Reggie McNamara was an Australian cyclist known as a roughhouse velodrome

Velodrome

A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights...

 rider with a string of dramatic crashes and broken bones over 20 years. He was known as the Iron Man. He specialised in six-day races but rode races from 200m sprints to 100 km endurance races. He rode 3,000 races on three continents over 30 years and won more than 700 before he retired aged 50 in 1937.

Background

Reggie McNamara grew up in the Australian countryside, the son of a sheep rancher. A snake bit him on a finger when he was 12 and hunting rabbits with his brother. He and his brother chopped off the finger with an axe. He and his 13 brothers and sisters learned to ride on the same bicycle. He began racing for money in local fairs around Sydney, shooting kangaroos and selling their skins to raise the entry fee. Some reports say he was 14, others 16.

He won his first race, over a mile and a half on a dirt track, and travelled across Australia and New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 to wherever he could find races. He won the Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 six-day race at the start of 1913 and caught the eye of Alf Goullet

Alf Goullet

Alf Goullet was an Australian cyclist who won more than 400 races on three continents, including 15 six-day races...

, an Australian international who had been asked to find two good Australians to race in Newark, New Jersey

Newark, New Jersey

Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...

, USA. Goullet signed just McNamara, telling the historian Peter Nye that McNamara was worth any two other riders.

International career

McNamara went to the USA and took American nationality when he married an Irish nurse, Elizabeth McDonough in 1913, whom he had met after breaking a leg during his first training ride. They had two daughters, Eileen and Regina. McNamara set five world records from one to 25 miles at Newark velodrome

Velodrome

A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights...

 in 1915, 1916 and 1917. He won seven six-day races at Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...

 in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 between 1918 and 1932, another five at the Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 Coliseum and other six-day races in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. He won the 1932 Madison Square Garden six-day at the age of 45. His winnings up to 1933 reached the modern equivalent of at least A$2 000 000.
McNamara was known for spectacular crashes on the steep wooden tracks. He crashed up to 20 times in some sixes.

An American newspaper reported:

To undergo a serious operation on the fourth day of a six-day race and then finish the contest and run third, less than a wheel's length behind the winner, is going some. But that is what Reggie McNamara did and he did it against the advice of doctors, his family and the rider who was his mate in the race. So often has this fellow pulled through tight places solely on his nerve he has been dubbed the "Iron Man" of cycling.

It was in the Melbourne, Australia, six day race two years ago that McNamara jumped off his wheel, had an incision several inches long made in his side and then resumed the race after more than a dozen stitches were taken to bring the gap together. An abscess the size of a tennis ball was removed, and, although the rider lost considerable blood, he started a sprint immediately upon going on the track to relieve his partner, who was little Jackie Clark, one of the greatest of all six-day riders. No anaesthetic was used in the operation which shows the iron nerve possessed by the cyclist. During the painful operation the "Iron Man" never winced, ignoring his own troubles, he enquired continually about Clark, who was in poor condition and riding none too well.

By 1946 McNamara calculated he had broken his collarbone 17 times, his skull, nose and leg once each, his jaw in three places. He had needed 500 surgical stitches and suffered concussion five times. He had 47 scars, "one of them, running along his right cheek, gives his dark and friendly face a dangerous look which he enhances by wearing black sweaters and scowling."

When a reporter asked McNamara if he parted his hair down the middle because movie star Rudolph Valentino

Rudolph Valentino

Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...

 did, he shook his head:

The American magazine, Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

, described him as "a friendly, mild-mannered man with a deep scar in his right cheek." Peter Nye said:

He distinguished himself by winning the [Madison Square] Garden's six-days in March and December in 1926, but only after narrowly averting disaster. In the final 15 minutes during the heat of the action in December when McNamara and his partner, Pietro Linari of Italy, were trading places, both were caught in a spectacular high-speed crash. They were knocked out cold. McNamara was the first to regain his senses. He staggered to retrieve his bicycle and told the doctor, "If my legs are all right, I'm going back in." He got back on his bike to win the race. Afterward, he discovered he had cracked three ribs.

