Nat Butler (cyclist)
Nat Butler (born January 6, 1870 in Halifax , Canada , † May 24, 1943 in Revere , Massachusetts , USA ) was an American track cyclist .
Life
Nat Butler was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts . He was the son of a craftsman and learned the trade of an iron caster. Since it was a long way to work, he bought an old bicycle to ride there. Soon he was emulating his older brother Tom , who was already racing a bike.
In 1893 Nat Butler won the "Linscott Race" over twelve miles and was awarded a horse with a carriage and two diamonds as first prize. He then became a professional (until 1910), drove races on the track as a pilot and started in 1899 with his brother Tom at the World Railroad Championships in Montreal , where they were beaten by Major Taylor in the final run despite this tactical superiority : Tom finished second and Nat fourth behind Frenchman Gaston Courbe d'Outerlon.
In 1901 Butler switched to the standing staff . As such, he won against stars of the time such as Robert Walthour and Albert Champion in the battle for the "Golden armband of America". He also took part in eight six-day races, his greatest success being a second place with George Leander in the six-day race in New York's Madison Square Garden in 1903.
In 1905 Nat Butler went to Europe. Since he was already 35 years old and almost bald, his colleagues jokingly called him “old Nat” or “Cambridge wig maker”. In Europe he drove races mainly in Paris and Berlin and took numerous top positions in important races such as the one for the “Golden Chain of Steglitz”, in which he came second behind Piet Dickentman .
In 1909 Butler took third place at the Standing World Cup in Copenhagen. He also won the "Golden Wheel of Cologne".
In 1913 a "Grand Prix Nat Butler" was held in his honor in Paris.
After retiring from active sport, Nat Butler bought the “Revere Cycle Track” in 1913, not far from his home town of Cambridge. The number of spectators was so great that in 1919 he was able to build a new railway, which was in operation until 1931 and was then canceled. Butler built a third track that lasted until the mid-1930s. He was also involved in the Boston Six Days.
In later years Nat Butler worked as a recognized landscape painter.
Web links
- Nat Butler in the Radsportseiten.net database
- Racing Twenty Years article about Nat Butler in the New York Times, May 12, 1912.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bike World . Sports album. A cycling yearbook. 5th vol., 1906, ZDB -ID 749618-7 , pp. 53-54.
- ↑ Allan E. Foulds: Boston's Ballparks & Arenas. University Press of New England, Lebanon NH 2005, ISBN 1-58465-409-0 , p. 188.
- ^ Peter Joffre Nye: The Six-Day Bicycle Races. Van der Plas Publishing, San Francisco CA 2006, ISBN 1-892495-49-X , p. 38.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Butler, Nat |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American cyclist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 6, 1870 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Halifax , Nova Scotia , Canada |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 24, 1943 |
| Place of death | Revere , Massachusetts , United States |