Download PDF - Urban Velo

I’ve attended four Little 500’s before this year. Each
year I like to ride up to Bill Armstrong stadium to cheer
for my dorm’s team, though as a community of artists
and musicians we ended up at the back of the pack. Still
I got to watch powerhouse teams like Delta Tau and
the Cutters make history in front of my eyes. Since my
grandmother needs a lift to the stadium this year I’m
forced to drive. She’s already waiting for me as I pull up
at the hotel, wearing a colorful ensemble fit for a spring
day, though the temperamental Midwestern weather
isn’t obliging. She’s carrying an interesting cane that I
discover folds out into a chair. Since she doesn’t move
too quickly nowadays, each stop to rest on her canechair
provides us with a moment to share our common
affection for the one-of-a-kind race.
The Little 500 has humble beginnings, but it took
the vision of one man, my grandmother tells me, to
set the race on the right path. One spring day in 1950
Howard “Howdy” Wilcox, the new director of the Indiana
University foundation, heard commotion from the
nearby Hickory Hall. He discovered students from the
east and west wings engaged in a bicycle race around
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the dormitory, each side attempting to be the first to
reach 500 miles. It was their own version of the famed
Indianapolis 500 motor race that takes place not 60
miles north of the Bloomington campus. While those
students never completed their mammoth endurance
race, that day of fun sparked an idea in Howdy Wilcox
that he couldn’t shake. What if the University held its
own such bicycle race? It would allow the many disparate
groups on campus to come together in the spirit
of competition. Of course, as executive director of
the Indiana University foundation Howdy’s job was to
raise money for the school and build a loyal base of
alumni donors, and an annual race was the perfect way
to bring the alumni back into the fold. He not only sold
the Foundation on the idea, but everyone on campus as
well. My grandmother recalls Howdy personally visiting
each dorm and Greek house on campus, pitching the
idea to students and asking if they’d form a team. The
format was to be just like the “big” 500 up in Speedway—33
teams, 200 laps, a flying start with 11 rows
of 3, and of course a pace car to get the field going.
Everyone loved the idea, and the Little 500 was born.