In a comment, Cramps said that he'd noted the mention of a "Lake Merritt Velodrome" in the text accompanying the Oldest US Roadracing Photo of a few posts back. I failed to notice that mention but it would have triggered NO memory at all, Cramps. I never heard anyone mention an old track in Oakland.
By the way, your comments come to me via email but are unreturnable, so I have to respond via a blog post.
Lake Merritt Velodrome. You wonder if every US village and town had a bicycle racing track back when. Imagine....
Added later: Please don't miss Mark Walsh's comment to this post!
4 comments:
Maynard, you probably recall Red's Cyclery that became College Avenue Cyclery in the 1970s. It was owned by a family who name's spelling I can only guess: Bachagalupe (Pete Rich can clue us in). They had their grampa's "track irons" on display, and hidden away were the scrapbooks.
I remember being impressed by the scrapbook's newspaper clippings from the 1920s that showed a wood track inside the Oakland Auditorium (which is at the south end of Lake Merritt). The pictures showed that the place was packed, and one article stated that a number of competitors had to be carried away due to the amount of cigarette smoke.
And like Columbo says, "Oh, just one more thing!" The elder Murphy Sabatino had a portable track that he moved around to various Bay Area venues. It is quite possible that he was involved in the event at the upper left:
http://www.velovecchio.com/manning/ticket.jpg
Jim Manning's scrapbook is online with all sorts of fun stuff:
http://www.velovecchio.com/manning/manning.html
More at:
http://www.velovecchio.com
Mark- great links- thanks for the info.
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