Before IMS yellow shirts, they wore blue wool. Before that, they were gun-toting guards

Indianapolis Star

13-05-2025

INDIANAPOLIS -- The want ad in the newspaper was short, simple and buried among callouts for mill workers, mechanics, meat cutters, welders, accounting clerks, supermarket cashiers, janitors and sewing specialists.
MEN WANTED: 21 to 45 YEARS OF AGE FOR SPEEDWAY SAFTEY PATROL. Apply in person at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway office.
It was the spring of 1949 and those were the days when the Indianapolis Motor Speedway had its headquarters and ticket offices downtown at 729 N. Capitol Ave. That April want ad ran in the Indianapolis Star, a plea from the Speedway to find a crew of men for a safety patrol at the track during the month of May.
That ad was looking to find what today are known as the beloved, ever-so helpful, rarely but sometimes cranky, beloved IMS mainstays -- the iconic "yellow shirts."
But those men, more than 70 years ago, who served on the IMS Safety Patrol didn't wear yellow.
Those men wore dark blue, long-sleeved, wool shirts buttoned up to their necks with light blue ties. Their pants were dressy. And atop their heads, they wore pith helmets painted silver for the everyday safety patrol member and gold for patrol supervisors.
That uniform, unbearably uncomfortable for workers most days in May, lasted for nearly 30 years. It wasn't until the 1970s that the overwhelming sea of yellow shirts invaded the 500-acre, expansive racing estate of IMS.
That happened when someone decided these workers shouldn't have to be drenched in wool-induced sweat as cars circled the track and fans descended upon them in force.
"There's quite a history," former track historian Donald Davidson told IndyStar in 2012, "with the yellow shirts."
A fascinating history. Long before the "yellow shirts" or the "blue wool shirts" roved track grounds -- from the day the Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened in 1909 -- all events at the track were policed by the Indiana National Guard.
They were serious, intimidating, gun-toting men in official uniform. And they were not wearing yellow.
There will be 550 IMS Safety Patrol members on hand for this year's Indy 500, men and women who greet race fans, help with seating, oversee traffic, tell stories, give advice on the best concession stands, make race predictions and direct fans away from restricted areas with (usually) a friendly smile.
That was not the mantra of the IMS Safety Patrol when the Speedway opened in 1909.
"You read stories and you hear people's recollection of their time with the National Guard members. I've heard they were pretty mean," said Jason Vansickle, vice president of curation and education at the Indianapolis Speedway Museum. "So, I think we're in good hands with the 'yellow shirts' compared to what pre-war used to be like."
In the early days of the Indy 500, the "yellow shirts" were officially called Indianapolis Motor Speedway Guards. They were selected from the Indiana National Guard "to protect crowds at the auto track from accidents and have full police powers and full military equipment," a May 1910 IndyStar article reported.
In those days, each member of the safety patrol was given a numbered gold badge with the crest of the Speedway and the words "Speedway Guard." When chaos ensued or an accident occurred, the troops used special touring cars to get where they needed to be quickly.
When 60,000 fans descended on IMS in 1910, newspapers wrote about the stellar job the guard did reining in the massive crowd.
"Capt. Frank Wilson with his army of special policemen kept the crowd in control at all times and there was not the slightest hint of trouble," the IndyStar wrote of the May 31, 1910, Memorial Day race. "The crowds that lined the course were kept clear of danger by Capt. William P. Carpenter and a company of the National Guard, which was employed to guard the track and prevent daredevils from running across it during a race."
By 1934, a fleet of 18 airflow DeSotos made up the safety patrol of the 500-mile race at the Speedway. The cars were supplied by local DeSoto distributor Jones & Maley and were equipped with radios to report accidents on the track. Each DeSoto had a driver and five national guardsmen inside.
For 33 years, the Speedway Guards would be a mainstay at the track. But in 1946, when the Indy 500 was set to resume after a 4-year hiatus due to World War II, the track's new owner Tony Hulman went in a very different direction, bringing security in house.
With that, the IMS Safety Patrol was born. But they still didn't wear yellow.
It was one of Hulman's righthand men, Joseph Quinn of the Clabber Girl Baking Powder Company in Terre Haute, who came up with the idea, according to Davidson. He convinced Hulman the track should establish an IMS Board of Safety to get input from major law-enforcement agencies.
By 1946, IMS President Wilbur Shaw had bought into the idea to bring IMS security in house. With that, the Speedway had its own official Safety Patrol, in the early years made up of mostly retired military or police enforcement officers. They wore the dark-blue uniforms and pith helmets.
"The long-sleeved shirts, made of wool, were extremely uncomfortable to wear -- both on hot days and when soaked with rain," Davidson wrote for IMS.
As the years went on, that uniform didn't stop the hordes of men from applying for the patrol. The want ads, after all, were tough to ignore.
"You can see the 500-mile race free of a charge if you are interested in being a member of the Speedway safety patrol, traffic department, ushering staff or a ticket taker," an Indianapolis Star ad read April 6, 1953.
The IMS Safety Patrol members may have been there to see the race free of charge, but these workers took their jobs very seriously.
"Three times this morning the scoreboard men appeared on the Gasoline Alley ramp and three times the safety patrol men blew whistles and tried to run them off," IndyStar reported of the 1959 race. "Scoreboard men showed badges and patrolmen said that doesn't mean a thing. The patrolmen were finally convinced the scoreboard men were legitimately assigned there."
It was in this decade of the 1950s that the tradition of being an IMS Safety Patrol worker -- being a part of the greatest spectacle in racing -- began.
"What is it about the job of being a member of the Speedway safety patrol that drives men from all walks of life, many of them from a great distance, to the track year after year to work in (this) blue-shirted band?" the IndyStar wrote May 26, 1956.
The dedicated mission and passion of those blue-shirted men remains today.
But first the blue shirts would turn yellow, and women would finally be allowed to join the troops of the IMS Safety Patrol.
In the early 1970s, a few senior staff members of the IMS Safety Patrol started wearing more comfortable short-sleeved yellow shirts on the weekends. Yellow was chosen due to its bright, vibrant shade that would be easy to spot among crowds at the Speedway.
By 1975, all of the blue uniforms had disappeared. Baseball caps had replaced the pith helmets and the term 'yellow shirt' had come into vogue, Davidson said.
During the 1976 race season, for the first time, women were allowed to be on the safety patrol force. There were 22 women who were part of the 2,400-member "yellow shirt" brigade that year.
"Our plans are to use more women," Jack O'Neal, assistant safety director at IMS said in 1976. "They do a good job."
Through the last 50 years at the Speedway, the uniform color of its Safety Patrol hasn't changed.
The modern day requirements for "yellow shirts," according to IMS, is the button-up yellow shirt provided by the track, black pants, comfortable shoes and a rain jacket, if necessary. "Patrol members may layer under the jacket, but the top layer must be yellow so guests can easily identify members of our staff."
The uniform hasn't changed, but the "yellow shirts" have had their own evolution in the past five decades.
"'Yellow shirts,' the IMS' mostly-volunteer security force, used to be known for their gruff demeanor and their fierce use of whistles," wrote IndyStar in 2014. "In recent years, they've softened, become more polite."
No matter what uniform they have worn through the decades, the men and women who have served on the safety patrol at IMS have been there not because they had to, but because they wanted to.
"It's something you don't see at other sporting events. They're there for many years. You see the same ones over and over, and they start to learn your name, too," said Vansickle. "The yellow shirts, for a lot of them, it's more than a job. It's their connection to the Speedway."