[1] John Szarkowski, former director of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art, said, "His photographs are documents, and the best of them are also pictures that now have a life of their own, and that would have given intense pleasure to George Stubbs and Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins.

"[1] David Halberstam, said "Robert Riger was the preeminent artist of a golden age of American sports in the years after World War II.

"[2] Born in 1924 in Manhattan, Riger attended The High School of Music & Art, and the United States Merchant Marine Academy, and later earned a BA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

After serving three years in the Merchant Marine during World War II,[3] Riger made his first sports drawing in 1945: a scene from an Army-Notre Dame football game.

From 1947 to 1949 Riger did magazine layout for Esquire and The Saturday Evening Post, then worked as an advertising art director until 1955, when he became a freelance illustrator.

(see Getty Images [1]) His subjects were celebrated athletes of the day: Ted Williams, Jackie Robinson, Jack Nicklaus, Willie Mays, Johnny Unitas, Frank Gifford, Muhammad Ali, Jim Clark, Eddie Arcaro, Nadia Comăneci, Wilma Rudolph, Pelé and those who coached them Vince Lombardi, Willie Schaeffler among others.

In 1963, author Ralph Moody wrote Come On Seabiscuit (ISBN 0-8032-8287-7), which was illustrated by Robert Riger and recently brought back into print by the University of Nebraska Press.