The history of sports in Northern Kentucky goes back a long way. A very long way. Decades. Centuries.
We know you’ve seen these lists before, but this is a different and unique way of presenting our “50 sports icons in Northern Kentucky” as we’ll provide you one per day over the next 50 days.
Hall of Fames are everywhere in NKY, the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame, High School Athletic Directors Hall of Fame, NKU, Thomas More and local high schools all have something to recognize their past.
We’ll preface this series by saying this, some of you may disagree with who should or shouldn’t be in the top 50 and that’s fine. Plenty are in the Hall of Very Good, but we feel these 50 are the one’s who stuck out to us.
Sports Editor Evan Dennison spoke and conferred with several local NKY sports history buffs to get their opinions and lists of their own and who should be “locks” for the 50 sports icons. We compiled each list and came up with the 50 of our own (maybe cheated a little by putting families in as one) to present over the next 50 days.
Hope you enjoy as summer time rolls on!
The 16th of the 50 sports icons is Eddie Arcaro, the Southgate native who is widely regarded as one of the greatest jockeys in the history of American Thoroughbred horse racing.
EDDIE ARCARO
Arcaro is a Southgate native and owns the most prominent label in all of horse racing. He’s the only jockey to ever have won two Triple Crowns.
The 5-foot-2 Arcaro won the Triple Crown with Whirlaway in 1941 and again in 1948 with Citation. His 17 wins in Triple Crown races still holds true today as the most ever for a jockey.
Arcaro has won the Belmont Stakes six times, Preakness Stakes six times and the Kentucky Derby five times. His honors include United States Champion Jockey by earnings in 1940, ’42, ’48, ’50, ’52 and ’58. George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1953 and Big Sport of Turfdom Award in 1974. He was elected into the United States Racing Hall of Fame in 1958 and the Fair Grounds Racing Hall of Fame in 1971. During his career Arcaro rode in 24,092 races and won 4,779, with record setting earnings of over $30 million dollars.
Arcaro was called “The Master”, for his riding skills, good sense of pace and the ability to switch his whip from one hand to the other with ease during a race.
After racing, Arcaro was a television commentator for horse racing on CBS and ABC. He also worked as a spokesman for Buick and was the owner of a popular Italian restaurant Beverly Hills. Arcaro died in 1997 at 81 years old.
See the 50 sports icons on a day-to-day basis over the next 50 days
— Day 1: Dave Cowens
— Day 2: Shaun Alexander
— Day 3: Homer Rice
— Day 4: Dicky Beal
— Day 5: Jared Lorenzen
— Day 6: Jim Bunning
— Day 7: Tom Ellis
— Day 8: Nate Dusing
— Day 9: Jim Connor
— Day 10: Steve Cauthen
— Day 11: Irv Goode
— Day 12: Stan Steidel
— Day 13: Kenney Shields
— Day 14: David Justice
— Day 15: Morgan Hentz
— Day 16: Eddie Arcaro
— Day 17: Nancy Winstel
— Day 18: Steve Flesch
— Day 19: Donna Murphy
— Day 20: Randy Marsh
— Day 21: Mike Yeagle
— Day 22: Derrick Barnes
— Day 23: Dale Mueller
— Day 24: Dave Faust
— Day 25: Kirsten Allen
— Day 26: The Oldendick family
— Day 27: Martin “Mote” Hils
— Day 28: Nell Fookes
— Day 29: Owen Hauck
— Day 30: Becky Ruehl
— Day 31: Tom Thacker
— Day 32: Sydney Moss
— Day 33: Bob Schneider
— Day 34: The Walz family
— Day 35: John Toebben
— Day 36: Pat Scott
— Day 37: Bob Arnzen
— Day 38: Joan Mazzaro
— Day 39: Frank Jacobs
— Day 40: Adrienne Hundemer
— Day 41: The Draud family
— Day 42: Bill Krumpelbeck
— Day 43: The Molony family
— Day 44: Allen Feldhaus
— Day 45: The Maile family
— Day 46: Maureen Egan Corl
— Day 47: Bill Aker
— Day 48: Maureen Kaiser
— Day 49: John Brannen
— Day 50: Mike Bankemper