For 1933,
riding mechanics were required.
"Will Overhead" In 1933, one of the more famous bits of Indy 500 nostalgia occurred.
Telegraph was still being used to transmit race information to newspapers and other outlets across the United States. George Zanaon, a typesetter for
The World-Independent newspaper in the town of
Walsenburg, Colorado was preparing a story for that day's Indianapolis 500. Since Memorial Day was a holiday, his young editor John B. Kirkpatrick was alone monitoring the
Associated Press wire for race updates. The race took several hours to complete, and the AP wire was shut down prior to the finish. Kirkpatrick had nearly the entire story ready for print, minus the winner of the race. A helpful AP editor in
Denver advised him that he would send the name of the winner via
Western Union telegraph. The telegraph Kirkpatrick received, in typical newspaper shorthand lingo was: "WILL OVERHEAD WINNER OF INDIANAPOLIS 500," meaning that he would send the information by telegraph when the information was available. The young editor misunderstood the jargon in the message, and interpreted it as saying a driver named
Will Overhead was the winner. The headline read "Will Overhead won the Indianapolis Memorial Day race today. At the two hundred fifty mile post
Babe Stapp was leading the string of racing cars, but gave way to Overhead on the last half of the 500 mile grind." The true winner was
Louis Meyer. The gaffe put the town of Walsenburg, and
The World-Independent newspaper (now known as the
Huerfano World Journal), on the map in racing circles. ==References==