The NSRA Street Rod Nationals is the granddaddy of events that pulls street rodders together from every corner of the U.S. But did you know that a couple of fishing buddies at R&C kick started the whole shebang?
The year was 1970. The average cost of a new home was $26,000. Regular gas was 36 cents a gallon.
I thought it would be fun to revisit Tom "Stroker McGurk" Medley-since I wrote about the beloved Rod & Custom former publisher in the June 2000 issue of R&C-plus learn, firsthand, from Tom how the Nats got started. Trying to get a straight answer out of a gag cartoonist is another matter. Tom's speech is laced with laughter because he is constantly tickling his own funny bone.
Tom got involved with R&C in the late '60s after moving over from Hot Rod magazine. He recognized that street rodders had pulled away from the hardcore hot rod racers who read HRM. Tom saw a need to not only cover street rods in R&C, but promote a national car show as well. "Street rodding is practically a religion," Tom declared, and he had the perfect pulpit to spread the gospel: Rod & Custom.
"Pete (Petersen) asked me if I wanted to take over R&C when I was advertising manager of Hot Rod," Tom began. "He asked me, if I did, which way I wanted to go editorially. I said, no drag racing-that's for Car Craft. Let Hot Rod do the competition stuff; we're going to the street ... street rod stuff. None of those guys had much faith in the street rods. Pete left me alone to do what I wanted to do.
"We didn't get entirely away from racing," continued Tom. "We still went to Bonneville, covered stuff like the '70 Baja 500 (where rodders like Ray Brock, Ak Miller, and Mickey Thompson competed). Guys who are interested in cars are interested in anything with wheels. We manufactured the Street Rod Nationals. When I had R&C, I had the perfect platform that other publications didn't have. We had a way to the source-street rodders every month.
"(LeRoi) 'Tex' (Smith) and I used to talk all the time about trying to get a street rod nationals going. We picked out a bunch of guys who were in this car club called the Slo-Pokes in Peoria, Illinois. The reason we picked Peoria was it was almost the center of the population of the U.S.
"I had to go back to Peoria a couple of times to talk to the mayor and the city council to let them know we weren't a bunch of greasy fingered motorcycle guys. We told them we didn't know how many people would attend.
"We couldn't get an OK from the 7th floor (Petersen Publishing upper management), but we were already into this thing so we went ahead and did it. We had to scrape together some money so we could get on with it." Through the cooperation of Gary Magner of the Minnesota Street Rod Association, which jointly hosted the event, the run to "Big P Nats" began to take shape.
Many states were passing laws that were detrimental to the sport. Street rodders of the '60s had become lightning rods, much like the hot rodders of the '40s. The public perception was poor. Tom wanted more than an association dedicated to a yearly car show-he wanted clout.
"Street is Neat" was more than a catchy phrase coined by Tom. He surrounded himself with a now-legendary staff that was as proficient at changing typewriter ribbons (remember those?) as they were changing a cam in a Riley four-port: Editor Bud Bryan, Associate Editor Jim "Jake" Jacobs, and freelancer Tex Smith.
"The idea of having a street rod nationals blossomed right in Tom Medley's office," Bud stated. "We all went, "Let's do it!' The sport, at that point, was fragmented nationally. The Midwest and the East Coast guys didn't know much about the West Coast guys, and visa versa. Our plans were to get these guys together. Everybody was talking about cruises, but not many ventured out of state."