1,000 Greatest Drivers: Ralph Mulford

He took a break from the Indy 500 to stop for some fried chicken and ice cream.

I did not know much about Mulford until writing today’s column. I knew he won a lot of races in the early years of IndyCar racing and that many people believe he really won the inaugural Indy 500 in 1911 but that’s about all I knew until I wrote this, but after having done my research, I find him a lot more interesting than most of his contemporaries. Mulford was nicknamed the “Gumdrop Kid” because he used to eat gumdrops while racing, but I couldn’t really think of a place where I could have written that without hurting the writing. It took me a while to evaluate all his seasons because I haven’t done the top fives for those years yet, but I do know that in the 1910s the competition in the US seemed to be better than the competition in Europe, so I rated a lot of his seasons very highly. Obviously, it helps him that racing in the US did not stop during World War I unlike in Europe (although the Indy 500 did stop after the US entered the war). If you’re wondering how he started any Indy 500s despite never racing on Sundays, the Indy 500 did not race on Sundays back then. It was generally held on May 30 except when May 30 fell on a Sunday, when it was moved to the following Monday. The Indy 500 did not move to Sundays until 1974, the year after Mulford died.