What was an American bike race like in 1949 or 1950?
One could be forgiven for thinking such a thing never happened. Sheldon Brown has referred to the two decades or so after World War II as the "Dark Ages" of American cycling. Schwinn was the only US manufacturer with even a pretense of quality. High-quality, high-performance bikes were difficult to obtain: One either had to special-order them from abroad or be a member of one of the small, close-knit clusters of cyclists in Boston, New York and a few other cities where small-time custom builders did their work.
Outside of those communities of folks who rode in Central, Fairmount and other urban parks, few American adults rode bicycles. The moment a teenager got a driver's license--sometimes sooner--his or her bicycle was discarded or passed on to a younger sibling. Knowing that provides context for the story I'm about to relate.
On 12 May 1949, this headline appeared in the Bulloch (Georgia) Herald: "Bill Hollingsworth Wins Bike Race." The accompanying article reported that he "pedaled the 10-mile course from Brooklet to Statesboro in 27 and 1/2 minutes to average more than 20 miles an hour. Forty-five seconds later Buck Barton (ed: Does that sound like a Southerner's name, or what?) rode in for second place."
The article continued by listing the other finishers and mentioning this: "The winner was presented with a new bicycle by John Denmark of the Denmark Candy Company."
If you are beginning to suspect something about the contestants, it will be confirmed by the announcement of the following year's edition of the race. No, there wasn't doping. The riders were actually notable, yet typical for that time because, as the 9 March 1950 issue of the Bulloch Times and Statesboro and Statesboro News announced, "boys living near Pembroke can get their entries from the Pembroke Journal."
The race, organized by the Statesboro Recreation Department, was "open to all boys who are not at least 13 years old." Once again, the first prize was a new bicycle--"super deluxe"--to which the Statesboro Elks Club added a $25 cash prize. They went to the previous year's runner-up, Buck Barton who "pedaled 24 miles in 78 minutes in a driving rain."
In a role-reversal, the previous year's winner was the runner-up, Bill Hollingsworth. For his efforts, he received "a baseball glove, cap and ball given by the sponsor and a swell Bronson rod and reel given by Watson Sporting Goods."
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| Somehow I don't think the Statesboro Bike Derby looked like this. Photo by Martin Young. |
In addition to the ages of the riders and the prizes, something else about the coverage of the races stands out to me: It was referred to, interchangeably, as a "race," "derby" and "marathon." I guess anybody who rode more than a mile or two was riding a "marathon," and any sort of contest could be called a "derby."
I don't know whether the race, derby or marathon was held after 1950. The following year, Jackie Simes and Jack Heid pedaled a Schwinn Paramount tandem (believed to be the first one ever made) to victory in a tandem race through Johnson Park in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It would be the last professional race in the US for nearly a quarter-century.
What were the prizes in that race? I'm confident that they didn't include a baseball glove, a "swell" rod and reel or a "super deluxe" bicycle.
