Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
The June 11, 1973 issue of Newsweek featuring Secretariat arrives at what remains, by almost any objective measure, the most extraordinary three-week period in the history of American horse racing. Secretariat had won the Kentucky Derby on May 5 in a track-record time of 1:59⅖ — a record that still stands today. He followed that with a Preakness Stakes victory on May 19. Then, on June 9, 1973 — just two days before this issue's cover date — he won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths in 2:24, a world record for the distance that also remains unbroken more than fifty years later. The Newsweek cover featuring Secretariat as "The Superhorse" was published in the immediate aftermath of that Belmont performance, capturing the national reaction to a sporting achievement so far beyond normal parameters that it had genuinely stopped the country. Collectors building archives of Newsweek's landmark sports covers will find this issue in a category occupied by only a handful of others — those documenting performances so singular that the surrounding media coverage became part of the cultural record of the event itself.
The timing of the June 11 issue places it at a particular intersection of American sporting and cultural history. Secretariat's Triple Crown was the first in twenty-five years — Citation had won in 1948 — and it arrived during a period of considerable national anxiety: Watergate was consuming Washington, the Vietnam War's end had brought no clean resolution, and the cultural consensus of the postwar era was visibly fracturing. Secretariat's performances were welcomed by a public that seemed genuinely hungry for something unambiguous and transcendent. The horse became a cultural phenomenon well beyond horse racing's traditional audience, and the mainstream press coverage — including this Newsweek cover — was part of that broader embrace. For anyone assembling a documentary picture of 1973 through its print culture, this issue captures one of the few genuinely uplifting national moments of a difficult year, documented at the precise week the achievement was completed.
About the Publication
Newsweek, founded in 1933, was one of the two dominant American weekly newsmagazines throughout the twentieth century, competing directly with Time for the educated general readership that consumed national and international news in long-form weekly synthesis. By 1973 it was reaching several million readers per issue with its signature departmentalized format covering politics, world affairs, business, science, culture, and sports. Its sports coverage was selective by design — a weekly newsmagazine gave sports only as much space as editors deemed culturally significant — which made a full cover devoted to a racehorse a genuine editorial statement about how completely Secretariat had crossed over from sports news into national news. The June 11, 1973 cover is among the most recognized in the magazine's history among sports collectors and American cultural historians alike.
Key Highlights Inside
- Secretariat Triple Crown coverage: The issue's central feature documents all three Triple Crown races — the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes — providing contemporaneous reporting on performances whose record times remain unbroken at the time of this writing.
- The Belmont Stakes in immediate context: Published two days after Secretariat's 31-length Belmont victory, the issue captures the national reaction to that performance while it was still fresh — before the retrospective mythologizing that would characterize later coverage, and while the shock of what had been witnessed was still present in the reporting.
- "The Superhorse" framing: The cover headline reflects the mainstream press's struggle to find adequate language for Secretariat's performances — a framing that has since become one of the most recognized designations in American sports history.
- Broader June 1973 editorial context: As with all Newsweek issues of the period, additional departmental coverage would have reflected the full news landscape of early June 1973 — including ongoing Watergate coverage, which was at a particularly intense stage of Senate committee hearings that spring. Specific additional interior content beyond the Secretariat feature is unconfirmed in the listing.
Condition & Rarity
The address label on the front cover identifies this as a subscriber copy, which is the standard provenance for the large majority of surviving Newsweek issues from 1973 — the magazine's subscriber base was enormous, and clean label-free copies are proportionally less common. The label's placement on the cover and its interaction with the Secretariat imagery are the primary condition variables prospective collectors should assess directly from the listing photographs. Minor wear throughout and some binding wear are consistent with honest age on a fifty-plus-year-old subscriber copy that was almost certainly read rather than archived at the time. The protective plastic covering indicates deliberate subsequent preservation. When evaluating any surviving copy of this issue, the condition of the cover — particularly the central Secretariat image — is the primary grading consideration, followed by spine integrity and interior page stability. Newsweek's paper stock from this era ages to moderate tanning under average storage conditions but generally holds its structural integrity reasonably well.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
The June 11, 1973 Secretariat cover is one of those issues that serious collectors of American sports history specifically seek out, and finding a copy where the label does not significantly compromise the cover presentation takes genuine patience. If this issue has already found a home, the full archive of Newsweek magazine issues is the place to browse for other landmark covers and historically significant editions from across the publication's long run. The 1973 magazine collection is also worth exploring for anyone building a comprehensive documentary record of that turbulent and fascinating year in American history.