-McCormack, a two-time Australian Open doubles champion and a Wimbledon doubles finalist, while she was a business client. The couple founded the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center at the College of William & Mary, which houses the ITA Women's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame.

Death

McCormack died at a New York hospital on May 16, 2003 after suffering a cardiac event four months earlier that left him in a coma. His second wife, their daughter and children Breck, Todd and Leslie from his longtime marriage to Nancy Breckenridge McCormack later shared $750 million when the family's shares in IMG were sold.

Honors

In July 2006 McCormack was selected for induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame in the lifetime achievement category, and he was inducted in October 2006. On January 23, 2008, he was also inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He was featured as one of the Forbes 400 Richest Americans in 1995, 1998, 2001.^[2] In 1990, he was named the "Most Powerful Man in Sports" by The Sporting News.

The British film Wimbledon (2004) was dedicated to Mark McCormack by director Richard Loncraine.

The Mark H. McCormack Medal is awarded to the leading player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking after the U.S. Amateur Championship and the European Amateur Championship.^[3]

The Mark H. McCormack Award is awarded to the player who has spent the most weeks at number 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking during a calendar year. The first 13 of these awards after its inception went to Tiger Woods.

Bibliography

• Arnie: The Evolution of a Legend, New York: Simon & Schuster (1967)
• What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School: Notes From A Street-Smart Executive, New York: Bantam, (1984)
• The Terrible Truth About Lawyers: How Lawyers Really Work and How to Deal With Them Successfully, Harper Collins, 1987 (also published in another edition as What They Didn't Teach Me at Yale Law School, Fontana Press 1988)
• What They Still Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School, New York: Bantam Books, 1989 (also published in another edition as Success Secrets, HarperCollins, 1989)
• The 110% Solution, Villard Books, (1990)
• Hit the Ground Running: Executive Guide to Insider's Travel, Orion, 1993 (published in softcover edition as What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School About Executive Travel: Hit the Ground Running, Dove Books, 1996)
• McCormack on Negotiating, Random House (June, 1995)
• McCormack on Selling, Random House Business Books (June 15, 1995)
• McCormack on Managing, Random House Business Books (October 1995)
• McCormack on Communicating, Dove Entertainment (February 1996)
• Getting Results for Dummies: Get Organized, Stay Focused, and Get Things Done!, IDG Books, (1999)
• Staying Street Smart in the Internet Age, Penguin Putnam, 2000 (also published in another edition as What You'll Never Learn on the Internet, HarperCollins Business, 2001, as well as Never Wrestle with a Pig and Ninety Other Ideas to Build Your Business and Career, Penguin, 2002)

References

1. ^ Arnie and Jack: Palmer, Nicklaus, and Golf's Greatest Rivlary, by Ian O'Connor, 2008
2. ^ Forbes 400 Richest Americans
3. ^ R&A Introduces the Mark H. McCormack Medal

External links

• Memorial from College of William and Mary
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Obituary
• International Tennis Hall of Fame

Persondata
Name	McCormack, Mark Hume
Alternative names
Short description	American lawyer and businessman; founder and chairman of International Management Group (IMG)
Date of birth	1930-11-06
Place of birth	Chicago, Illinois
Date of death	2003-05-16
Place of death	New York, New York