Over its 150-year historical past, the Kentucky Derby has had its share of forefathers, figures who created and nurtured this racing custom because it advanced from a Kentucky stakes right into a bucket-list expertise. From Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr.’s imaginative and prescient to Col. Matt Winn’s ardour, every man impacted this historic occasion in his personal means, their names synonymous with signature traditions like crimson roses and mint juleps.
Sportswriter Invoice Corum added his personal aptitude to the basic stakes, coining a basic phrase as acquainted to followers as its place on the primary Saturday in Might.
A Boy From Pace
The longer term president of Churchill Downs began his life removed from the decision of the racetrack. The oldest of Robert and Vida Corum’s two boys, Martene Windsor Corum arrived on July 20, 1895, in Pace, Mo., an unincorporated township about 40 miles from Columbia. His mother and father insisted on correct education for his or her son, nicknamed Invoice, who performed baseball – reportedly he was adequate to play within the main leagues had he pursued it – whereas specializing in his research. After graduating from Wentworth Navy Academy, Corum attended the College of Missouri at Columbia, incomes his diploma in 1917 earlier than enlisting within the Military at the beginning of World Conflict I.
Commissioned as a primary lieutenant, the long run journalist moved up in rank all through America’s tenure within the Nice Conflict as he commanded Firm D, one hundred and first Infantry Battalion of the 96th Infantry Division. He ended the warfare because the Military’s youngest main and earned a Purple Coronary heart and a number of bronze and silver stars for his service. Together with his time within the army achieved, Corum moved to New York to attend Columbia College Faculty of Journalism, first working as a duplicate editor for the New York Instances after which shifting to assistant sports activities editor after graduate college.
His early beats for the Instances included the Brooklyn Dodgers, after which when Corum moved on to the New York Night Journal, he coated the New York Giants earlier than being promoted to steer columnist. When William Randolph Hearts merged the Night Journal with its morning counterpart, the previous soldier grew to become a nationally acknowledged sports activities columnist after which added radio to his resume, overlaying baseball, boxing, and horse racing.
From his earliest years as a sportswriter, Corum had a comfortable spot for the Kentucky Derby, on which he would depart his mark within the years to come back.
A Storyteller of Sport
Although the native Missourian didn’t develop up within the sport, he grew to become enamored with racing as a baby watching the trotters race on the Sedalia State Honest. Throughout his early years in New York, Corum made the Kentucky Derby a daily a part of his calendar, attending his first in 1923, watching Zev beat Martingale and Vigil, the Preakness Stakes winner. The sportswriter’s affection for the race led him to his first likelihood to make his mark on the basic race.
When Clark deliberate the primary Kentucky Derby in 1875, roses had been a part of the day’s festivities. Round 1883, roses had been first seen at a post-Derby social gathering, the crimson blooms distributed to the women current by socialite E. Berry Wall. The flowers had been so standard with these in attendance that Clark adopted them because the official flower for the 1884 Derby. The primary report of a blanket of roses for the winner got here in 1896 when Ben Brush was awarded a garland of white and pink roses. A decade later, photographs present that yr’s victor Sir Huon carrying a brief blanket of the blooms, a practice that continues to at the present time. In 1925, impressed by the acquainted cascade of crimson roses, Corum coined the phrase “Run for the Roses,” a nickname as synonymous with the Kentucky Derby because the roses themselves.
The sportswriter went on to cowl the race each in print and on the radio along with his duties overlaying boxing and dealing alongside writers like Damon Runyon, Grantland Rice, Purple Smith, and others. Corum’s voice grew to become a well-recognized fixture for sports activities followers throughout the nation, particularly in racing. He had his admirers amongst his colleagues as effectively, with Runyon reportedly describing his pal as:
“quick, chubby, and debonair. He seems to be cheerful and lives cheerfully … he writes about sports activities occasions as he sees them, and he at all times sees them somewhat extra clearly than the remainder of us. … No extra standard chap than Invoice Corum ever lived on this man’s city. He is without doubt one of the ablest journalists of those instances and one of many grandest guys.”
Corum continued writing his column for the New York Journal American as he took on jobs inside racing. His time overlaying the game enabled him to get to know folks throughout the nation, the favored columnist turning into government vp for Suffolk Downs close to Boston in 1947.
In his time overlaying the Kentucky Derby, the native Missourian grew to become associates with Col. Matt Winn, the promoter who propelled the Bluegrass basic from regional occasion to essentially the most well-known race in America. When this icon died in 1949, Churchill Downs named Corum as his successor, the famed sportswriter taking up the tall activity of succeeding his pal because the run for the roses entered a brand new part in its historical past.
A Rosy Pal
Invoice Corum guided the Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs into a brand new decade as his tenure started in 1950. For eight years, till his dying in 1958, he led the growth of the racetrack to accommodate the ever-growing Derby day crowds; launched the engraved silver mint julep cups in 1951; and supervised the primary televised Kentucky Derby in 1952. Although his tenure on the helm was shorter than Winn’s, Corum targeted on making the Derby expertise higher yr after yr whereas nonetheless writing his column and persevering with his broadcasting work.
His love of racing and baseball led Corum into the massive leagues of sports activities journalism in an period that produced greats like Runyon and Rice, the previous soldier making his mark on the craft in his time. He grew to become an integral a part of Derby historical past when he coined the phrase “Run for the Roses,” his love for the Bluegrass basic evident in his service to each the race and its dwelling because it grew into one in every of America’s most vital sporting fixtures.