McNamara won his 19th and final six-day victory in Cleveland, USA, in January 1933. His partner, Norman Hill, was 26 and born the year McNamara began racing.

Retirement

The Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 and then the war ended the six-day circuit in the USA. McNamara was already 45 when he rode his last six-day. He worked as a race official while the races lasted and then in a school kitchen. He wrote his life story but failed to find a publisher. He died at 83 of a stroke in Belleville, survived by his wife, daughters, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Peter Nye said:

He is credited in VeloPlus, the Belgian reference book, with 19 six-day victories and finishing 108 sixes. He still ranks in VeloPluss all-time top 25 six-day racers. Considering that he pedalled about 1,250 miles in each six-day, he churned some 135,000 racing miles in his career - more than enough to commute five times around the globe.

Drugs

The journalist René de Latour

René de Latour

René de Latour was a Franco-American sports journalist, race director of the Tour de l'Avenir cycle race, and correspondent of the British magazine, Sporting Cyclist, to which he contributed to 120 of the 131 issues.-Background:René de Latour was born in 42nd Street, New York...

, who worked as McNamara's track manager for several years, said of a chase at the Velodrome d'Hiver

Vélodrome d'hiver

The Vélodrome d'Hiver , colloquially Vel' d'Hiv, was an indoor bicycle racing cycle track and stadium on rue Nélaton, not far from the Eiffel Tower in Paris. As well as track cycling, it was used for ice hockey, wrestling, boxing, roller-skating, circuses, spectaculars, and demonstrations...

 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

:

It was one of the toughest races of Mac's career. The last jam lasted NINE HOURS, with teams all over the track as if in a marathon pursuit. The 12th and 13th teams to finish were 17 laps back at the end (the Vel' d'Hiv' was about seven laps to a mile). No wonder Mac fell asleep in the taxi when I took him back to a hotel. Such punishing efforts could hardly be done on mineral water and Mac had his secrets. He kept them in a small case and, if I was keeper of the key, I never found out what they were made of. There were all kinds of pills in phials without any names on them, and I knew it was useless to ask Mac what they were. But I guess Mac knew what he was doing.

Anecdote

The magazine Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

 believed in 1932 that it had found another Iron Man. It reported:

Most celebrated of McNamara's confreres is Franco Georgetti, a small knock-kneed Italian who finished a sulky last in last week's race, but failed to butt his head against a wall for losing as he did once. Obviously heir to Iron McNamara, Georgetti was once pierced by an eight-inch splinter which he sent to his father to be exhibited. He earns $28,000 per year, has a barber shave him every day of the race, frequently dines on rice, lobster and beer with Tenor Benjiamino Gigli of the Metropolitan Opera Company.

Six-day victories

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Nr.	Year	City	Partner	Number
1	1913	Sydney Sydney Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...	Frank Corry	1
2	1915	Buffalo Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...	Francesco Verri	2
3	1916	Chicago Chicago Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...	Bob Spears	1
4	1916	Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...	Eddy Madden	1
5	1917	Chicago	Francesco Verri	2
6	1918	New York New York New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...	Jake Magin	1
7	1922-1	New York	Alf Grenda	1
8	1925-1	New York	Piet van Kempen	1
1925-1	Chicago	Bob Walthour	2
10	1926-1	Berlin Berlin Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...	Harry Horan	1
11	1926-1	Chicago	Bob Walthour	2
12	1926-1	New York	Franco Giorgetti	2
13	1926-2	New York	Pietro Linari	1
14	1927-1	New York	Franco Giorgetti	2
15	1927	Paris Paris Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...	Emile Aerts	1
16	1929-2	Chicago	Gaetano Belloni	1
17	1932-1	New York	William Peden	1
18	1932-2	Toronto Toronto Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...	Alfred Crossley	1
19	1933-1	Cleveland	Norman Hill	1