The following year Mr. Ducker was inspired with the idea of giving a tournament, or race meeting, similar to the trotting fixtures. He was elected president of the Springfield Bicycle Club, and after mapping out a program, boldly announced that a one day’s tournament would be given, at which $1,200 in prizes would be distributed. The tournament was advertised far and wide, and wheelmen came from all over the United States to attend this innovation in racing events. The tournament was a grand success, and the Springfield club cleared over $800. Record-breaking, which has always been the characteristic of the Springfield or Ducker tournaments, dates from this event. Frank Moore, of England, who was under the care of JOHN S. PRINCE, astonished everybody by putting the mile at 2m. 571⁄4s., and made what was then considered wonderfully fast time for five miles. He gave all the starters (among them GEORGE M. HENDEE, in his first year of racing) a start of thirty seconds, and broke the record of 16m. 103⁄4s., making a new record of 15m. 473⁄4s. Moore was the lion of the town, and perhaps the proudest moment of Mr. Ducker’s life was when he distributed the prizes at the rink, and announced that two records had been made. The racing was done on the mile track.
The success of this first tournament aroused the citizens of Springfield as much as Mr. Ducker, and the bicycle club had large additions to its membership. Moore’s records had whetted Mr. Ducker’s appetite, and he started to have a special racing track built.
When the three days’ camp and tournament of 1883 were announced, everybody was on the qui vive. This was the year in which “Doodle” Robinson posed as England’s fastest amateur rider. He was, however, pitted against Geo. M. Hendee and ignominiously defeated. Mr. Ducker had now raised the Springfield people to such a pitch of enthusiasm that, on the second day of the tournament, all the banks and principal manufactories, many of the stores, and even the public schools, were closed. Nearly every one of Springfield’s 33,000 inhabitants caught the infection. The days of 1883 and 1884 seem almost like a dream. It appears incredible that one man should have so completely dominated a whole city. In those days Ducker was a king in all but the name; he had but to express a wish and it was instantly executed.
J. S. PRINCE.
The tournaments of 1884 and 1885 only showed slight diminution in popularity. But in 1886, owing to the non-appearance of the Englishmen, who had been announced, the tournament was not so well patronized.
Mr. Ducker has been the uncompromising advocate of the rights of the racing bicyclers. Single-handed, he gamely fought the League on the makers’ amateur issue. He even carried the war to England and nearly won the N. C. U. over to his standard. He has always believed that the racing men have rights, and, therefore, has done everything to promote their interests. The racing men, however, are not the only ones who have been befriended by him. He is generosity personified, and though he has been in many disputes, his bark is worse than his bite.
The money expended in tournaments and cycle exhibitions during Mr. Ducker’s administration in Springfield amounted to upward of $60,000. These large expenditures have given rise to the silly charge that Mr. Ducker went into cycle racing for the money to be made out of it. How far from the fact this imputation lies may be judged by this. The Springfield Bicycle Club, on one occasion, after a very profitable meet, presented Mr. Ducker with five hundred dollars in recognition of the time and labor expended by him in behalf of cycling. On his removal to Buffalo he was presented with a dinner set of 150 pieces, and these are the only two instances in which he “made” anything. His work was for the club, and not for himself. If there was any profit, so far as he was concerned, it went into the club’s treasury.
W. A. ROWE.