For nearly 40 years, Barney Nagler wrote a newspaper column devoted mainly to boxing and thoroughbred racing. The column, “On Second Thought,” first appeared in 1950 in the New York Morning Telegraph and was spiced with jargon of the gym and stable. When the Telegraph ceased publication in 1972, Nagler’s column moved to
the Daily Racing Form, continuing until the writer’s death in October 1990.

An author of numerous books, Nagler’s titles include James Norris and the Decline of Boxing, The American Horse, Brown Bomber: The Pilgrimage of Joe Louis, Only the Ring Was Square (with Teddy
Brenner), and Shoemaker, America’s Greatest Jockey.

Before joining the New York Telegraph, Nagler was a writer for Bill Stern’s Colgate Sports Newsreel on national radio. During the 1950s and 1960s, he was a producer of sports events on the NBC and ABC television networks, including the 1964 Winter Olympic Games and Wide World of Sports.

Nagler served as president of the New York Boxing Writers Association twelve times between 1960 and 1980. From 1984 to 1989, he was president of the Boxing Writers Association of America and received the Association’s James A. Farley Award in 1989.

In 1978, Nagler was honored with the Walter Haight Award by the National Turf Writers Association for excellence in reporting thoroughbred racing.