Currently preparing for her latest adventure in entertainment, Nancy Hays could recently be found inside the pleasant Wayfarer Theaters complex in Highland Park, working with a few collaborators, preparing to bring to life the remarkable story of a Black man born enslaved in 1861 who became a giant as a jockey
”He was a sports superstar with class, sophistication, and impeccable integrity,” writes Hays. “He was a great son, pupil, mentor, husband, friend — and a great American.”
But before we get to that fellow — name Isaac Burns Murphy, and I am willing to bet that few if any of you have ever heard of him — let’s learn about Hays.
She was born and raised in downstate Champaign, the middle child of a doctor and retired nurse and, she says, “just wild about, obsessed with anything to do with arts and entertainment.” She started early, performing as Dorothy in a small-town production of “The Wizard of Oz.”
That was followed by jobs dancing at theme parks and being a vocalist for her high school’s jazz band. “My parents didn’t know quite what to do with me,” she says. “They thought I might need to have a plan B and so I majored and graduated from the U. of I. with a degree in advertising.”
She had a long on-and-off relationship with Nashville’s music industry during and after college, but put stardom on hold to marry attorney Sean Heffernan in 1988, in what she calls “the best decision of my life.” He is now retired, having spent much of his career in city and county government.
“And he has supported his crazy arts-obsessed wife for decades,” says that wife.
Their four children were also attracted to the arts. “They all performed in theater around town when they were young,” Hays said.Years ago, Hays started a company producing charitable and corporate events, and in 2019 mounted a show for the National Precast Concrete Association at Churchill Downs, the famous thoroughbred racing facility in Louisville, Kentucky, long home to the Kentucky Derby.
“I found myself in a small museum on the second floor, sort of hidden away,” she says. “And there was a tiny exhibit about the part that Black jockeys played in the early days of racing and particularly about this one remarkable man.”
And thus she was introduced to the aforementioned Isaac Burns Murphy.
“I was overwhelmed,” she says. “I know this was a difficult time in American history, the year between the Emancipation and Jim Crow. But Isaac Murphy was extraordinary.”
She refers to him as “the Michael Jordan of his time,” and in support of that argument can tell you that he won three runnings of the Kentucky Derby and was the first jockey to be inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame at its opening in 1955. His father, Jerry, had escaped slavery and fought in the Union army in the Civil War. His hugely influential mother, America, also had been enslaved. The story of Murphy’s career included many winning mounts, millions of dollars in purses, controversies and poisonings.
Hays did find one book about Murphy, 2013’s “The Prince of Jockeys: The Life of Isaac Burns Murphy” (University of Kentucky Press) by Pellom McDaniels III, a former pro football player and professor at Emory University. She wanted to consult with McDaniels but he died in 2020.
She collaborated on a screenplay with her son, Eddie Heffernan. He was a 2015 graduate of Stanford University and an alumnus of the first 2017 class of the Harold Ramis Film School at Second City, working as a writer and actor. They used that screenplay as the foundation for a book, “Riding for America,” which Hays calls “a story of resilience, excellence, and the enduring impact of Black achievement in American history.”
It is a fine book, one large part a fictionalized tale, a smaller non-fiction section and a short study guide, all peppered by fine illustratons and photos. Sunday’s performance at Landmark is similar to those that have been visiting area schools. Hays’ team consists of writer, singer and actor Jazzma Pryor, singer and actor Eldridge Shannon; Stephan Mazurek on direction and projection design and Shelley Strasser handling lighting, props and costumes.
I have enjoyed and wagered on thoroughbred horse racing. I know it has been a rich white man’s sport but until now didn’t realize the significance of Black jockeys in the early days of horse racing in this country.
“The great solar eclipse of 1879 … and the first use of photo-finish photography were also historically significant moments in Isaac’s lifetime,” Hays writes. “At the time of his birth, enslaved people were not permitted to read or write. … The fact that Isaac was literate made a profound difference in his life and career.” And he could ride.
Though statistics from that era are often debated, many cite that Murphy won 628 of his 1,412 starts, a 44% victory rate. That has never been equaled. As Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Arcaro said, “There is no chance that his record of winning will ever be surpassed.”
Or that we will ever see the likes of Isaac Burns Murphy come our way again.
“Riding for America: The Isaac Murphy Story” is 4 p.m. Feb. 15 at Wayfarer Theaters, 1850 2nd St., Highland Park; wayfarertheaters.com
rkogan@chicagotribune.com
