Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125880
No one in the histo ry of American motorcycling so infl ue nced the sport as did AMA Secretary E.C. Sm ith . E.C. devoted 30 years of hi s life to the association. 20 baseb all and Smith patterned himsel f after that. There w as no co mpet itio n committee t o go to or an y Congress. lie made th e decisions and. brother, if yo u were suspended, yo u were suspended period . There were no lawyers or stuff like that. .. it wa s the real old pioneer stuff:' jules goes on to point ou t tha t Smith, a fanatical baseball fan, regarded Landis almost as an id ol and cop ied from him his incredible attention to statistical detail , still a tradition in baseball, but un f o r t u n a tely not attended to by Smi th's successors. Horky co ntinues , ......hen I was hir ed, ' Smith had a room abo ut ten feet square , then he added anot her room and final ly went to three offices . I got a lit tle table stuck in the co m er of Smith's office, so I was like a clerk who sat in the co mer and Smith was Scrooge:' Horky quickty pi cked up the challenge of further organizing the competition aspect of the American Motorcycle Association. One of his first projects , and one which endures in basicall y the same form today , was a numbering sytem for all competition rid ers , de sign ating the geographic district with a letter and thus ensuring that no two competition riders carried the same nu mber. As director of co mpet itio n , Horky also was a pioneer in getting riders int o colorful leathers to help negate the al re ad y -e n gineering "black leather" i mage . Good q uali ty helmets were another pe nchant with j ules. He d e scribes hi mself as " h ard nosed on th ings like t ha t." , Lik e Smith , Horky believed in " the b ook." He notes th at the AMA was growing by leap s and b ounds, ge tting bigger and bigger and makin g it ever more important to "stick to basics." He says, "Somewhere along the line, you had to stick to a basic policy. You had a competit ion committee (established late in the '40s) that sat down and made the rules , but what th e Devil good was a rulebook if you didn't enforce it?" Horky and Smith also recognized during this period the need for more AMA presence in the field. Certainly it was more two men could do to keep tabs o n the burge on ing AMA activity from co ast-to-co ast. They set about the task o f finding more and m ore qualified referees who served without pa y as the local arms of the MIA. The referee in a given area was kept informed of matters related to all the realms of A.\1A activity through a newsletter from Horky's office and the ref in tum w ould pass much of this information o n to the co m peti tio n riders and AMA membership. The 1947 financial report showed the ' AMA with a budget of $63,000 and a ne t profit at years-end of $168 : Rider me mbership and san ct ion fees co mprised 90 percent of the in come. The executive secretary was paid $4 ,68 0 and the staff had grown to include eight full -time secretaries who were paid a total of $12 ,700. In 1948 , the first year of its operation, the American Moto rcycle Riders Mutual Benevolent Associat ion (AMRMBA) paid out a total o f $28,351 in medical benefits to racers injured in AMA professional competition. ....'hat is n ow a SIO,OOO medical policy o n professional racers began as a $300 maximum pay-out fund th at Smith and Horky were hoping could soo n be raised to $500 . The Silver Ann iversary of the A merican Motorcycle Association in 1949 was marked by a club total of 1,500 equal to the number chartered today. The AMA lobbied in the Iowa legislature agai nst a b ill that would have inc rease d the licen se fee for motorcycles from $5 to $ 10 and th e measure was de feated . john Penton w on the j ack P in e E n d u ro a n d light weig ht motorcycl es had be gun to have some in fluen ce on the American market , with the likes of Trium ph , BSA and Norton cracking the Harley-Davidson and Indian stranglehold on American racing. A cartoon character by the name of Muffler Mike urged responsible AMA members to use legal mufflers because noise was the biggest single public relat ions problem confronting motorcyclists. THE FIFTIES Jules Horky joi ned the AMA in 1964 because he "loved motorcycling" . Th is y ea r. after 28 y ears