Major Taylor

Major Taylor

Personal information
Nickname	Major The Worcester Whirlwind The Black Cyclone
Team information
Discipline	Track
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter
Major wins
1896 Madison Square Garden he lapped the entire field during the half-mile race 1896 League of American Wheelmen one mile race 1899 - World Champion - One mile

Marshall Walter ("Major") Taylor (November 26 1878–June 21 1932) was an American cyclist who won the world one-mile track cycling championship in 1899 — after setting numerous world records and over-coming strong racial discrimination. Taylor was only the second African-American athlete to achieve the level of world championship — after boxer George Dixon.

==Early life==

Taylor was the son of Gilbert Taylor and Saphronia Kelter, who had migrated from Louisville, Kentucky with their large family to a farm in rural Indiana. Taylor's father was employed in the household of a wealthy Indianapolis family with the last name of Southards who made their fortune in business. At that time, Indianapolis was one of the largest industrial cities in America. As a coachman, Gilbert Taylor unknowingly stumbled upon an environment that would change his young son, Marshall's life forever. At an early age, the Southard Family gave Taylor a bicycle, and he began working, first as a newspaper delivery person and later took a job as an entertainer at a local bicycle shop at the age of thirteen. Taylor was hired to perform cycling tricks stunts outside a bicycle shop while wearing a soldier's uniform — hence the nickname "Major."

Racing career

Major Taylor's very first Bicycle race started out as a joke of sorts to generate publicity for the Bicycle Shop Owner he worked for. At the age of 13, there was a local race in Indianapolis that was held each year. The shop owner picked Taylor up, sat him on his bicycle and said "Just race up a little ways and stop because nobody will expect you to win but it will give the crowd such a treat to see you." In his Autobigraphy titled "The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World", Taylor recalls being offended that his employer though he couldn't win nor finish. Taylor went on to beat adult men in this race.

As an African-American, Taylor was banned from bicycle racing in Indiana once he started winning and made a reputation as "The Colored Cyclone." In 1896, he moved from Indianapolis to Middletown, Connecticut, then a center of the United States bicycle industry with half a dozen factories and thirty bicycle shops, to work as a bicycle mechanic and fabricator in the Worcester Cycle Manufacturing Company factory, owned by Birdie Munger who was to become his lifelong friend and mentor. His first east coast race was in a League of American Wheelmen one mile race in New Haven, where he started in last place but won.

In late 1896, Taylor entered his first professional race in Madison Square Garden, where he lapped the entire field during the half-mile race. This race was called 'The Six Day' Race and it is still believed to be one of these most grueling sporting events in American History. Racers rode their bicycles for 6 days straight, stopping only to eat and sleep a few hours at time. Whomever had accumulated the most miles at the end of the Six Days was declared the winner. Taylor placed 9th in the race and his reputation as a gutsy rider was established. Although he is listed in the Middletown town directory in 1896, it is not known how long he still resided there after he became a professional racer. He eventually settled in Worcester, Massachusetts (where the newspapers called him "The Worcester Whirlwind"), marrying there and having a daughter, although his career required him to spend a large amount of time traveling, in America, Australia, and Europe.

Life is too short for any man
to hold bitterness in his heart

Marshall Taylor

Although he was greatly celebrated abroad, particularly in France and Australia, Taylor's career was still held back by racism, particularly in the Southern states where he was not permitted to compete against Caucasians. The League of American Wheelmen for a time excluded blacks from membership. During his career he had ice water thrown at him during races and nails scattered in front of his wheels, and was often boxed in by other riders, preventing the sprints to the front of the pack at which he was so successful. In his autobiography, he reports actually being tackled on the race track by another rider, who choked him into unconsciousness but received only a $50 fine as punishment. Nevertheless, he does not dwell on such events in the book; rather it is evident that he means it to serve as an inspiration to other African-Americans trying to overcome similar treatment. Taylor retired at age 32 in 1910, saying he was tired of the racism. His advice to African-American youths wishing to emulate him was that while bicycle racing was the appropriate route to success for him, he would not recommend it in general; and that individuals must find their own best talent.

Unverified reports, such as the subtitle on the book jacket of Marlene Targ Brill's biography of Major Taylor, Taylor achieved other important international benchmarks in cycling. Link title

Later life and death

Taylor married Daisy V. Morris in Ansonia, Connecticut on March 21, 1902. While Taylor was reported to have earned between $25,000 and $30,000 a week when he returned to Worcester at the end of his career, by the time of his death he had lost everything to bad investments (including self-publishing his autobiography), persistent illness, and the stock market crash. His marriage over, he died at age 53 on June 21, 1932 — a pauper in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood, in the charity ward of Cook County Hospitalo — to be buried in an unmarked grave. He was survived by one daughter.

In 1948 a group of former pro bike racers, with money donated by Schwinn Bicycle Co. (then) owner Frank W. Schwinn, organized the exhumation and relocation of Taylor's remains to a more prominent part of Mount Glenwood Cemetery in Glenwood, Illinois, near Chicago. A monument to his memory stands in Worcester, and Indianapolis named the city's bicycle track after Taylor.

Taylor's great-grandaughter Karen Brown-Donovan lives in California

See Also: Major Taylor's Grave at maps.google.com

Quotes

• "It is my thought that clean living and a strict observance of the golden rule of true sportsmanship are foundation stones without which a championship structure cannot be built." — Marshall Taylor in The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World

• "Life is too short for any man to hold bitterness in his heart." —: Marshall Taylor

In Popular Culture

• The Major Taylor Velodrome in Indianapolis, Indiana, and a bicycle trail in Chicago are named in Taylor's honor.

• On July 24, 2006, the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, changed the name of part of Worcester Center Boulevard to Major Taylor Boulevard — where his memory is honored for his athletic feats as well as his character.

• A bicycle, of unproven provenance was donated by Worcester resident Sy Farnsworth to the Worcester Historical Museum — with the understanding the bicycle may have belonged to Taylor.

• The band Oh Yeah! performed a tribute song describing Major Taylor's Iver Johnson bicycle and the racism he encountered, entitled "Major Taylor's Grave".

• In East Palo Alto, California, a racially-mixed community that was until recently mostly black, hosts a Major Taylor Cycling Club.

• Other cycling clubs dedicated to Major Taylor include the 'Major Motion' Cycling club in Los Angeles.

• Nike markets a sports shoe named after Major Taylor.

• The company Soma Fabrications makes a bicycle handlebars called the Major Taylor Track Bar, a replica of Major Taylor's 1930's bike's handlebar.

Bibliography

• Autobiography: The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World, 1929 ISBN 0-8369-8910-4
• Major Taylor: The Extraordinary Career of a Champion Bicycle Racer by Andrew Ritchie, 1988 ISBN 0-8018-5303-6
• Major Taylor, Champion Cyclist by Lesa Cline-Ransome ISBN 0-689-83159-5
• Major: A Black Athlete, a White Era, and the Fight to Be the World's Fastest Human Being by Todd Balf ISBN 0-3072-3658-7

External links

• The Major Taylor Society
• The Major Taylor Association
• Tribute song