Category: friday feature

By David G. Firestone

As The Vest Project continues, we take a look at another aspect of why three-piece crew suits were utilized. The three piece firesuit is a great way for teams to give shout-outs to sponsors, without incurring needless cost. Other times, it gives pit crews the ability to move from one driver to another without having to add a new sponsor-specific vest to the team. A perfect example is this Turner-Scott motorsports example circa 2013-2014, which was used in the Nationwide Series.If this vest was only used for the #30 team, it would have been used by crews for Nelson Piquet, Jr. for all of the 2013, and for Danica Patrick for the Daytona race in 2014. However, since Turner-Scott Motorsports ran 8 different drivers in 2013, and 4 different drivers in 2014, it isn’t out of the question that the vest was used on more than one team. It’s also possible that the vest was used by more than one crew member. If one crew member leaves, and a new crew member was brought on, and the new crew member can wear the vest, the new crew member would be issued the vest.

This vest is from Turner-Scott Motorsports, which would mean it was used from 2013 to 2014, as Harry Scott Jr. increased his stake in the team before the 2013 season. It was issued to a crew member named S. WILSON as indicated by the tag in the cowl. Also, by this point, Simpson had joined the three-piece revolution, and had joined Turner-Scott, hence the cowl tag.The logo placement is also meant to be as vague as possible.

The collar has no logos to speak of.The front has NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES and GOODYEAR LOGOS on the right chest, and CHEVY and a rather pointless TURNER-SCOTT MOTORSPORTS logo on the left chest. The large TURNER-SCOTT MOTORSPORTS logo on the front of the suit makes the smaller suit on the chest pointless.The new Simpson warranty label is present underneath the zipper. Unlike the Impact examples, Simpson didn’t utilize the comfort straps on the hem. The bottom hem is just a standard hem. The shoulders have no design on the epaulets, as well as the standard vest sleeves. The back has some really light wear.Unlike Impact examples, Simpson vests have the SFI certification tag in the cowl.The same Turner-Scott Motorsports logo that is on the front, is also present on the rear.When it comes to three-piece firesuits, NASCAR’s biggest customer for these vests were Braun Racing, which was absorbed into Turner Motorsports, which then became Turner-Scott Motorsports. We’ll look at an earlier example from Turner Motorsports, which was sponsored by a tasty beverage next week.

By David G. Firestone

Anytime I get to write an article about a long-time NASCAR sponsor, it brings a smile to my face, and today’s article is no exception. I’m giddy about the fact I get to do an article on an Exide Batteries vest! Growing up in the 1990’s, I remember when they sponsored Jeff Burton in the #99 Ford from 1996 to 2000, and who sponsored him for 14 of his 21 Sprint Cup wins.

Exide in its current form dates back to 1888, when WW Gibbs purchased a number of battery patents, and formed the Electric Storage Battery Company. The Electric Launch Company, a yacht company was one of their most important early customers. In 1899, an ESBC battery was used in USS Holland (SS-1), the first American modernized submarine. The next year, 1900, ESBC launched a series of batteries for electric taxicabs, which had to have more power and less weight. This line was called “Exide” which was a shortened version of “Excellent Oxide.”

During the first and second World Wars, Exide provided batteries for military use, which included radios, submarine, and torpedo use. Exide solar-powered batteries were used on the Apollo space missions. Sadly Exide has made a number of bad decisions in its business handling, primarily in acquisitions. Their major problem is that they have made too many of them, and have found themselves in debt in recent years.

While I fondly remember the Jeff Burton years, Exide left after the 2000 season. They then resurfaced in the Camping World Truck Series in various places, but we will focus on their sponsorship of Turner Scott Motorsports from 2011-2014. Since this is part of The Vest Project, you know that they had a vest for this sponsorship, namely this Impact example.From what I’ve been able to determine, the pit crews wore these designs for most of the races Exide sponsored. These include: 14 races in 2011, 2 for Mark Martin, 12 for James Buescher. 4 races in 2012 for James Buescher, including his win at the 2012 UNOH 225. 3 races in 2013, 2 for James Buescher, including his win at the 2013 Fan Appreciation 200 Presented by New Holland, and one for Brandon Jones. Finally, there were four in 2014, 1 for Ron Horniday Jr., and 2 for Brandon Jones.

