W.C. Heinz

W. C. Heinz (January 11, 1915 – February 27, 2008), born Wilfred Charles Heinz, was an American sportswriter, war correspondent, journalist, and author.

Heinz was born in Mount Vernon, New York. Following his graduation from Middlebury College in 1937, he joined the staff of the New York Sun. After serving as one of the newspaper's war correspondents in Europe during the second world war, Heinz returned to the United States and was awarded his own sports column called "The Sport Scene," which primarily covered boxing, baseball, football and horse racing.

One of his pieces from around this time - Death of a Racehorse, written July 29, 1949 - is famous for its brevity (fewer than 1,000 words) and its quality, having been compared to the Gettysburg Address and the works of Ernest Hemingway. Written on a manual typewriter as the events unfolded, the story describes Air Lift, a promising two-year-old horse who was racing for the first time, and concludes less than two hours later: Air Lift broke a leg during that first race, and had to be euthanized.

Heinz became a freelance writer after the Sun ceased publishing in 1950. He was a regular contributor to magazines such as SPORT magazine, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, True, Collier's, and Look. The best of his magazine and newspaper pieces are published in his books American Mirror, What A Time It Was: The Best of W.C. Heinz on Sports and The Top of His Game: The Best Sportswriting of W. C. Heinz.

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