Born in Brooklyn, Bernie McCoy, at 18, began writing in the Army where, after receiving a high school equivalency diploma, he was sent to the Army Information School. Through contacts he made while working at the Armed Forces Press Service, he ventured into the newspaper business, following six years in the service. McCoy seemed to specialize in employment at number two newspapers in two paper towns, most notably St. Louis (Globe Democrat) and New Orleans (States-Item), along with various dailies on the periphery, both geographically and intellectually, of New York City.

Faced with three kids of college age and a mortgage in Westchester County, he abandoned newspapering for public relations at a soft drink company. Following retirement from the sugared water business, he started writing about Women's boxing, guided by the answer an editor once provided when he was naively asked, "how do you determine what to write about?" The answer: "It's simple, just look around and figure out what nobody else is writing about."

From a participation standpoint, Bernie McCoy had one experience in the boxing ring, a Golden Gloves bout where he was educated on the huge difference between fighting in the schoolyard and boxing in the ring. Before going in the Army, McCoy played 53 undistinguished games in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization in Bristol, VA (Class D) where he learned that, even at that level, pitchers can throw 2-0 curveballs for strikes. Bernie McCoy currently resides in White Plains, NY.