In 1950, Howard S. Wilcox Jr. saw Indiana University students staging cycling races around campus. At the time, Wilcox was the director of the IU Student Foundation. Inspired by the biking culture at IU, he pictured a race as an opportunity to help the foundation raise funds for scholarships.
By 1951, the Little 500 was born.
Wilcox tried to mimic Indiana’s own Indianapolis 500 car race. Riders in the men’s race complete 200 laps — or 50 miles — around a quarter-mile cinder track. In both versions of the race, 33 teams compete for a miniature version of the Indy 500’s Borg-Warner Trophy.
The first Little 500 race was won by the South Hall Buccaneers of the Collins Living Learning Center. The Buccaneers crossed the finish line more than four minutes ahead of their competition in front of 7,000 spectators.
One year later, the North Hall Friars of Collins were victorious. They became the first team to win two consecutive titles the following year. In 1954, Sigma Nu was the first fraternity to win the race, while Phi Kappa Psi was the first team to win three consecutive times in 1960.
Before 1981, the Little 500 was held at the Tenth Street Stadium. The stadium was home to Indiana football from 1925 to 1959 and hosted the race until a year before the site was demolished in 1982.
With enough donations to build a new stadium, Bill Armstrong Stadium — which was named after the former IU Student Foundation president — was constructed in 1981. The stadium hosts Indiana men’s and women’s soccer games, as well as the annual race.
The Little 500 was thrust into the national spotlight after the 1979 film “Breaking Away” was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning Best Original Screenplay. The movie was also a box-office success, surpassing $20 million over nine months.
CUTTERS, the fictional team of protagonists in the film, came to life in 1984. Mirroring the movie’s storybook plot, CUTTERS crossed the finish line first in the team’s inaugural year. CUTTERS’ 2023 trophy gave them 15 first-place finishes, the highest total for any team in the men’s event. Between 2007 and 2011, CUTTERS won five consecutive championships.
As the race became more ingrained in IU’s culture, women grew interested in competing as well.
In 1976, Kathleen Cerajeski became the first woman to be part of a men’s team, racing as an alternate for the Cravens B team. By the 1980s, many female riders were keen on creating a women’s version of the event.
The sorority Kappa Alpha Theta attempted to qualify for the 1987 men’s race. In qualifications, the team placed 34th, just missing the 33-team cutoff. After their attempt, the IU Student Foundation launched the first edition of the women’s race in 1988.
The women’s version of the event is a 100-lap — or 25-mile — version of the men’s race. Thirty teams competed in the first race, with Willkie Sprint of Wilkie Quad winning. Throughout the years, Theta has become the most successful team, winning 10 trophies.
Before the actual race day, riders compete in a four-part series of events called the Spring Series. Qualifications set the starting positions for the race. Individual Time Trials is a four-lap sprint around the track performed individually. Miss N Out sees the last-place rider of a heat get eliminated each lap during the race until the last rider remains, and Team Pursuit showcases the endurance of every team with a 15-lap competition.
The 2026 Little 500 races featured classic down-to-the-wire finishes.
In the men’s race, CUTTERS looked to be on its way to yet another victory. However, a crash on the 199th lap instigated by a reckless Chi Alpha maneuver took out many teams at the front of the field, including CUTTERS. When the dust settled, Black Key Bulls was in first position and took home its third consecutive title.
The women’s race did not see a crash on the penultimate lap, but the race was just as full of tense moments. The race came down to a sprint finish on the final lap, as Alpha Chi Omega out-pedaled its competition. It was the team’s first-ever victory, following a runner-up finish in 2025 behind Theta.
Known as “The World’s Greatest College Weekend,” the Little 500 will be shaping up for more excitement in 2027, as two more teams will look to add their names to the history books.
This story was originally published in the Indiana Daily Student's 2026 Orienter.
