{"id":7239,"date":"2020-05-28T09:00:46","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T13:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cmubuggy.org\/news\/?p=7239"},"modified":"2025-09-01T09:45:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T13:45:19","slug":"100-years-of-buggy-history-recap-and-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cmubuggy.org\/news\/2020\/05\/100-years-of-buggy-history-recap-and-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"100 Years of Buggy History – Recap and 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Table of Contents<\/span><\/strong>: Intro & 1920<\/span><\/a>; 1921-1923<\/span><\/a>; 1924-1927<\/span><\/a>; 1928-1932<\/span><\/a>; 1933-1935<\/span><\/a>; 1936-1939<\/span><\/a>; 1940-1945<\/span><\/a>; 1946-1949<\/span><\/a>; 1950-1953<\/span><\/a>; 1954-1956<\/span><\/a>; 1957-1959<\/span><\/a>; 1960-1963<\/span><\/a>; 1964-1966<\/span><\/a>; 1967-1969<\/span><\/a>; 1970-1973<\/span><\/a>; 1974-1976<\/span><\/a>; 1977-1979<\/span><\/a>; 1980-1983<\/a><\/span>; 1984-1986<\/a><\/span>; 1987-1989<\/a><\/span>; 1990-1993<\/a><\/span>; 1994-1996<\/a><\/span>; 1997-1999<\/a><\/span>; 2000-2003<\/a><\/span>; 2004-2006<\/a><\/span>; 2007-2009<\/a><\/span>; 2010<\/a><\/span>; 2011<\/a><\/span>; 2012<\/a><\/span>; 2013<\/a><\/span>; 2014<\/a><\/span>; 2015<\/a><\/span>; 2016<\/a><\/span>; 2017<\/a><\/span>; 2018<\/a><\/span>; 2019<\/span><\/a>; Recap & 2020<\/span><\/a>; 2021<\/span><\/a>; 2022<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So here we are, at the end of the 100 Years of Buggy History.  The goal of this series was to help celebrate the 100th<\/sup> Anniversary of Buggy at Carnegie Mellon by diving into the history of the sport a little deeper than you might otherwise find in the \u201cHistory\u201d tab on this site.  It\u2019s one thing to see that Beta won in 1935 with a course record, and it\u2019s important for the legacy of the sport.  But this series wanted to go beyond that.  What buggy did they use?  Who were the teams that they were battling against?  How many heats were run?  How close was the finish?  And did you know that someone actually tried to sabotage them before the race?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

It was these stories, beyond just the numbers, that we wanted to learn.  And over the course of the last 8 months, and over 175,000 words\/1,200 photos later, we\u2019ve tried to paint as detailed of a picture of the sport for the last hundred years as we could.  We learned that beyond just the 5 rules and pusher\/driver swap that the 1920 race entailed, SigNu won the very first Design Competition that year with a buggy shaped like a chariot around a bicycle and the two man team dressed as charioteers.  We discovered that the only tie in Buggy history was actually the result of overcrowding at the Finish Line, causing a collision and the inability for judges to see who actually crossed the line first.  We found out that the wheel technology battle dated all the way back to 1923, when KapSig borrowed champion harness racing wheels to win the race.  We determined that KapSig\u2019s 6 race win streak in 1936-1941 was with the same buggy, though the silk covering was changed every year.  We learned about the multiple controversial finishes in the late 1940s, including an DQ followed by an hour long protest from PiKA in the first year back from the war.  We heard about the time that a driver of ATO\u2019s Golden Goose blacked out and crashed due to a lack of oxygen.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve read stories about collusion, trickery, sabotage, and\nplaying \u201cwithin\u201d the rules, only to see those rules then changed.  We\u2019ve seen stories of triumph, of heartbreak,\nof empowerment and of disappointment.  We\u2019ve\nseen the rise and fall of any number of buggy dynasties.  We\u2019ve seen racing go from fraternities, to\nall Greeks, to fraternities and dorms, to Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s teams, to adding\nrobotic buggies.  We\u2019ve watched as the\ncoverage of the sport went from text, to audio, to video, and then finally to\nthe full TV production of cmuTV, with our Raceday Rewatch companion series\nrunning once we got to the 2010s.  We\u2019ve\ngotten information from school media, local media, national media, and first\nhand tales from as early as the 1970s all the way through to today. And through\nit all, the enthusiasm and passion of the Carnegie Tech, then Carnegie-Mellon,\nand finally Carnegie Mellon student body for our unique sport has shown\nthrough.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So thanks to all of you who provided information, photos, and videos for this series.  Thanks to all of you who have been following along with us from the beginning.  Thanks to those of you who jumped in somewhere in the middle, or read some but not others.  Thanks to those of you who, for the 2010s, have joined us on YouTube for our Raceday Rewatch series.  And thanks to those of you who haven\u2019t even started reading the series yet, who haven\u2019t graduated from CMU yet, who haven\u2019t started <\/em>at CMU yet, and even those of you who haven\u2019t been born yet!  Because ultimately, the hope is that this series will serve as a living history of the first 100 years of sport, beyond just the numbers.  We\u2019ll continue to go back and update these articles as we get updated information, new photos, or anything else.  In fact, if you haven\u2019t read some of the early years since they were posted, they\u2019re worth going back to \u2013 thanks to the CMU Archives, we\u2019ve added a number of addition photos to the 1920s (and some other years as well) and added some additional information (we know what the Beanery was now!).  So if you\u2019ve got any information or photos that we\u2019re missing, or you notice anything that you think is wrong, let us know! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, this isn\u2019t how the 100 Years of Buggy History series was supposed to end.  Our original plan was to have the last post cover 2017-2019, leading into the celebration of the 100th<\/sup> Anniversary for Raceday 2020.  But as the meme says, my plans may have been one thing, but 2020 had other ideas.  So because of that, we\u2019ve got one final year for the 100 Years of Buggy History series to cover\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2020<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Raceday<\/span>: N\/A (Virtual Raceday on Saturday, April 18 at Noon)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweepstakes Committee<\/span>: Diya Nuxoll (Chair); Jake Muskovitz (Ass. Chair); Tishya Girdhar (Safety); Sabrina Wang (Design)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Men\u2019s Results<\/span>: N\/A<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women\u2019s Results<\/span>: N\/A<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Design Comp<\/span>: N\/A<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other Awards<\/span>: (Anne Witchner Chairman\u2019s Choice) Spirit; (Tom Wood Spirit of Buggy) Fringe; (Chairman of the Year) PiKA \u2013 Rob Levin (Honorable Mention: PhiDelt \u2013 Mikey Fernandez); (Most Improved) Delta Gamma; (Workout Challenge) See Below<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weather<\/span>: N\/A<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raceday Video Playlist<\/span>: N\/A (Virtual Raceday Rebroadcast<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prediction Score<\/span>: N\/A<\/p>\n\n\n\n