The vest itself is an Impact vest, though from looking at it, you wouldn’t be able to figure that out. All the Impact logos have been removed. Though I wasn’t able to find a real explanation for this modification, the fact that these vests were used for a few races over many seasons, and the fact that the driver suit manufacturer would periodically change, would leave me to believe that this modification was done to avoid rumbling from the driver suit manufactures who weren’t Impact.  The vest is black with a blue design up the side.The collar is a standard design, and has has a hole in the back of the neck area. The right chest features a CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES logo and a GOODYEAR logo.The left chest features a Cheyv bowtie and a Turner-Scott Motorsports logo, which is on a patch, which has then been sewn into the vest. In 2011 and 2012, Turner-Scott Motorsports was simply Turner Motorsports. That changed in 2013, when minority owner Harry Scott Jr. increased his share of the ownership, and the team became Turner-Scott Motorsports. The front chest features a large EXIDE wordmark-I’m going to start using that term a bit more-embroidered into the black fabirc. The Impact warranty label, as well as the size tag are inside the front zipper area. The hems have those Velcro straps on either side for driver comfort. The shoulders have unadorned blue epaulets, with the Impact logos removed. The sleeves are the standard vest sleeve. Aside from the hole in the back of the neck, the back of the vest shows no wear at all.The back torso features a large Exide wordmark, with a circular logo underneath, and the phrase “Start Positive, Stay Positive” below it.Turner-Scott was somewhat of a powerhouse in NASCAR series which have the tendency to be dominated by Cup drivers, though they never had a Cup team themselves. Sadly, Turner-Scott is no more, after a series of lawsuits from Turner and Scott against each other led to the death of the team. The Truck Series team was sold, the Xfinity program went to Chip Ganassi, and Harry Scott founded Hscott Motorsports. It was sad that a team as good as that died the way it did. Next week, we will look at a piece devoted to Turner-Scott Motorsports.

By David G. Firestone

The Vest Project continues, with a slight change of plans this week. The three-piece firesuit contains a vest, undershirt, and pair of pants. We’ve been looking at vests, now let’s take a look at an undershirt from Team Rensi’s 2007 Free Credit Report Ford team, driven by David Gilliland, Richard Johns and Kenny Wallace.

From 1999 to 2010, Team Rensi Motorsports competed in the Xfinity Series. Founded by former McDonald’s CEO Ed Rensi and a few investors, Team Rensi was a full-time fixture in the Xfinity Series, and has also competed in the Sprint Cup and Truck Series. The team has 5 wins, one in 2002, and four in 2003, all with Bobby Hamilton Jr. Other drivers for the team include Kenny Wallace, Ashton Lewis, Mike McLaughlin, Jay Sauter, Ricky Craven, Boris Said, Eric McClure, Richard Johns, and David Gilliland.

This Impact undershirt was worn in 2007 by a crew member named Louie. I’ve been unable to find information about what Louie did for the team in 2007, but he was an over-the-wall crew member, and wasn’t a fueler, or catch-can holder. The shirt is size L, is blue with black sleeves. The blue is covered by the vest portion, and is of lighter material, also used in arm gussets. This comes as no surprise, as the whole point of the three-piece is to reduce the movement restriction that the wearer encounters.While I get the basic reasoning behind the three-piece, It still seems like this was overthought. While the vest is SFI 3.2A-5 rated, I see no real advantage to wearing a vest and an undershirt as opposed to a standard jacket. If the two parts catch fire, both will have to be replaced. The schedule is too hectic to clean standard suits, and I doubt that three-piece suits would be easier to clean. There are those who stand by the three pieces, but for me, they are nonsensical. This is proven by the fact that the three-piece suits disappeared only a few years after their introduction. As for the rest of the shirt itself:

