Mark McCormack

Mark Hume McCormack (November 6, 1930 – May 16, 2003) was an American lawyer, sports agent and writer. He was the founder and chairman of International Management Group, now IMG, an international management organization serving sports figures and celebrities. McCormack was the only son of Chicago publisher Ned McCormack. He graduated from the College of William & Mary in 1951. He earned his law degree from Yale Law School, and served in the United States Army. He played varsity golf at William & Mary, and qualified for the 1958 U.S. Open. After his Army discharge, McCormack worked as an attorney at the Cleveland law firm, Arter & Hadden. In the 1950s he helped organize one-day golf exhibitions for professionals around the United States. In 1960, McCormack founded IMG and signed golfer Arnold Palmer as the company's first client and later signed Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player. McCormack's clients eventually included Fran Tarkenton, 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, Pope John Paul II, and Tiger Woods. 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. They married in 1986. McCormack died at a New York hospital on May 16, 2003, age 72, from complications after suffering a cardiac event four months earlier that left him in a coma. His second wife, Betsy Nagelsen, their daughter, Maggie, and children from his first marriage to Nancy Breckenridge McCormack, Todd and Leslie, later shared $750 million, when the family's shares in IMG were sold.