Mulford, Ralph K.
Auto Racing
b. 1884
d. Oct. 23, 1973
Mulford may have won the first Indianapolis 500, in 1911, but he didn't get credit for it. He was given the checkered flag before Ray Harroun and he took three extra laps as a precaution. When he finished the third lap, Harroun was in the winner's circle and Mulford's protests were largely ignored.
The following year, bonus money was offered to the first twelve finishers at Indy. Mulford was running tenth and last with more than 100 miles to go when Joe Dawson won the race. He was told he actually had to finish the 500 miles to collect the bonus money, so he took his time, at one point stopping to have a fried chicken dinner. Mulford finished the race nearly nine hours after it had started.
Known as the "Gumdrop Kid" because he ate gumdrops throughout his races, Mulford was the national driving champion in 1911 and 1915. A superb engineer, he dreamed of building his own passenger car, but was swindled out of more than $200,000 in one attempt to form a manufacturing company. Mulford retired from racing on tracks after 1922 but for some years continued to compete in hill climbs. At one time he held the record for both the Mount Washington and Pikes Peak climbs.