The Milk - 1936

ORIGINS

The origin of the milk tradition at the Indianapolis 500 is simple, really.

After having just won his third Indy 500 in 1936, Louis Meyer parked his No. 8 machine in Victory Circle and sat atop it, exhausted from making history as the first person to win the “500” for a third time.

With a cheering crowd around him, Meyer held up three fingers with his right hand, and in his left hand he held a bottle of buttermilk.

“Somebody has given him a bottle of milk,” the announcer remarked nearly a century ago. “Well, that race would make anybody thirsty.”

Simple as that. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Meyer was a regular drinker of buttermilk, dating back to his childhood days in Yonkers, New York. His mother told him buttermilk would refresh him on a hot day, and it was a personal preference he carried.

Meyer claimed he drank milk at IMS in 1933, the year he won the race for a second time. Considering it was his drink of choice, he likely did so. However, there is no photographic evidence of this, and 1934 winner Bill Cummings and 1935 winner Kelly Petillo did not drink milk after their respective wins in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

So why, then, did Meyer’s milk stick after 1936? It all goes back to that scene above with Meyer holding a bottle of milk. That moment was captured by a Movietone News cameraman. Movietone News was a newsreel that ran in the United States from 1928 through 1963.

Little did that cameraman know he had just captured one of the most significant moments in Indy 500 history.

As the story goes, a dairy industry executive saw the footage and enthusiastically requested milk be made available to the winner of each Indianapolis 500 thereafter. Each winner from 1938 through 1941, and in 1946 after the race returned from hiatus due to World War II, drank milk in Victory Circle.

"Water from Wilbur"

When the Indianapolis 500 returned from its four-year hiatus due to the war, it was under the ownership of Tony Hulman. Now, another three-time Indy 500 winner was orchestrating the post-race drink of choice.

Wilbur Shaw, the winner of the 1937, ‘39 and ‘40 Indianapolis 500s, was president and general manager of IMS. In place of milk, Shaw handed the winning drivers from 1947 through 1954 cold water in a silver chalice. Engraved on the cup was “Water from Wilbur.”

Shaw died in a private plane crash in October 1954, and “Water from Wilbur” continued a little while longer until being retired as milk made its return with the help of dairy industry executives.