Bill Christine, Former NTWAB President, Dead at 87
Bill Christine, a multiple award-winning sports and turf writer and former president of NTWAB, died at age 87.
Christine's passing was first reported August 31 by The Paulick Report on X. John Cherwa wrote in Sept. 7 Los Angeles Times report Christine "died at his home in Hermosa Beach (CA), with family by his side." He is survived by Pat, his wife of 43 years, twin daughters Laura and Leslie, his first wife Dianne, and stepson Chris.
NTWAB records show Christine was honored in 2000 with the organization's Walter Haight Award for career excellence In turf writing and received Eclipse Awards in the News/Commentary category in 1984 and 2004, both while he was with the Los Angeles Times. He was president of NTWAB 1990-1992.
California-based journalist Kevin Modesti posted at X, "Sad news about a press-box colleague. A well-traveled, all-around sportswriter before turning to turf writing, Bill Christine covered greats from Bob Pettit and Roberto Clemente to the California horses and riders of the 1980s & ’90s. A fun storyteller in print and in person."
“Bill was an old-school journalist,” Mike Willman, the former longtime media relations executive at Santa Anita, told the Times. “He kept copious notes and was a contrarian by nature. He was fair and extremely knowledgeable. He really enjoyed being around the people in racing. You could take issue with something he wrote and then debate it and there was never any animus. I really respected him for that.”
According to biographical information about Christine found accompanying his book on the life of Hall of Fame jockey Bill Hartack, he "won nine national writing awards and shared in a Pulitzer Prize during his 25 years with the Los Angeles Times."
Christine's promotion of the Hartack book says the rider "won the Kentucky Derby five times, and seemed to hate every moment. 'If only Bill could have gotten along with people the way he got along with horses,' a trainer said. His impoverished upbringing didn't help: his mother was killed in an automobile accident; the family home burned down; his father was murdered by a girlfriend; and he was estranged from his sisters for most of his life....
"Hartack was one of racing's most accomplished jockeys. But he was an inveterate grouch and gave the press a hard time. At 26, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Whenever the media tried to bury him, he would win another Derby. At the end of his life, he was found alone in a cabin in the Texas hinterlands."
According to the Times report, Christine donated his body to the University of Southern California for medical research. There will be a small celebration of life.
