Little 500 Generates Big Results for Bloomington

The Indianapolis 500 may get all the spring headlines in the state of Indiana, but another race an hour south of Indianapolis is just as competitive.

The Little 500 cycling race in Bloomington, Indiana, takes place the third week of April each year at Bill Armstrong Stadium on the campus of Indiana University. This year, it will be April 19–20.

“It’s a foundational thing, something that everybody takes a lot of pride in and looks forward to every year,” said Mike McAfee, executive director of Visit Bloomington. “It’s coming up on the end of the school year and all the flowers are blossoming and campus looks beautiful. It’s the last hurrah for students and in a couple more weeks they’ll be clearing out for the summer.”

The race was founded in 1951 by Howdy Wilcox Jr., executive director of the Indiana University Foundation, who modeled the race after the Indianapolis 500, which his father had won in 1919. The IU Student Foundation produces the race, which has has raised more than $2 million dollars for the school’s scholarship fund.

Racers compete in teams of four, racing relay-style for 200 laps (50 miles) along a quarter-mile cinder track. More than 30 teams are selected in qualifications trials to compete in the main race. The first women’s Little 500 (100 laps, 25 miles) was held in 1988, making the weekend of racing inclusive for everybody.

A Race Fit for the Silver Screen

The events of the Little 500 were captured in the 1979 Academy Award-winning movie Breaking Away, which depicts a group of Bloomington townies who enter the race and (spoiler alert) defeat the favored fraternity teams.

“It’s so good,” McAfee said. “It’s one of Dennis Quaid’s earliest movies and it won an Academy Award for best original screenplay. It’s one of the foundations of Bloomington.”

In the movie, a team of “cutters” — the nickname given for Bloomington residents who work in the limestone quarries — defeats the Indiana students in the Little 500.

“The movie does a really great job of telling the story about how they finally one year allowed a local team of Bloomingtonians to enter the race and they pretty much dominated the race ever since that time,” McAfee said. “That’s what people do around here — you ride bicycles and you’re outside in the woods. The Little 500 is a way that the town and the university really cross over and do things together.”

McAfee explained the limestone industry is the backbone of Bloomington and helped establish the community 205 years ago.

“We are sitting on top of the most valuable limestone deposit in the history of the world,” McAfee said. “It’s 15 miles wide, 30 miles long and 90 feet deep. The Empire State Building, the Pentagon and something like 38 of the 50 state capitals in the country were built with limestone quarried right out of Bloomington.”

Billed as “The World’s Greatest College Weekend,” the Little 500 is the largest collegiate bike race in the U.S. and has expanded into a week of activities. During his run for presidency, then-senator Barack Obama made an unannounced visit to the Little 500 women’s race in 2008. Many famous cyclists, including Lance Armstrong, have attended over the years.

“Everybody has a lot of fun with it, but people take it very seriously,” McAfee said. “Every day you will see these teams training on the roads. There’s cycling training going on here year-round.”

Huge Community Impact

Bill Armstrong Stadium only seats about 6,500 people. But that will not be the case from April 19­–20, when more than 20,000 fans will fill the venue over the two days, including several thousand on the infield and standing around the outside of the track.

The estimated economic impact of the week is somewhere around $6 million, which puts it on par with a huge football or basketball weekend for IU.

“It’s very exciting for the community, for the restaurants, the retail shops,” said McAfee. “This is one of the biggest times of the year. There are about 20 events a year that you plan your calendar around. Whether you’re a sports fanatic, or you work at a restaurant or a bar or are somebody in the hospitality industry. Those are football weekends, the big basketball weekends, graduation and things like that. And the Little 500 is one of those.”

Kirkwood Avenue, which connects the campus to downtown Bloomington, will be a weeklong party for the various fraternities, sororities and student organizations. The nightlife scene is all themed around the Little 500 and the students and community members are out in force having a good time and raising money.

“It’s just a big weekend where friends, relatives and visitors come to town for the races and for all the activities happening with that,” McAfee said. “The hotels are full, but it’s also a VFR week — visiting friends and relatives. There’s a lot of students, family and friends that come back and stay on couches and in spare bedrooms.

“You’ll see the students out playing beer pong or doing other activities on Kirkwood and it’s kind of the opening of the spring and summer season where people are outdoors and enjoying the weather.”

While it’s a fun week for the community, for those participating it’s a very serious time of year.

“It’s four riders on fixed gear bicycles and they take turns riding,” McAfee said. “Anybody who is a cycling fanatic needs to come and experience this because there’s nothing else like it and it’s just so unique. It’s all one gear and you’re just getting on there and jamming around there as fast as you can.”