Anton "Tony" Hulman Jr. (February 11, 1901 – October 27, 1977) was an American businessman from

Terre Haute, Indiana Terre Haute ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, about 5 miles east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a ...

, who bought the

Indianapolis Motor Speedway The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is an automobile racing circuit located in Speedway, Indiana, an enclave suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. It is the home of the Indianapolis 500 and the Verizon 200, and and formerly the home of the United State ...

in 1945 and brought racing back to the famous race course after a four-year hiatus following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Early life and entry into the family business

Hulman was born in 1901 in Terre Haute. He was educated at St. Benedict's School at Terre Haute, Lawrenceville School in New Jersey and Worcester Academy in Massachusetts. Hulman participated in the

high hurdles Hurdling is the act of jumping over an obstacle at a high speed or in a sprint. In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle (sometimes known as 'burgles'), landing on both feet and checking their forward motion. Today, ...

and the

pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the Myc ...

at Worcester. He served with the

American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...

Ambulance Corps Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to definitive care. ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

at the age of 17. Upon graduation from

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

Sheffield Scientific School Sheffield Scientific School was founded in 1847 as a school of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut, for instruction in science and engineering. Originally named the Yale Scientific School, it was renamed in 1861 in honor of Joseph E. Sheffield, ...

in 1924, Hulman returned to Terre Haute to work for Hulman & Company, the family business run by his father Anton Hulman, Sr. However, Anton, Sr. told his managers, "Don't give Tony a place in the business. Let him work for it." Despite this, Tony rose far and fast. By 1926, he was the company's sales manager, and by 1931, at the age of 30, succeeded his father as company president.

Clabber Girl

Hulman's first project was developing a 10-year plan for an ad campaign that would take

Clabber Girl Clabber Girl is an American brand of baking powder, baking soda, and corn starch popular in the United States. Originally owned and manufactured by Hulman & Company, which also owned and operated the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and INDYCAR, it w ...

's top product, baking powder, to national prominence. Salesmen traveled around the country posting billboards along the roadside and going door-to-door inviting women to try Clabber Girl, which successfully boosted product sales. An original billboard that reads "Five Minutes to Terre Haute, Home of Clabber Girl Baking Powder" and has a clock at the top is still visible along

US 40 U.S. Route 40 or U.S. Highway 40 (US 40), also known as the Main Street of America, is a major east–west United States Highway traveling across the United States from the Mountain States to the Mid-Atlantic States. As with most routes wh ...

outside of

and is considered a local landmark.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Hulman is probably best known for buying the dilapidated

from a group led by

flying ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

Eddie Rickenbacker immediately after

, seeing it as a way to promote Clabber Girl. Influenced by three-time Indy 500 winner Wilbur Shaw (who became the track's president in the early years of the Hulman regime), Hulman made numerous improvements to the track in time for the race to be held in 1946. Following Shaw's death in a plane crash on October 30, 1954, Hulman stepped into his soon-to-be-familiar role as the "face" of the Speedway. He followed the tradition of launching the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

with the command, "Gentlemen, start your engines!" Into the 1970s, despite the fact he'd given the command so many times before, he would always practice it extensively beforehand, and on race day, he would invariably pull a card containing the famous words: "Gentlemen, start your engines!" from the pocket of his suit as he stepped to the microphone. Luke Walton, who with Wilbur Shaw had founded the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network, was for many years a sportscaster and worked annually with Hulman (and later with Mrs. Hulman) to ensure each word was delivered with the proper emphasis.

