DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) - The Bix 7 road race had humble beginnings.
“We got like a little news memo saying we’re starting a new race in downtown Davenport called the Bix 7″ said retired TV6 Sports Director Thom Cornelis.
84 runners took part in the first race.
“No one was quite sure where it started and so I drove around downtown Davenport for about half hour then I saw a bunch of guys on the corner of I think third and Perry and I said well this looks like the start of something.”
It was the start of something bigger than anyone could have envisioned.
“Never in my wildest dreams imagined twenty thousand people on this course” said John Hudetz who founded the Bix in 1975.
“There weren’t a lot of runners back in the 1970′s”
In 1974 Hudetz ran the Boston Marathon
“I wanted to bring it back to the Quad Cities. I was living in DeWitt at the time and it was so frequent back then if you’re out jogging on the highway people are stopping constantly and convinced there’s an emergency.”
Bringing the feel of the Boston Marathon to the Quad Cities was an uphill race but Hudetz embraced the challenge.
“First was forming the Cornbelt Running Club and that was to create a running community for not only the Quad Cities but people in this general area.”
Hudetz was the inaugural President of the Cornbelt Running Club. The organization started with a few small local races but Hudetz had an idea for a race that would be unlike the others.
“I came up with the idea that we should do a seven-mile race which was an obscure distance because everybody was either doing 10ks or marathons. I laid out the course by rolling a wheel on the streets of Davenport and I wanted a course that could be out and back and the reason for that is I wanted runners to have a chance to see the best runners in the race going past them on the way back.”
Hudetz founded the Bix and served as the event’s first race director. While he had a great vision, getting the Bix off and running came with plenty of challenges
“I came into the offices, this is like two or three days before the race. I get into the office of the downtown Davenport business association helping us and the gal said I’ve got really bad news for you, what? You can’t have your race. We can’t have a race? Nope. You don’t have a parade permit and without a parade, this is a parade, the race is off. I left the office and I jogged over to the Davenport police department and I went to the chief of Police and I said chief I understand you’re canceling my race? Yep no parade permit you’re not getting, can’t do it. Chief, when’s the last chance you had to shoot off a 12 gage shotgun in downtown Davenport. I want you to start my race. Ok you’re in!”
The Bix was back on but that wouldn’t be the only bump in the road.
“They also had a little festival with the Bix Beiderbecke weekend, arts and crafts show and that and they had all these people setting up their booths on 2nd street which was exactly where we were starting our race so when I came the morning of the first race which was 2nd and Main Street and we’re heading down Main Street we didn’t turn up Brady, we went up Perry at that time, I see all these arts and crafts people setting up on our race route in front of us and I have to go hey we have a race coming here and can you guys move your tables and chairs and booths well can’t they just run around our tables.”
Fifty years later, the race that began with 84 participants is celebrating an anniversary few races have ever reached.
“The Bix race is really the Quad Cities homecoming. It’s become an event that families are tied too from generation to generation. I’m just so humbled by what’s happened and so grateful that it’s had so much success.”
After just two years as the Bix’s race director, John’s insurance career transferred him to Atlanta
“I really feel I’m kind of the biological father of the Bix. You know my DNA’s all over it but I’m so grateful that a great step father in Ed Froelich came along to take my baby and really nurture it and carry it.”
John had the vision, but it was the entire Quad Cities community that made the Bix one of the best races in the country
“It’s been just a wonderful story you know from those humble beginnings to all of the people not only the runners but there are so many stories about the people who help make this happen, the volunteers. It takes this whole community to make it happen and that’s the beauty of it.”
The 50th running of the Quad City Times Bix 7 is Saturday.
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