Major Taylor

Major Taylor (1907)

The Major Taylor Velodrome in Indianapolis

The Major Taylor Monument in Worcester

Marshall Walter "Major" Taylor (born November 12, 1878 in Indianapolis , † June 21, 1932 in Chicago ) was a cyclist from the USA . After boxer George Dixon, he was the second black athlete in sports history to become world champion.

Career

Taylor was born in 1878 as the son of a coachman and had a total of seven siblings. He began his cycling career at the age of 14 when he was performing tricks on his bike for a local bike dealer. He was so enthusiastic about the boy that in 1892 he had him put on a uniform (hence the later nickname "Major") and advertised for himself. Taylor won his first small races as a teenager. However, because of the racist climate in Indianapolis at the time, he left his hometown and moved to Worcester , Massachusetts .

By 1896 at the latest, Taylor was one of the best track sprinters in the country and, at the age of 18, competed in his first professional race in New York's Madison Square Garden . Not only did he win more than half of his races, but he also set seven world records in 1898. The following year he was world track sprint champion and 1900 US champion in the same discipline. The "League of American Wheelmen" denied him membership for racist reasons, and the more successful Taylor became, the more often it came to unfair discrimination by his white opponents. Floyd MacFarland , the most successful track sprinter of the time, had set up the "Cycle Racing Association" to force Taylor and other black cyclists like Woody Headspeth out of the races. It is said that MacFarland never called Taylor by name, only referred to him as a "nigger". In 1904 Major Taylor traveled to Australia to compete there. McFarland and his protégé Iver Lawson also raced there, and are reported to have regularly disabled Taylor. During a race in Melbourne he suffered a serious fall from such a disability. He then had a nervous breakdown , so he paused until 1907.

Based on such experiences, Taylor preferred to start in Europe , especially in France, where he suffered fewer disadvantages from his skin color. It is legendary that for religious reasons it never started on Sundays and, out of superstition, always asked for the cabin with the number 13.

In 1910, at the age of 32, the “black miracle” ended its racing career, but lost all of its fortune due to bad investments and the global economic crisis. After his death, Taylor was buried in a poor grave, but exhumed on the initiative of bicycle manufacturer Frank Schwinn and other wealthy cycling fans in 1948 and buried in the Mount Glenwood Cemetery in Illinois . Today the Indianapolis Velodrome bears his name and his memory is cherished through the Major Taylor Foundation, of which the Honorary Chairman is Olympic Champion Edwin Moses . In 2008 a memorial in his honor was erected in front of Worcester City Library.

literature

• Conrad Kerber et al. (2016): Major Taylor. The Inspiring Story of a Black Cyclist and the Men Who Helped Him Achieve Worldwide Fame , 2nd ed., Skyhorse Publishing, New York, ISBN 978-1510704169
• Lesa Cline-Ransome (2004): Major Taylor. Champion Cyclist , Atheneum Books, New York, ISBN 978-0689831591
• Andrew Ritchie (1988): Major Taylor. The Extraordinary Career of a Champion Bicycle Racer , Bicycle Books, San Francisco, ISBN 0-933201-14-1
• Lynne Tolman: Major Taylor's Forgotten Race Reveals Lonely Path to Glory . In: The Wheelmen . No. 94 , May 2019, p. 2-8 (English).

Web links

Commons : Major Taylor  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Major Taylor Association
• Major Taylor website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Andrew Ritchie: Major Taylor. The Extraordinary Career of a Champion Bicycle Racer. Bicycle Books, San Francisco 1988, ISBN 0-933201-14-1 , pp. 141 ff.
2. ^ Tolman, Major Taylor , p. 3.
3. ^ Presidium of the Cycling Section of the GDR (Ed.): Cycling Week . No. 1/1954 . Berlin, S. 10 .
4. ↑ majortaylorassociation.org