The Little 500: A History of Indiana University's Iconic Bike Race

The Little 500 is an annual track cycling race held at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Known as "The World's Greatest College Weekend," it attracts over 25,000 people each year. The race has a rich history, evolving from a fundraising event to a celebrated tradition with both men's and women's races.

Origins and Inspiration

The Little 500 was founded in 1951 by Howard S. Wilcox Jr., then the Executive Director of the Indiana University Student Foundation (IUSF). Wilcox Jr. sought a way to raise money for student scholarships. Drawing inspiration from an informal campus bike race and his father's victory in the 1919 Indianapolis 500 car race, the Little 500 was born. The first race raised $6,000 for student scholarships and was attended by 7,000 people.

The Race

The Little 500 is a relay-style race where teams of four cyclists compete. The men's race consists of 200 laps (50 miles), while the women's race is 100 laps (25 miles). Teams must complete a set number of exchanges, where one rider replaces another in the race within designated pit zones. Bikes are standardized and provided, with no alterations allowed. They are single-gear bikes with coaster brakes.

Qualifying for the Race

Only 33 teams can compete in the race. Teams participate in smaller tune-up events throughout the spring for practice. In late March, teams compete in Qualifications ("Quals"), where every rider completes one lap, and each team gets three attempts to achieve their best total time. These times determine whether a team qualifies for the Little 500 and their starting grid position.

Race Day

The previous year's winning team wears a yellow jersey during the race, and the top team in Quals wears a green jersey. During the race, teams employ various tactical moves and strategies. Near the end of the race, teams that aren't close to the lead are pulled from the track to ensure the safety of the final stretch.

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The Spring Cycling Series

The Little 500 includes four events besides the race itself: Qualifications, Individual Time Trials (ITTs), Miss-N-Out, and Team Pursuit, collectively known as "The Spring Series". The team that wins The Spring Series is awarded a white jersey to wear during that year's race.

Qualifications

Qualifications, or "Quals," is the first and one of the most important series events. It is a four-lap race around the track to see which team can get the fastest cumulative time. These times determine if a team qualifies to race in Little Five and, if so, where in the field of the top 33 teams they will be placed. Each team is given three attempts to qualify. A team can use as many as four riders or as few as two riders. But whatever number of riders they use to qualify is the fewest riders they can use for Little Five.

Individual Time Trial

Like a qualification, an Individual Time Trial (ITT) is a four-lap (one mile) sprint around the track, performed individually. It is a test of both speed and sprint endurance. There are up to four riders on the track at a time.

Miss-N-Out

A standard elimination race in track cycling, each heat consists of five to eight riders, depending on the number of riders signed up for the day. At the end of the second lap and each subsequent lap, the rider in last place at the end of each lap is eliminated and exits the track. Riders keep racing until there are only three riders left. These three riders move on to the next round. This process continues until the final heat of eight.

Team Pursuit

Run under UCI rules for team pursuit in track cycling's version of the event, two teams of four race around the track. The race lasts 15 laps (6,000 meters). The team's time is the time of the 3rd rider to cross the line. The final heat sees the two fastest teams race head-to-head.

The Little 500 Bike

All riders must use the official Little 500 bike provided to them for that year. Little 500 bicycles are standardized, single-speed, coaster brake racing bicycles with a 46x18 gearing, 700c wheels, 32mm tires and flat rubber pedals. The men's and women's version differs only in frame size. Every year a new version of the specified bicycle type is purchased, with two given to each team.

