35 years of memories

Nancy Macklin has a black and white photo of the old Little 500 stadium on 10th Street, dated April 26, 1980. She can point to the spot near the first turn where she and her medical staff set up a tent during her first Little 500 in 1973.

Macklin, now the director of nursing at the IU Health Center, has not missed a race in 35 years, but can still recall her first one like it was yesterday.

“I’ll never forget, when the race started, we gathered near turn one,” she said. “Then the riders came around after their parade laps. When they come to the corners, they all just tilt at a 45-degree angle. I think my heart skipped a beat. I thought they all were going to die. I had never seen such a sight in my life.”

This year will be Macklin’s 36th time providing race-day medical care for the riders. The IU Health Center now staffs four to eight nurses for the men’s and women’s races. They are joined by at least one orthopedic surgeon and four family practice physicians or nurse practitioners.

“We are so grateful to have someone with so much experience,” said Little 500 Race Director Matt Ewing. “To have the IU Health Center, and more specifically Nancy Macklin, with us at the race has been phenomenal.”

Macklin said she and her staff provide basic wound care for the riders, while the Bloomington Ambulance Service, which also staffs the race, treats more serious injuries, such as potential spinal or head injuries.

Student Emergency Medical Technicians now monitor track practices, but Macklin said there used to be no medical presence during practices at the old stadium.

“If they got hurt, the riders would come walking up the hill from where the business school is now,” she said. “We had the craziest protocol, because we had an infirmary upstairs. If they were OK to walk, the first thing we’d do is send them to take a shower upstairs, because they’d be covered in the black soot and cinders from the track.”

The old 10th Street stadium stood where the current Arboretum is today, and was the site of the racing scenes from the film “Breaking Away.”

Macklin said members of the Health Center staff were at the track for three days during the filming in case any of the actors got hurt. One of the days there was an accident scene with a nurse, but that day Macklin was called for jury duty.

“If you blink you miss it, but way down there is a tiny nurse,” she said. “It could have been me.”

The race has since moved from the 10th Street stadium to Bill Armstrong Stadium. Just as the venue has changed, the nature of the race has changed as well. Macklin said the quality of the riders’ training has made her job easier.

“The riders were not as trained,” she said. “The equipment was a lot more poor, so there were so many more accidents and injuries. Races are so much safer now due to all the conditioning and training.”

As the director of nursing for the IU Health Center, Macklin is the chief administrator for the nursing department. She is also a nurse practitioner and sees patients for a half a day each week and fills in for other nurses whenever necessary. But each year, she still looks forward to the unique opportunity to work the Little 500.

“It still has that festival atmosphere,” she said. “It’s still a thrill to sing the national anthem and see the parachuters come down in the beginning. Then you just hold your breath and say a prayer and hope everything is going to go OK.”