Getting an early start

 

          It was a grand May day. It was late in the month, a festive time of year. The sun was out but it wasn’t too hot. We were far enough inland that there was no fog in the air. We were close to the Pacific Ocean, but not close enough for fog.

          Fittingly enough, we were gathered on a football field and we had attracted a huge crowd. Much of my professional life would later be spent at football fields where crowds packed the grandstands. This time, nobody called “set, hut,” but I would have been much more comfortable if someone had.

          Instead of footballs, platitudes filled the air. It was my college graduation. Well, mine and a few thousand very close friends. We packed the joint. My parents, other relatives and even some friends sat proud and amazed in the stands while I sat down on the field somewhere.

          “Elder graduated,” the people scoffed. “This I gotta see.”

          Now, about those platitudes. I assume there were some thrown around. Isn’t that what you do when speaking at a graduation? The world has problems, speakers say, but this bunch of geniuses will surely solve all of them. With all of the experienced and learned instructors we have at this high-class university, this group of graduates simply must be capable of leading our society to victory.

          The keynote speaker for this event was the governor of a state in Mexico. I never learned – because I didn’t care – which state he was from. I am told he spoke in Spanish, but I don’t know that for a fact. Despite my four semesters of university-level Spanish classes, I completed my education knowing very little of that language. Of course, I only took four semesters of Spanish because I failed one of them and had to re-take the class I flunked. I got credit for three semesters. There was an interpreter at the graduation to explain what the keynote guy said to the masses, so my failure to understand what the guy said had nothing to do with my ability to speak or understand that language.

          No, the reason that I have no idea what might have been said during the ceremony noting my graduation from a great American university was that I had decided to take the first step in my professional development that day. There was no reason to delay. My parents, I was certain, would understand my decision. After all, I had completed the needed work to be awarded a diploma. I was in attendance at the ceremony. I had completed my obligations. I even wore a tie under my robe and funny cap. No one said I had to listen to the speakers, whoever they were.

          Instead, using a skill developed during my elementary school years at World Series time, I listened to the broadcast of the Indianapolis 500 on a transistor radio. Remember those? I had an ear plug jammed in one ear and a finger jammed in the other ear so I could hear the broadcast over the pitifully dull proceedings which I was attending.

          Rick Mears won that day, a terrific drive against a field that included three of the four men who finished their careers with four Indy wins. I told the story years later to a docent at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. He walked me down some stairs to a lower floor which is not always available to the public and said to me, “There’s the car you heard win that day.”

          Great moment.

          Even when I was still in college I knew that, somehow, auto racing would play a role in my business life. I knew I would become a sports journalist and I felt that my interest in and knowledge of racing would give me an advantage someday. It did. I eventually spent 25 years working in that industry.

          I often think about that day all those Mays ago. I love to tell the story. Mears and Foyt, the Unsers and Andretti. Janet Guthrie, whom I admired, raced that day. Many of the all-time Indy greats were in the field that year. And the race was more important to me than the ceremony I was a part of. But I will tell you something I have never admitted before: Bringing a transistor radio to the graduation ceremony was strictly against the rules. I don’t remember now what the reasoning was and I don’t care. What I do remember was that I was told not to do it. Breaking that rule made listening to the race all the sweeter.

          There were college graduation ceremonies all over our nation that day but there was only one Indy 500. And I heard it.

          Ladies and gentlemen: Start your engines.