In 1951, Bloomington, Indiana, saw the first running of the Little 500, a very unusual bicycle race modelled on the Indianapolis 500 car race, and which has been a fixture of Indiana University’s self-proclaimed “World’s Greatest College Weekend” ever since. In 1979 the Little 500 received much wider attention as the dramatic centrepiece in the Oscar-winning film “Breaking Away” and now a new book tells the story of the first women’s edition of the race. This took place in 1988 in a world familiar to us yet removed in many ways from our present.
Unlike “Breaking Away,” a fictionalized coming-of-age story about four boys, “Willkie Sprint” is the true story of how five women and their male coach set about entering and competing in that first women’s race at the University’s Bill Anderson Stadium. But this entertaining and affectionately written book is about much more as an autobiographical account of author Kerry Hellmuth’s own coming of age as an eighteen year old starting college. It is about working with people of different backgrounds, interests and skills. It is about the American college experience, academic and social, as well as the changing attitudes towards women, whether in sports or the greater world. “Willkie Sprint” may be non-fiction but shares many of the attributes of “Breaking Away” besides setting. It about young people finding their way in life, about friendships and family, and about team-building and accomplishment.
The Little 500 had been only open to male undergraduates but by the mid-1980s there was a growing recognition that women should be included. There had in fact been two kinds of races for them established, both of which seem embarrassing to us in hindsight. In the Little Little 500, sorority girls did an egg-and-spoon race while on bikes, having to transfer the egg to teammates underway, while the Mini 500 saw them race on giant tricycles. This latter event seems like the kind of dopey fun you would see at Freshman Week and in fact became so popular that men eventually were accepted for it as well. However, the Little 500, a hugely popular competition, saw no female participation as the few women’s teams which attempted to qualify (only the top 33 teams are allowed in) were unsuccessful. Then in 1987 a team from the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority looked like they would be included but ultimately came 37th, keeping them out of the men’s field but setting in motion the impetus to launch a women’s Little 500 the next year.
For Kerry Hellmuth, arriving from her home in Wisconsin, 1988 marked the start of her college life, ideal timing, as it turned out, not only for taking a wide range of courses that would open a new world but also to participate in that first women’s Little 500. She moved into the Willkie Hall student residence and there was enticed to a meeting with the promise of free pizza, about getting residence representation at the Little 500. As in any activity required commitment, those initially enthusiastic fade away but ultimately there was a group of five riders, along with Kevin, acting as coach for both the women’s and men’s teams. Interestingly, it was the women who showed greater dedication and would go on, with matching t-shirts, to become a solid team under the name that first year of Willkie Sprint.
Completely unrelated note: The author does not mention that the residence was named for a remarkable Indiana politician, Wendell Willkie, the Republican Presidential candidate in 1940, who ran under the slogan “Win with Willkie!,” which would have been good for the team as well.
For those of us who did not attend an American university, “Willkie Sprint” offers up a nice portrait of campus life. Ms. Hellmuth writes of the strong impression that the professors in the classroom made on her, of meeting up with her first boyfriend, of parties, and camping to see the stars near the not-fictionally named Gnaw Bone, Indiana. Considering events occurred some 35 years before the book was written, her prose reveals a fine memory for detail but also considerable perception.
But the Little 500 is the core of the book. The young women, who are athletic to some degree but not necessarily as cyclists, train with great dedication and we learn that you just don’t show up to race the Little 500 but that there is a series of preparatory events, including a Team Pursuit, Elimination Race and a Team Time Trial, which had them using their own road bikes, so are more like the kind of bike races we know.
However, the Little 500 itself is quite different from these. It is a relay event in which each four person team is issued a pair of identical single speed coaster brake bicycles with flat pedals and no additional accessories. For the men’s race, there are 200 circuits of a quarter mile flat cinder track, so 50 miles, while the women complete 100 circuits, so 40 miles. As a relay, it is required that teams must exchange riders at least ten times for the men and five for the women. A fast and efficient bike exchange is key to success and Ms. Hellmuth’s account of how to do this is both entertaining and daunting. In a race inspired by the Indy 500, there are some odd features, such as the use of the same flags used in auto racing. For example, a red flag requires all riders to stop where they are and a yellow one (which turns out as a defining moment in the book) means all riders hold their positions relative to the rider in front of them. And there is a checkered flag at the end, of course! There are other rules, such as all riders having to be undergraduates at Indiana University, which would have prevented the heroes from “Breaking Away” from participating, but the name of their team, the Cutters, has been adopted by the most successful men’s team of the Little 500, having scored 15 wins in the event’s 72 year history.
Through their determination and dedication, the Willkie Sprint team of freshman comes to the Little 500 in excellent form and the account of the actual race, held in front of 15,000 spectators, makes thrilling reading in the hands of the author. Definitely a long way from the egg-and-spoon race, with the participants riding with tactical sense and some aggression—the Little 500 is a race noted for crashes. The next edition will take place on April 19, 2024 for the women and the day after for the men’s event.
The author went on to compete in the Little 500 in following years, with Willkie Sprint getting renamed as team members moved from the residence and even from the university and new riders came in. She subsequently went on to an adventurous life, including some years spent as a professional racer, including participation in events in Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, North America, and even the forerunner of today’s Tour de France Femmes, the Grand Boucle Féminine Internationale in 2000. Like Dave Stohler in “Breaking Away,” her heart has been stolen by Italy.
Early on in her book, Kerry Hellmuth describes the work of Amelia Bloomer and the Rational Dress Society as women began to assert themselves as individuals, in society as well as being able to participate in that late 19th Century craze of riding a bicycle. It seems absurd to us now that it was only in 1984 that women competed in cycling events at the Olympics. The false dawn of women’s pro cycling four decades ago has only recently been displaced by a new calendar of events and acceptance and promotion of women’s racing at the highest level in cycling’s European heartland.
The Willkie Sprint team reunited at Indiana University in April 2023 as Grand Marshals for the Little 500, 35 years after their victory
In April 2023 Kerry Hellmuth and her Team Willkie Sprint colleagues were invited back to Bloomington to serve as grand marshals and guests of honour at the running of the Little 500. Their lives were positively shaped by their collegiate experience and “Willkie Sprint” is a fine memoir. The story has enough resonance that over time no fewer than three approaches have been made about turning it into a film and we met yet see “Willkie Sprint” come alive on screen, perhaps even as memorably as it has in print if fortune favours us.
“Willkie Sprint: A Story of Friendship, Love and Winning the First Women’s Little 500 Race” by Kerry Hellmuth
214 pp., illustrated, available in hardback, paperback and e-book editions
Indiana University Press, Bloomington
The book will be released on April 1, 2024 and is available here (to be followed by the usual on-line sources):
https://iupress.org/9780253069863/willkie-sprint/#generate-pdf.
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