Family and philanthropy

Hulman married Mary Fendrich, the daughter of

Fendrich Cigar Company Fendrich Cigar Company (also known as ''La Fendrich'' and, more correctly ''H. Fendrich'') was a cigar factory in Evansville, Indiana, founded and owned by notable Fendrich family. The factory was shut in 1969. Cigar brands The Fendrich Compan ...

owner John H. Fendrich, in 1926. Their first child, a daughter named Mary, died just hours after her birth in 1930. In 1934, the couple's second daughter, also named Mary, but better known as " Mari", was born. Mari would later give Tony and Mary four grandchildren. Their sole grandson, Anton Hulman "Tony" George, would carry on the family's racing and business traditions. The Hulmans were well known in Indiana for their philanthropy and dedication to higher education; Terre Haute's Rose Polytechnic Institute received gifts of millions of dollars over the years. The Hulmans' generosity led the board of Rose Polytechnic to rename the school Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in the couple's honor in 1971. Indiana State's

Hulman Center The Hulman Center is a 10,200-seat multi-purpose arena on the campus of Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana, United States.

arena (opened in 1973) and Hulman Memorial Student Union (completed in the mid-1990s) for the couple carry the Hulman name in recognition of the family's donations for their construction. Mari Hulman George established a Center for Equine Studies at

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC) is a private Roman Catholic liberal arts college in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana. Originally a college exclusively for women, it is now coeducational. It is the oldest Catholic college in Indiana a ...

, west of Terre Haute. Terre Haute's

Hulman Links Hulman can refer to: *the Hulman family *a fictitious Northern Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is ...

public golf course is situated on over of land donated by Hulman in the early 1970s; however, the course was not completed until after his death.

Death

The

1977 Indianapolis 500 The 61st 500 Mile International Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 29, 1977. Considered one of the most historically significant editions of the Indianapolis 500, several sidebar stories com ...

would be memorable for many reasons. A. J. Foyt won his fourth "500" that day, and Foyt invited Hulman to ride with him on the back of the Oldsmobile Delta 88 pace car. The pair were photographed smiling and waving to the fans. It was one of the few, perhaps only, times Hulman had ever ridden on the back of the pace car with the winner; most other times he had sat in the passenger seat. It would be the final time most people saw Hulman publicly. At 76 years old, Hulman appeared to be in good health; he was always busy maintaining his business interests in Indianapolis and Terre Haute. In mid-October 1977, he hosted the annual Speedway press dinner. A few days later, though, he and his close friend, Hoosier sportscaster

Chris Schenkel Christopher Eugene Schenkel (August 21, 1923 – September 11, 2005) was an American sportscaster. Over the course of five decades he called play-by-play for numerous sports on television and radio, becoming known for his smooth delivery and bar ...

, were the grand marshals for the Fall Festival parade in nearby Martinsville, Indiana, where Hulman refused Schenkel's offer of his coat in the cool autumn weather. On the night of October 27, 1977, Hulman died of heart failure caused by a ruptured

aortic aneurysm An aortic aneurysm is an enlargement (dilatation) of the aorta to greater than 1.5 times normal size. They usually cause no symptoms except when ruptured. Occasionally, there may be abdominal, back, or leg pain. The prevalence of abdominal aortic ...

on the operating table in St. Vincent's Hospital in Indianapolis. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery, along with other members of his family.

Award

He was inducted in the

Motorsports Hall of Fame of America The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) is hall of fame that honors motorsports competitors and contributors from the United States from all disciplines, with categories for Open Wheel, Stock Cars, Powerboats, Drag Racing, Motorcycles, Sp ...

Tony Hulman
at the

in 1991.
He is a member of the

Indiana Football Hall of Fame The Indiana Football Hall of Fame is a sports museum and hall of fame in Richmond, Indiana. It honors persons associated with high school, college and professional American football in Indiana. It also works to establish scholarships and endowments ...

.
He was inducted in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990.
He received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1975.

Other business interests

Hulman went on a buying spree beginning in the 1930s, purchasing a string of

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

bottling plants across Indiana (which were later consolidated to Indianapolis), utility companies, newspapers, radio and television stations including Terre Haute's WTHI,

WTHI-FM WTHI-FM (99.9 Hertz, MHz; "HI-99") is a radio station running a country music format in Terre Haute, Indiana. The station's studios and broadcast tower are located along Ohio Street in downtown Terre Haute. The station is owned by Midwest Communi ...

and WTHI-TV, and a great deal of real estate. In recent years, however, as the family has concentrated primarily on the Speedway and racing-related businesses, they have slowly begun to divest themselves of some of Hulman's real estate holdings and "non-core" businesses, such as Wabash Valley Broadcasting, their radio and television holding company, which was sold to Emmis Communications in 1997. Emmis sold WTHI-TV and several of their other television stations to

LIN TV LIN Media was an American holding company founded in 1994 that operated 43 television stations. All except one were affiliates of the six major U.S. television networks. One of the remaining stations was a low powered weather station in Ind ...

