John Manzi was an original; often imitated, but never duplicated

by Debbie Little

With the passing last week of Communicators Hall of Famer John Manzi, 82, the sport lost its last link to a bygone age when publicists mattered.

In a time, unlike today, when every track had a publicity department, Manzi stood out. There were others who preceded him — Col. Dave Herman at Brandywine and Allen Finkelson at Monticello Raceway, and then, Pompano Park — but Manzi was an original who dwelt in no one’s shadow, even though his time at Monticello followed Finkelson.

“Col. Dave, Finkelson, and Manzi were very much of that, you know, sort of Barnum and Bailey, if you could think of it, you could do it mentality,” said Hambletonian Society consultant Moira Fanning. “And Manzi was a very creative thinker. I think it suited Monticello very well at the time, and he was a fun guy. If he was doing something, you wanted to be around.

“I think he was creative in a way that is kind of gone from the sport today, and maybe it was because it was of a certain time and a certain era, but it’s too bad it’s gone.”

On Monday (Nov. 9), Manzi’s family and friends gathered at the Hall of Fame in Goshen, NY to share stories and celebrate him.

“He was a man for the times,” owner/amateur driver Irv Atherton said. “I mean there was no better publicity director, no better man for the job. He was just gracious and full of fun and laughs.”

Manzi was responsible for Artherton becoming an amateur driver.

Atherton said back in the late 1980s and early ’90s, one of many creative races that Manzi dreamed up was the Battle of the Bosses, so horse owners could see what it was like to be on the track.

“It goes to show you that owners are not only competitive with owning horses; when you put them on a racetrack in a bike, it’s even worse,” Atherton said with a laugh. “We’re really competitive. I mean, it was a great time.”

Following the Battle of the Bosses, Manzi convinced Atherton to join the ranks of the amateurs in the Billings Harness Driving Series.

“He’s responsible for the amateur movement,” Atherton said.

Similar to Atherton, Meadowlands chief operating officer/general manager Jason Settlemoir was also convinced by Manzi to compete in a race at Monticello.

“One of my fondest memories was when he asked me to come to Monticello Raceway and participate in the Battle of the Brain Trust, and I gladly accepted,” Settlemoir shared on Facebook. “When I got to the winner’s circle with everyone after driving in the exhibition race, John greeted me with a high five and told me next time I would win.

“I’m going to miss you, John. You were a huge asset not only to Monticello Raceway, but to the entire sport of harness racing. I’ll see you on the other side.”

Hambletonian Society executive vice president Tom Charters shared a classic Manzi story that also involved Communicators Hall of Famer Barry Lefkowitz, who died early last year.

“Barry told it to me,” Charters said. “It seems that neither Barry nor John had ever been to the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, so they decided to share a road trip. It’s probably two to three hours from Monticello to Cooperstown. But according to Barry, they had to stop at every garage sale, yard sale, and antique shop on the way. By the time they got there, it was 20 minutes to closing time and Manzi wouldn’t pay the price of a full ticket. So, Barry said they got in the car and drove home.

“Barry had actually told me this at the last USHWA meeting either of them attended. Barry and I made a pact to come back to Goshen a couple days early so we could make that side trip to Cooperstown. Sadly, he passed away before we could get that done.”

There were many stories and laughs shared in Manzi’s honor.

“I think it’s very hard to single out any one memory,” Fanning said. “He could command a room. He had an endless supply of stories. I loved seeing him. He was always optimistic, always upbeat, always happy.

“I would say what impressed me the most was what a mush he was about his girls [daughters Michelle and Tracey], his family [especially his wife Sharon], and his cats. He never wavered in that, and I loved the guy, I really did.”

He came from a big, talented, and well-respected harness racing family that included his dad, uncles, and cousins and Hall of Famers Cat Manzi and Eddie Lohmeyer.

“We started in a two-room schoolhouse, grades 1 through 3 and 3 through 6,” Lohmeyer said of John. “He lived down the road from me, and we spent our whole young lives together. He was more like a brother to me; I spent more time with him than my own brothers for sure. And then we had racing besides that.”

Lohmeyer’s sister Judy added, “We all called him Johnny Boy in the family, and they [Johnny and Eddie] were a few years older than I was, so I don’t really have any stories that I remember from childhood other than the two of them were always together and always playing ball together.

“All of our family was like that. All of our cousins, we all considered each other brothers and sisters, and although he was older than me, he was still very close and we all took care of one another.”

Although he is best known for publicizing the races, John was proud of being a horseman and especially a driver. He liked to say, “Between me and my cousin Cat, we have almost 15,000 wins.”

It’s impossible to know how many trips to the winner’s circle John made since the USTA didn’t officially keep records back then, but when considering the Manzi cousins’ combined stats, one might remember the Aaron brothers. Hank slugged 755 round-trippers and was baseball’s Home Run King when he retired, while little brother Tommie hit 13 homers to reach a combined total of 768.

Lohmeyer said John loved to give him a hard time about one particular race.

“He was driving a horse for me once at Freehold, and I always remember this because he brought it up to me all the time when his back hurt,” Lohmeyer said with a laugh. “Well, at that time they had bits that were rubber and the inside was steel. Well, the bit corroded, so he went up the backstretch and the bit broke and he fell out the bike backwards and he came down on his back and, of course, that hurt him.

“So, every time his back hurt him, he was always bitching to me about it.”

A packed room gathered to honor John, both at the church and the Museum, which was nothing new, since over the years, he had endured more than his share of roasts.

“I remember he was such an easy target,” Fanning said. “You could come up with so many jokes about him, but he was such a good sport about it.”

Communicators Hall of Famer Bob Heyden, unable to attend in person, sent a note that said in part, “He was a showman, not a show off.”

John liked to say, “I may be a has-been, but at least I’m not a never was.”

None who really knew him would agree with the former, and were all thankful for the latter.

NOTE: I was one of many that John talked into competing in an exhibition event, in my case, for members of the media in jog carts without whips. Unlike the exhibition races most tracks do today, we were not in a double-seated jog cart with a horseman holding the lines. We were the ones driving. Thanks to that experience, I eventually got a matinee license and even got to jog Niatross.

In March, I had the honor of letting John know that the U.S. Harness Writers Association, at our meeting in February, had voted to name the Amateur Driver of the Year Award after him.

He was very happy to hear it and he ended the call the same way he always did saying, “Thanks for calling. Give Dave a kiss for me.”

For one of Manzi’s roasts I came up with a song about him that my husband Dave and I sung to him to the tune of the Miami Dolphins’ fight song:

Monticello had John Manzi

World’s greatest PR man

He laughs, and smokes, and does his hair

Like no mere mortal can

He dreams up hokey races

Like no one in the game

And when you say John Manzi

You’re talking Hall of Fame

There’ve been drivers fat and ugly

Camels, elephants

Who can forget the buffalo

And the Penthouse Pets

Lawyers, Hunters, Bosses

Bartenders and the rest

And when you say John Manzi

You’re talking harness racing’s best