Rekindling two heroes of the past – Joe and Hank
by John Berry
One of my many grandchildren celebrated her 36th birthday a few days ago.
Her mom and dad, of course, got her a birthday cake with a few candles and, as she was blowing them out, the candles kind of came alive again — rekindling time and time again — as she tried to blow them out, without success.
That sparked the idea for this Mane Attraction — a rekindling of two long-time, long-gone heroes in our grand sport that should be remembered forever.
Being we are in the month of September — Little Brown Jug Month — Joe Neville and Hank Thomson were the gentlemen responsible for one of harness racing’s most unique events with an aura unequaled in harness racing, and, quite possibly, ALL of sport.
Neville and Thomson have long been claimed by the ages in this world but, without them, well, who knows if the Little Brown Jug would have ever been conceived and foaled.
Yes, this normally quiet county gracing central Ohio is but 19 and a nose square miles and, when Neville and Thomson even thought about this, as yet, unnamed event for pacers, the population was merely 26,000 and change, barely nudged from the census at the turn of the century, nearly four decades earlier.
The conception for what would be called the Little Brown Jug began in 1937 when the Delaware County Agricultural Society members voted to relocate the County Fair from Powell to Delaware, OH, on the edge of that city.
Just a few blocks away, at 219 Fountain Street, lived a gentleman by the name of Thurman Wayne Smart, with his wife, Mildred, of course, and one of the grand horsemen in the history of our sport, affectionately known as “Curly.”
Curly Smart would, eventually, join the Neville-Thomson team and would help to make this event one of the most iconic in our sport.
A couple of years later, a local contractor, R. K. McNamara, designed and built a half-mile oval on the Delaware County Fairgrounds and as Curly once said, “We were off to the races!”
In early 1940, the fairgrounds, now aged 2, put some of the finishing touches on the track and was given an invitation to join harness racing’s most elite show, known as The Grand Circuit.
The invite came to attorney Neville, whose family had been a participant in harness racing for many years and had campaigned horses on the Grand Circuit.
There were skeptics — plenty of them — as there was nary one single building on the fairgrounds when the first fair was held there in 1938 and those skeptics insisted that it would be an impossible task to get things ready for such a prestigious showing of such an important event in harness racing.
In a meeting with several business leaders in the area, Neville discussed the invite with one close friend, Thomson, he the editor and publisher for the Delaware (Ohio) Gazette newspaper, by the way, said to be the oldest family-owned newspaper in the United States.
Grand Circuit officials told Neville they would make an official announcement if they didn’t hear from him in 24 hours.
But it appeared the skeptics were winning the battle and Neville, in speaking with those business leaders along with Thomson, lamented, “I guess there’s only one thing to do with the offer and that is to turn it down and hope we get another invitation sometime later.”
So, Neville closed the conversation saying, “I’ll send the telegram this afternoon.”
A couple of days later, Thomson was in his Gazette office when a bulletin came over the Associated Press stating that Delaware, OH, had been awarded Grand Circuit dates!
Thomson, in panic mode, called Neville in disbelief and Neville replied, “Oh my heavens, I plumb forgot to send the telegram!”
Whether he plumb forgot remains speculative and will never be unearthed, but the announcement was now cast in stone.
With much work to do, a Society was formed not only to host the Grand Circuit, but, since the circuit had an emphasis on trotters, the Society had, on its agenda, creating an event for pacers during the festivities.
Neville led the Society and Thomson was secretary/treasurer with a newspaper contest held attracting some 4,000 entries to name this new pacing event.
Major Landing Parsons suggested the name, Little Brown Jug, honoring one of the great horses in our history, including a rags to riches story with the horse changing hands several times — early on for a price somewhere between $27 and $50 — having to overcome bare bones and lice infestation.
That’s when the Little Brown Jug Society became official.
Foaled in 1875, Little Brown Jug was, initially, used for plowing fields and transportation to church, among other things, before being introduced to the racing scene, where he was hitched to a high-wheel sulky and, eventually, set a three-heat world record (2:11 3/4, 2:11 3/4 and 2:12 1/2 on Aug. 24, 1881 in Hartford, CT, driven by the Hall of Fame Immortal “Knapsack” McCarthy.
Of course, time was needed to nominate yearlings for the 1946 Little Brown Jug, so, to whet the appetites of skeptics, there were Little Brown Jug Previews planned and held in 1944 and 1945 for 3-year-old pacers, each with a lofty purse of $10,000.
Neville was a classic individual in his own right.
He needed a race secretary for the Delaware, OH, proceedings and chose Thomson to fill the bill.
Thomson admitted he knew a thing about horses back then, and Neville knew it.
Years later, Thomson asked Neville why he was chosen to be the race secretary when he didn’t know anything about horses.
Neville chuckled with all of his 350 pounds bouncing up and down, “I figured that we’d get all the publicity we needed from the Delaware Gazette.”
Yes, it’s Jug Month and these two gentlemen — make it three — Joe Neville, Hank Thomson, and Curly Smart — should be rekindled forever in our grand sport.
May the Horse Be With You
