A.J. Foyt: Indy's royalty

Once, a very long time ago, as part of a family vacation, my parents stopped for a day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
I can barely remember anything about the place, except for the fact we took the tour of the racetrack and we went through the museum.
I remember distinctly the museum, because the only memento I really wanted was something, anything, with the No. 14 on it.
That number belonged to my favorite driver, A.J. Foyt, who at the time was one of the biggest names to race at IMS.
Back then, what I knew of motorsports could hardly fill a thimble, but I knew A.J. Foyt. He and Rick Mears were the drivers I cheered for every Memorial Day; like Dale Earnhardt at Daytona a decade (and more) later. They were the good guys to me, the cowboys in the white hats; the Unser brothers were the bad guys (like Jeff Gordon nowadays).
A day of activity
I remember waiting impatiently, after the cookout and the lawn games, for the race to come on television. The Indianapolis 500, in those days, wasn't televised live like it is now; it was shown on tape delay. Thankfully, there wasn't the Internet or ESPN, like now, that could possibly spoil the ending for me.
Then, like now, I wasn't what one would consider a diehard motorsports fan, but I enjoyed especially the bigger events, like Indy and Daytona.
I'm not sure what drew me to cheer for Foyt, but it probably something had to do with the fact that he was one of the most successful racers and (not coincidentally) he was on most of the advertisements.
As I grew older, I continued to cheer for Foyt, and I began to more fully appreciate his competitiveness. He wasn't always the most-liked man in the garage area, but he was the most-respected. That's probably what later drew me to Dale Earnhardt, for, like Foyt, it was his racing spirit and abject hatred of losing that appealed to me.
The former coach of the Houston Oilers, Bum Phillips, once said of Don Shula, "He can take his [players] and beat yours, and he can take yours and beat his."
That kind of expertise and adaptability, I think, could also be applied to Foyt. He was a four-time Indy 500 champion, winning his first title in 1961 and his last in 1977. In between, the cars, the engines and the technology underwent drastic changes and Foyt was able to adjust to all of that.
He also drove on the NASCAR circuit for a time and won seven races in that series, including the 1972 Daytona 500.
Foyt also claimed victories and championships in sprint cars and midget cars. He remains the only driver -- ever -- to win the Indy 500, the Daytona 500 and the 24 Hours of LeMans. And he's one of only three drivers in history to win events on ovals, road courses and dirt tracks in one year, 1968.
This is not to suggest that his career has been nothing but a series of successes.
Foyt has endured many severe accidents, some of which threatened his life. In fact, at one race in 1965 he was pronounced dead at the scene by a track doctor. He's nearly had an arm ripped off, he's been burned, had broken vertebra and shattered his legs. Once, he was run over -- by his own car.
Intense and loyal
But Foyt -- once called "the toughest S.O.B. in sports" -- responded to every setback with a dogged determination to get back behind the wheel, to do what he loved.
Foyt was and remains a complex man. His intensity and competitiveness, his seemingly win-at-all-costs mentality is equaled only by a fierce loyalty to his friends.
Today, A.J. Foyt will return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, serving as car owner, advisor and cheerleader for his son, Larry, and grandson, A.J. IV, who will start 22nd and 21st, respectively.
Some claim the Indianapolis 500 has lost much of its luster, in large part due to the fraction caused by the split between rival race series in the 1990s.
While that may be true to some extent, little of that will matter today, when more than 400,000 people make their way to watch "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing." Perhaps no one personifies what the day means more than No. 14, A.J. Foyt Jr.
XRob Todor is sports editor of The Vindicator. Write to him at todor@vindy.com.