The collar has a size tag and a warranty label sewn into the cowl. The size is L.At the bottom-right corner is an identification tag with RENSI written in for team and LOUIE written in for NAME.Being an undershirt, the shoulders are unadorned, and the sleeves, which are the same material as the outer design of a suit. The shoulders show the transition between the two materials. The right sleeve has IMPACT Z, FREE CREDIT REPORT, WILEY X, and SUNOCO logos embroidered in the upper sleeve, and a FREE CREDIT REPORT.COM logo embroidered at the end of the sleeve in television position. There is a white stain on the reverse end. The left sleeve has IMPACT Z, NASCAR, FORD, and SCLERODERMA FOUNDATION logos embroidered in the upper sleeve, and a FREE CREDIT REPORT.COM logo embroidered at the end of the sleeve in television position. The back of the shirt shows some light wear, and is in the same blue material as the front. The vest is worn over the shirt, and looks like this, paired with the Joe Nemecheck Swig vest, discussed in previous articles.As I looked at the blue material, I noticed a few things. The softer blue material would seem more comfortable than the outer material, and the blue material is Nomex. But it wouldn’t make a good material for the outer design. There is piling on collar of the blue material. Piling is when the cloth has little balls over it, and these would certainly show up in photos of the suit. That’s why the outer material is made of a more durable version of Nomex, which looks better on camera. This also seems a bit more breathable than older versions of Nomex that I have seen.

I know I’ve kept focusing on the same two vests, and I’m getting tired of those two. I’m going to move on from the wine-sponsored vests, and next week, start focusing on a vest with a more traditional sponsor.

By David G. Firestone

The last two weeks, I have discussed two different vests, the Joe Nemechek Swig vest from 2007, and the Berringer Vineyards vest from 2008-2010. These two vests were part of the short-lived three-piece firesuit combo, which was primarily used by pit crews, since a vest and shirt could reduce the amount of restriction for the wearer. As I looked at the last two vests closer, I began to notice some thing odd about them.

I noticed that the two vests had a lot in common. Both vests are the same size, same manufacturer, and have something extra added. “What was added” ?” you ask, well let’s take a look at the Nationwide Series patch on the Nemechek Vest. Doesn’t it look a bit out of place for a vest from 2007? After all, Nationwide didn’t take over sponsorship of the series until 2008. I thought this was odd, and as I looked closer, I noticed that the logo wasn’t embroidered, it was a patch. Looking closer, I noticed that the patch wasn’t sewn on. I decided to remove the patch, which was glued on, and found a Busch Series patch underneath.Ok, that makes sense. Obviously, the vest was prepared for the 2007 season, and had the old Busch Series logo. But what doesn’t make sense, at least to me, is the fact that the logo was glued on to begin with. Apparently, Joe Nemechek thought he would be running the Swig sponsorship for a few races in 2008, but that never materialized. Nemechek did try and run the Daytona race, but failed to qualify. Could the old uniforms have been used for that event? Well, it seems possible, but we’ll never know.

Moving on to the Berringer vest, I noticed something similar. On the right chest, I noticed that under the correct Nationwide Series logo, which has been embroidered, was a Dollar General logo, but the Dollar General logo was on a patch of fabric. This fabric was sewn into the vest. I decided to get a knife and try and remove the fabric, as seen below:

Upon removing this fabric, I noticed that the old Dollar General logo was underneath the new one. This would indicate that the vest was worn in 2008, since Dollar General changed to their new logo in 2009. Interestingly, that was the same logo they had been using since 1939, and after 70 years, the company felt that they needed to make a change.

That logo covering at least makes sense. I’m still not sure why there would be Nationwide Series logos glued on vests from 2007, but they are. I get that making new pit crew uniforms would be costly, but are there issues with wearing uniforms with logos of former sponsors? Could someone let me know about this? The cost thing is understandable, I get that, but I still can’t get past considering to use a uniform with a sponsor who isn’t paying you.  I’ve kept the patches for my personal collection: I’ve been talking vests, next week, we talk undershirts.

By David G. Firestone

Many West Coast races will have vineyard sponsored cars. There are a lot of vineyards on the west coast. Although the average NASCAR fan would easily be more associated with beer than wine, vineyard sponsorships have become very commonplace. Last week we discussed one such sponsorship, this week we will discuss a similar one.

Beringer Vinyeards has been operating in St. Helena, California since 1876. They were founded by the Beringer Family, and was sold to Nestle in 1971, then to Texas Pacific Group in 1996, then to Foster’s Group in 2000. Finally in 2011, it was sold to Treasury Wine Estates, who currently own it. They produce a wide variety of wines, ranging from cheaper versions to expensive high end wines.

