Rick Mackey Death – Rick Mackey, 1983 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race winner, died of lung cancer, his daughter informed The Associated Press Wednesday. Mackey was 71 when he died Monday.
Mackey is intimately associated with the Iditarod, a 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) race over Alaska’s wilderness to the Bering Sea coast. Rick’s father Dick won the race in 1978, while his brother Lance won a historic four straight championships from 2007 to 2010.
Brenda Mackey, Rick Mackey’s daughter, said he was diagnosed with lung cancer two weeks after his brother’s death in September 2022.All three Mackeys won their first Iditarod on their sixth tries and wore bib 13.“It felt pretty profound, honestly, that my dad died on (May) 13th,” Brenda Mackey said. “It seemed fitting.”Rick Mackey was born in Concord, New Hampshire, on May 1, 1953, and relocated to Alaska with family in 1959.
Brenda stated her father requested a dog from Dick Mackey before the 1973 Iditarod. “My grandpa got him a dog, then two more,” she said. Soon, Rick raced junior sled dogs on Saturdays and Dick Mackey in adult races on Sundays.Rick met his future wife, Patti, at a 1973 community event to prepare Dick Mackey for the first Iditarod.From the start, their love and the world’s most famous sled dog race were linked. At the 1974 Iditarod start, she and Rick managed dogs. His first race was a year later.
“We were both very good with dogs, so it was a pretty good match,” recalled Patti Mackey.In 1977, they married. Roland was born in 1996, Brenda a year later.Patti and Rick Mackey owned a kennel and bred dogs when not racing. She called her hubby the best musher and “incredible” trainer.“This man could train a dog team, he just had a real rapport with those dogs,” Patti Mackey said.
Her husband twice won the Iditarod Humanitarian Award for excellence in dog care. She stated, “All through our life, we’ve been fortunate enough to have that kind of lifestyle and bring our children up in an environment that not too many people get the privilege” of.
Rick Mackey finished second in 1994 behind four-time champion Martin Buser in 22 Iditarods between 1975 and 2004.Mackey is one of six North American mushers to win both the Iditarod and the now-defunct Yukon Quest International Sled Race between Alaska and Canada. Those six include Lance Mackey.
“All My Children” actress Susan Lucci won an auction to be an Iditarider, or someone who rides in a musher’s sled during the ceremonial start in Anchorage, and rode Rick Mackey’s sled for the 11-mile (17.7-kilometer) leisurely run through Alaska’s largest city. His wife said Rick Mackey’s greatest achievement was his family.“He loved dogs and racing, but his children and me were everything,” she said. “He was kind.”
Seniority hampered his racing career, and he wife Patti obtained school district employment in Nenana, 60 miles (100 kilometres) southwest of Fairbanks. After 17 years, he retired as maintenance and custodians chief.Memorial Day weekend services are tentatively planned by the family.