From Obama to the Oscars, this race has seen it all

1950: An idea is formed
Howdy Wilcox, then executive director of the IU Foundation, dreams up the Little 500. After seeing a group of students race bicycles around a campus dormitory, the son of an Indianapolis 500 champion had an idea: What if we modeled a bicycle race after the world-famous car race just an hour north?

1951: 1st green flag waves
The first Little 500 runs in the former Memorial Stadium, what is now the Arboretum. The South Hall Buccaneers, a team from Collins, won the race in two hours and 38 minutes.


The South Hall Buccaneers were the first team to win the Little 500 in 1951.

1954: Rise of the greeks
After three years of residence hall glory, Sigma Nu becomes the first greek organization to win the race. For the next three decades, the race is dominated by fraternities.

1955: An even smaller 500
Women were not allowed to participate in the race, so the Student Foundation creates the Mini 500, a tricycle race that initially takes place in the Wildermuth Intramural Center.

1962: A 1-man marathon
Dave Blase, a student from Speedway, Ind., home of the Indianapolis 500, rides 139 laps to lead Phi Kappa Psi to the title, its fourth in five years. Previously, the Student Foundation had written rules to keep Blase out of the race because he had participated in events not sanctioned by the Little 500 Steering Committee, even though the rules were written after Blase’s participation.

1968: Era of protest
The United Anti-Racist Movement sponsors a sit-in the Friday night before the Little 500, demanding all participating fraternities either eliminate charter clauses that kept black students out of those organizations or include clauses that made national charters void at IU. Twenty-three of the 24 fraternities signed the petition to remove the clause; the lone fraternity not to sign the petition, Phi Delta Theta, said its national chapter was in the process of abolishing some of the clauses. The team later dropped out of the race. After 38 hours of protest, the race went on.

1973: A dynasty starts
Delta Chi wins its first Little 500. The fraternity won seven races between 1973 and 1981.


Delta Chi taking the checkered flag in 1979.

1976: Woman makes team
Kathy Cerajeski becomes the first woman to be listed on the active roster of a qualifying team. But as an alternate, Cerajeski did not race in the Little 500.

1979: On the silver screen
“Breaking Away” is released. The movie features the Cutters, a group of local residents who enter, and win, the Little 500. Though the story in the movie could never happen (only IU students can ride in the race), the film won an Oscar for best original screenplay.

1981: A new venue
The race moves from the Tenth Street Stadium to the newly built Little 500/Soccer Stadium, later renamed Bill Armstrong Stadium in honor of the IU Foundation president.


The plans being reviewed in 1980.

1982: Men in the Mini
Although no women had participated in the Little 500 (despite their efforts to qualify), “Jerry’s Kids,” a group of four men from Dodds House, qualifies and races in the women’s Mini 500. The team was booed by the crowd in Assembly Hall, where the event moved in its later years.

1984: A cut above the rest
The Cutters win their first Little 500 (pictured below). The team is the first independent organization (not affiliated with a greek house or residence hall) to win the race. The Cutters have won nine Little 500 championships, the most in race history.


The Cutters win their first Little 500.

1988: 1st women’s race
The first women’s Little 500 is run, with Willkie Sprint taking the title after posting a 1:10.52 time. The women’s race is 100 laps long while the men’s race is 200 laps long.

1991: Varsity Villas riots
Following three years of incidents at the Varsity Villas apartment complex just west of Memorial Stadium, a near riot-occurs there this year. Party-goers flipped a tenant’s Cadillac Cimarron and moved it 30 feet across the parking lot. About 500 people were arrested and caused the University and the city to re-examine their policing policies during the party week.

1994: 1st sorority win
Kappa Alpha Theta becomes the first sorority to win the Little 500, starting a trend of greek dominance (though unlike the men’s race from the 1950s to the 1980s, independent teams won several races). The Thetas have four Little 500 titles, trailing only Kappa Kappa Gamma (5) in the all-time results.

2008: Obama visits
Weeks before the Indiana primary, Democratic presidential candidate and then-Sen. Barack Obama makes a surprise visit to the women’s Little 500. Obama, who was elected America’s first black president in November of that year, shook the hand of every rider and watched the first few laps of the race before leaving for more campaigning.