From 2007 to 2010, Beringer Vinyeard sponsored cars for Braun Racing. In 2007 Dave Blaney raced one race at Phoenix. In 2008 Kyle Busch raced three races. From 2009 to 2010, David Reutimann raced 5 races in total with Beringer as a sponsor for Braun Racing. During that time, the pit crews wore three piece suits, including this Impact! Racing vest circa 2008-2009.\Another vest example, this vest is in burgundy, with a gold stripe across the front, and black under the stripe. The three piece suit was used during this time period, though I don’t see what advantages the vest has. The vest shows some light use, not uncommon with a team that raced three races in a season. I have to say that I like the color scheme here. The burgundy and black scheme with the gold stripe looks really good.The collar has Beringer logos embroidered into them. The cowl has the name MERRITT written into it in Sharpie.The right chest has NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES and FAMILY DOLLAR logos embroidered into it. The Family Dollar logo is on a patch, but more on that later.The left chest has TOYOTA, BRAUN RACING, and GOODYEAR logos embroidered into them.The front torso has BERINGER SINCE 1876 embroidered into it, the BERINGER part is on the red, the SINCE 1876 is embroidered into the black. The warranty tag is inside the zipper.The bottom hem has the comfort straps which can be adjusted for wearer’s comfort and safety. The shoulders have BERINGER embroidered into the epaulets, which also has IMPACT! Logos present. The sleeves are traditional vest style. The back has some light wear.The back of the neck has an Impact lightning bolt logo present.The back torso has a TOYOTA logo over the larger Beringer logo, the same identical design as the front.One of the reasons teams used these vests is that they can be rotated for different sponsors. The logos will change depending on who arrives and leaves the team. On that note, I’ve noticed something odd about this vest, and the Joe Nemechek vest I discussed next week, and next week, I’ll get further into that next week.

By David G. Firestone

The Vest Project is waiting taking a back seat this week, and will pick back up next week. As I teased on Tuesday, I went to the NFL Draft in Downtown Chicago on Thursday. I decided to trade Nomex for Polyester as I decided not to think about racing and driver suits for one day, and enjoy the festivities. I had a “seat-filler” ticket, so I had a chance to go in, but sadly, there were too many fillers, and not enough seats. So while I didn’t get to see any of the Draft itself, I did have fun wandering around Draft Town in Grant Park.

Draft Town was billed as a “900,000 square foot celebration of the Draft” and a “three-day football festival” and it was, but it was also a chance for the sponsors to put their names out there, and to promote their products. That is what it was, a football festival that was promoting products the entire time…Why else would the full name be Draft Town presented by Oikos Triple Zero.

I wanted to see what kinds of uniforms and memorabilia would be on display. My first stop was the NFL Museum. One of the biggest displays was a history of the Chicago Football Uniform, including the Chicago Cardinals, and a history of Chicago Bears game-used uniforms, including the rare 1992 throwback. They also had the busts from the 2016 Pro Football Hall of Fame Class, and a display concerning the jacket and rings given to the inductees. The best display there was the history of the Super Bowl Ring, which had examples of every ring from Super Bowl I-XLIX. I shot a video of them.

My next stop was the College Football Hall of Fame tent, which had its own display of game-used and historical items. There were also a number of mannequins that were wearing various uniforms of collegiate teams. I do have to give them credit where credit is due. I thought they would all be Nike, but every manufacturer is represented. My next stop was the area next to Buckingham Fountain, where I watched the ESPN live broadcast. It’s important to note that the weather was awful, mid 40’s, and I noticed that two of the male anchors had blankets on their laps due to the weather. I then went to the NFL Store, and saw the mannequins representing the teams of the NFL in their home uniforms. Facing the back of the store, the AFC is on the left side, and the NFC is on the right side. Again, I was wondering about the promotional items at Draft Town.  Anyone who knows me knows that I used to be a liaison between The DePaul University Ministry and ChariTees, and that I have been to a promotional products trade show as a result. So I was curious as to what kinds of products were being given away at the event. The event did not disappoint.