The Mini 500

Beginning in 1955, five years after the first Little 500, the Mini 500 was a tricycle race for women students that took place on the Friday of the already expanding World’s Greatest College Weekend. At first, the Mini was more of a carnival than an athletic competition; a procession of decorated floats would start every race and each team would race in costume. In the first years of the race, a child, the son of a professor, would begin the race by riding a ceremonious lap in a toy pace car. Quickly the Mini 500 developed into an important and popular staple of the Little 500 Weekend. By the 1970s, news coverage of the Mini 500 began to highlight the athletic prowess competing in the event required. Newspapers reported how teams trained seriously for the event, perfected difficult exchanges, and took bruises from trikes tumbling out of control during hairpin turns. By the early 1980s, men began to compete in - and eventually dominate -the Mini 500, and their teams were often booed for what spectators perceived as an invasion into a women’s event. Interestingly, men began to compete in the Mini at about the same time women began to attempt qualifying for the de facto men’s bicycle race. But though it is easy to dismiss the carnival-like tricycle race as being parlance of the times, the Mini was an annual and highly anticipated event until 2002.

Women's Little 500

The inaugural Women's Little 500 was held in 1988. Four members of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority completed a qualifications run in the 1987 men's event on their 3rd and final attempt, but failed to qualify into the field of 33. In 1988, the IU Student Foundation launched the Women's Race. Thirty-one teams competed in the first Women's Race which was won by an all-freshman team, Willkie Sprint, representing Willkie Residential Hall.

Kerry Hellmuth showed up to Bloomington in the fall of 1987, an 18-year-old Wisconsin transplant who had fallen in love with the Indiana University campus. When Hellmuth arrived to her room on the 11th floor, the top level of Willkie North, an all-female dorm tower which was the counterpart to the all-male Willkie South tower, her dad helped her unpack the family's VW Rabbit. She and her roommate barely had time to settle in when a resident assistant, a senior named Crystal, called a welcome meeting for the 11th floor. As the women sat with their entire college careers in front of them, Crystal talked about campus life, academia and extracurricular opportunities. She was particularly excited about a bike race Hellmuth had never heard of, the inaugural women's Little 500. Hellmuth isn't sure what came over her, other than she was a definite tomboy who played just about every sport there was, trying to keep up with her two older brothers. She had never really cycled. Still, when Crystal asked who was in, Hellmuth's hand immediately shot up. Hellmuth had no idea at the time that she and her underdog Willkie Sprint dorm team would make IU history, a team of four freshmen winning the first women's Little 500 in front of 15,000 spectators at Bill Armstrong Stadium. The hard work paid off and on April 22, 1988, Willkie Sprint beat Kappa Alpha Theta by 9 seconds. Across from the team's pit were 40 journalists lined up shooting pictures and taking notes. The next day, Hellmuth and Willkie Sprint's feat were splashed across newspapers nationwide, including a story in The New York Times.

Breaking Away and National Recognition

The Little 500 gained national recognition after the release of the 1979 Academy Award-winning movie Breaking Away. The film, centered around the Little 500, tells the story of a group of Bloomington townies who enter the race as the "Cutters" and defeat the favored fraternity teams. The success of Breaking Away led to a major upgrade to the race, including the construction of a new stadium. In the early 1980s following the release of Breaking Away, the very successful Delta Chi fraternity's cycling team left their house amidst a fallout and took the name Cutters as their now ‘independent’ team moniker. Their first race under this name was in 1984, which they won.

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Broadcast History

Highlights of the 1981 race were shown on ESPN, and the first major coverage was by CBS Sports Saturday for the 1982 race. CBS's auto racing announcer, Ken Squier called the race, with Dave Blase providing color commentary.

The Little 500 Today

Today, the Little 500 is a week-long experience complete with giveaways, auxiliary events including an annual concert, celebrity appearances, and, of course, the famed bike races. The races themselves were originally modeled after the Indianapolis 500 and now include both a men's and women's race. The Little 500 continues to be run by students in the IUSF, with the goal of providing entertainment, raising money for scholarships, fostering spirited competition, and providing leadership opportunities for students.

Little 500 Hall of Fame

Established in 1970, the Little 500 Riders Hall of Fame is the most prestigious award given to a Little 500 rider. Each new inductee must be a rider with at least two years of race experience and be outstanding in both ability and attitude.

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