Corporation in 2005. Wabash Valley Broadcasting was originally started by Terre Haute, IN. attorney Raymond J. Kearns, whom was the president of WVB. Shortly after Wabash Valley Broadcasting was incorporated, Anton "Tony" Hulman, Jr. became a stockholder. The company (Wabash Valley Broadcasting) started radio station WTHI-AM, which went on air January 1948 as an ABC affiliate. Hulman later headed a small group of men who purchased the holdings of all original shareholders. Hulman & Co. then sold Wabash Valley Broadcasting to Emmis Broadcasting in a $90 million deal, Wabash Valley Broadcasting consisted of television station WTHI, radio stations WTHI-FM, WTHI-AM and WWVR-FM as well as television station WFTX in Fort Myers, FL. One such property that the family owned for years that became the subject of much speculation and scorn was the land occupied by the former Terre Haute House hotel, which stood at the northeast corner of Seventh Street and Wabash Avenue in Terre Haute (the historic former "

Crossroads of America The Crossroads of America is the official motto of the U.S. state of Indiana. Various cities in the American Midwest also use the phrase or a variant thereof to describe their location. Adoption The Indiana General Assembly passed a resolution ...

" junction of U.S. Highways 40 and 41). Hulman purchased the hotel in 1959 and closed it to the public in 1970. Noted for the rich and famous (as well as infamous) who stayed there during the hotel's early years, the hotel was the target of numerous attempts at revitalization between 1970 and 2005, with the city of Terre Haute taking a purchase option on the property in 2004 in an effort to finally make something happen. None came to fruition, and in the fall of 2005, the Hulman family (through Terre Haute Realty Corp.) sold the hotel and two other historic buildings to a

limited liability corporation A limited liability company (LLC for short) is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a ...

, Seventh & Wabash, LLC, owned by Terre Haute developer, Greg Gibson, who demolished the structures for redevelopment. A new hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn – Terre Haute House, opened in the fall of 2007.

Namesake grandson carries on the Speedway tradition

Hulman's grandson, Anton Hulman "Tony" George, is the former president and CEO of the Speedway and the Indy Racing League.

Tidbits and trivia

* The call letters for Hulman's WTHI television and radio stations have been, on occasion, said to stand for "With Tony Hulman's Interest," although it seems more likely that the letters stand for Terre Haute, Indiana. * Most of the construction and improvement projects at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the Hulman years were "handshake deals," done without a contract. Hulman preferred to do it that way, always pointing out that he wasn't in it for the money; he just wanted to deliver the best racing experience possible. * He was a member of Theta Chi fraternity during his time at Indiana State University * Hulman joined a number of other successful businessmen by appearing in magazine advertisements for

Lord Calvert Canadian Whisky Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

under its slogan "for men of distinction." The ad became the foundation for a 1956 collage by Jess Collins called "Lord Pervert," which mocks

Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), defected from the Soviet underground (1938), ...

. * A portion of Interstate 70 east of Indianapolis, Indiana has been designated the "Anton Tony Hulman Jr. Memorial Way".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hulman, Tony 1901 births 1977 deaths American food industry businesspeople American football ends American motorsport people Auto racing executives Hulman-George_family Indianapolis 500 International Motorsports Hall of Fame inductees Rose–Hulman Fightin' Engineers football coaches Yale Bulldogs football players Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science alumni Lawrenceville School alumni Worcester Academy alumni Businesspeople from Indianapolis Sportspeople from Terre Haute, Indiana Players of American football from Indiana Philanthropists from Indiana 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American philanthropists