of serv ice . he reti red . tragic note with th e de ath of Arth ur D avidson o f Harley-Davids on Motor Company in an au tom ob ile accident. AMERICAN MOTORCYCLING rep orted " Kin dly and affa b le Arthur Davidson, president of the AMA, has receiv ed the chec kered flag." The Korean War had less an effect o n the association than had previous co nflic ts and again at the urging o f th e ind efati gable E . C'. S mith, the membership of the Ame rican Motor cycle Association devoted its spare time to Civil Defe nse and Red Cross activities. An interesting poll of th e membership in the early fifties showed that 51 percent of all AMA members felt the single most important way the national organization and individ ua l me mbers co uld serve the sport of motorcycling was to g e n e r a t e more f a vorab le publicity . The teachings of E.C. Smith were obviously not going unheeded. Twenty ye ars before mandatory s a f e t y i n s p e c t i o n b e came an almo st-universal law of th e land, the AMA started a program in 1951 to establish dealerships as "official" motorcycle insp ect io n st ations. In 1952, the week of Ap ril 14-19 was declared Motorcycle Inspection Week with all riders being urged to take their bikes in .be fo re f or a thorough chec k-up beginning another season of riding. A dealer me mbe rship co ntest was establis hed in 1 953 with awards presented to those d ealers who sol d the most AMA membersh ip s duri ng the year. T hat program still lives today , suppo rted primarily by old-line dealer s who " grew up wi th the AMA" and feel tha t a s t e a d i l y- g r ow i n g na t io nal org an i z at i on i s c r i t i c a l t o the develop men t of the sport in America. The drive to wipe out polio and the developmen t of the March of Dimes opened the door to one of the most successful public relations efforts in the history of the AMA, one which E.C . Smith still points to as the way to imp rove the image of motorcycling. Smith was on a first-name basis with all the officials of the March of Dimes and the k\IA annually was involved in the ceremony. to name the. Poster Child fo r the year's f. d-~ai ing dri\';";.,;O ;.ltL:.e;;:n_ _ .;.e ;;;f the young ste r was given a motorcycle ride for th e b enefit of the photographers--and local AMA clubs actively solicited funds for the March. The D e cember , 1956 i ss u e o f AM ERICAN MOTORCYCLING bore the likeness of poster child Ma rlene Olsen on its cover flanked by AMA racers Dick Bowman and Paul "Red" Allen . The Salk vaccine already had been introduced and an edi torial in that issue noted that growing apathy toward the crusade against po lio would make the work of AMA cl ubs in sup po rt of the 1957 drive especially difficult . So successful was the AMA effort to organize on b eh alf of the March of Di mes that the janua ry, 1958 AMERICAN MOTORCYCLING cover car ried an award of merit presented the A.\1A by the National Foundatio n for Infantile P aralysis for outstanding service in the fight against polio. On the co mp etit io n side of the ledger, Grand National Championship raci ng made its debut in 1954. AMERICAN MOTORCYCLING noted in small print as an asid e to the minutes of the Competition Congress: "Something new has been added to our championship picture. Instead of selecting the winner at Sp ringfield as No. I rider fo r the ensuing year, we will now have a Grand National Ch am p io n , de termined by the p oi nts o btai n ed in a ll National Champ ion sh ips." Credit poin Is, ranging 9 ,7,5,3,2,1 wo uld go to firs t t hro ugh s ixth places i n a ll Na tio nal Ch amp i o n shi p s where s p eed was th e determ in in g fac tor. "A t t he en d of the y ear, th e high point w inner will be accl aimed Grand Nati onal Ch ampion, assigned Number I fo r the next year and given fine reward in recognition of his achievemen t. It will certainly create a lot of interest and a lot of real competition." With that last prophetic bit of masterful understatement , one of the most competitive motor racing circuits in the world was born. Eleven riders have since earned the Number I plate in 20 seasons of Grand National racing. The Grand National titlist is often referred to simply as " Numb er I," and few have to ask the meaning of the ..:t:: rm:::: _C o.:: c=- d~d_ t o b e am ong th e.most.L, e.:.: . = n", e:: e a