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Key Men Busy as Bees Keeping Everyone Happy on Big Day Hugenberg Sweeney Young Weidekamp Jewels of Downs CHURCHILL DOWNS Louisville Ky May 4 The staging of the Kentucky Derby one of Americas greatest sports spectacle is an immense task requiring the oi skilled and cooperative efforts of many thousands of behindthescenes workers If 1 100000 people are on hand to see todays 82nd Derby then another huge crowd of perhaps 7500 will be working from sunup to sundown to guard them show them to Q their seats park their cars accept their u wagers cash in their tickets feed them sell r them popcorn and cigarettes entertain1 Z them and tell them what happened in their j daily newspapers President Bill Corum of course shoulders the overall responsibility for the smodth ness of the Derby production and the man ner in which he has handled the task since assuming the reins here from the late Col Matt Winn can be noted by the increasing demand for tickets and reservations from all over the country year after year with ¬ out end However Corum is also fortunate that he has capable assistants in key posi ¬ tions men like executive vicepresident Stanley Hugenberg resident manager Rus sel Sweeney director of mutuels E A Weidekamp and superintendent Tom YoungHugenberg Young Hugenberg on Job Year Round RoundHugenberg Hugenberg the administrator is on the job the year round He makes countless onthespot decisions as problems arise resolves traffic jams on Derby mornings acts as liason between management and the horsemen and is largely responsible for the overall conduct of Derby Day A modest retiring man his experience in handling the huge Derby crowds is inval ¬ uable to the association associationSweeney Sweeney annually wrestles with one of the toughest jobs in all of sports where to put the fans Derby Day He figures he lias almost two requests for every seat in the house and there are 36000 reserved and 15000 unreserved seats so simple arithmetic will give you some idea of the Derbys popularity and Sweeneys head ¬ ache acheSweeney Sweeney came to Churchill Downs in 1940 from Cincinnati where he was the head of the old Latonia track trackWeidekamp Weidekamp who supervises the work of almost 1200 parimutuel employees Derby Day is participating in his 47th Kentucky Derby believe it or not He came to work at Churchill Downs in 1908 when 18300 was bet on the Derby itself Last year the race handle alone was 1677178 Yet des ¬ pite the huge amounts that pass back and forth through the windows very cent is accounted for and no one in the plant is cooler the big day than the veteran mutuel manager managerYoung Young a relative newcomer to the Downs has only been on the job of caring for the huge plant for only 44 years Called from his native Buffalo N Y in 1912 to land ¬ scape the property he did such expert work that he was invited to stay on as superintendent Hes responsible for the condition of the race track the beautiful infield floral displays and upkeep of the grandstand clubhouse stable area and the rest of the property Outside of that his time is his own