Koozies were a big giveaway, as I got 3 in total. I got two can koozies, one from the Pro Football and College Football Halls of Fame, and a jersey-shaped bottle koozie from NFL Sunday Ticket. Keeping with the beer theme, Courtyard at Marriott gave out Seahawks green sunglasses with bottle openers attached. Despite being overcast, more and more people were wearing these as the day progressed. Why they went with this color I don’t know. Hyundai went a bit more piratical and was giving away mini-flashlights. This was in addition to photographs that were used to make a custom video. As I’m not sure about copyright issues, I won’t post the photos or video.

When I got to Bridgestone’s tent, they had an interesting setup. They were giving away wrist-bands with the appropriate logos. I think they should have gone with black instead of gray to match the prodcuts. They also had a photo op where you could catch a pass, and get a towel, so I took advantage. I landed hard on my left leg, and as of Monday, it was still sore. The NFL Auctions tent was giving away old Super Bowl programs, so I got a program from Super Bowl XXIV. I’m not sure why they were giving these away, but it was a cool thing to get.The most unique of the giveaways came from New Era. This was one of the more complex ideas for a give away I’ve seen. Before walking up to this machine, you take a selfie of yourself in a New Era hat, and post the image to Twitter and Instagram, with two custom hashtags.The machine then finds the pictures and hashtags, and if you do one of the two, it gives you a lanyard that doubles as a cap measurement. If you post to both, it gives you a mini NFL Draft cap, half the size of a real cap. I got a Panthers version. Once you checked in, and got through all of that, you were given…an NFL Draft 2016 towel. Slightly bigger than the Bridgestone towel. Even those of us, and there had to be over 400 of us, who didn’t get in got towels. I had hoped for a little more, but what can you do. One thing I didn’t mention is that the NFL had it’s own app for Draft Town. It worked kind of like Swarm, where you check in at what booth you were at. The number of check ins earned you shots at prizes, and I wanted a football. As I was walking away from the auditorium, I got a text message that I had won the football. I went to the Wilson test, and got my mini-football. It’s half the size of a regulation football, well made from a compsite material, and has all the teams printed on the side.It was fun switching Nomex, steel and rubber for polyester, grass and leather, if only for a day, and I was disappointed that I didn’t get into the Draft itself, but I still had fun. Now I have to get back to what I do best, racing. Next week, I will pick up where I left off with The Vest Project.

By David G. Firestone

Firesuits have evolved over the years. Their primary function has always been to protect the wearer from burns in the event of the fire. They also have to allow the wearer to perform whatever task they are required to do for the team. In recent years, they have also become advertising pieces for the sponsor of the team. These three requirements created one of the oddest firesuit setups in racing history…the three-piece firesuit.

Three-piece firesuits have a vest, a corresponding undershirt, and a pair of pants. In theory, the three-piece allows for the same protection as a two-piece, with the advantage of giving the wearer less restriction while moving, and the ability to change the vest in case of sponsor change, fire damage, or in case the vest needs cleaning. This seems like a great idea, but for whatever reason, despite being used by many teams in the Truck, Xfinity, and Sprint Cup Series, the three-piece never took off, and remains an oddity in racing uniform design.

The drawbacks for the uniform design are quite obvious. Yes, the vest/shirt combo has an SFI 5 rating, however, without the undershirt, the vests are…well…useless. Fire doesn’t choose what to burn and what not to burn, and without the undershirt, the vest is little more than a fashion accessory. Also, this type of suit could have different vests for the top, but a new pair of pants is needed for new sponsors. Nothing is saved in terms of costs.

Recently, I purchased a huge amount of vests at a decent price, and I will examine the whole three-piece suit thing for a while. We are going to start with this Joe Nemechek vest from 2007.Here is what it looks like with an undershirt, but more on that later.The team was sponsored for three races by the Swig Inc. division of the now-defunct Brunton Vineyard Inc. They raced in three races, Daytona, Fontana, and Las Vegas, and had no real major successes during that season. The vest is designed exactly like Nemechek’s driver suit.The collar has BRUTON VINEYARDS embroidered into it.The right chest has NASCAR NATIOWIDE SERIES, CHEVY, and NEMCO MOTORSPORTS logos present. The Nationwide Series logo is out of place, but more on that later.The left chest has MOONSHINE RACING and BCC SPORTS logos present.The front torso has SWIG and BRUNTON VINEYARDS logos embroidered into it.The warranty label is present inside the front zipper.The unique thing about vest is that the bottom has a hem which can be tightened. There are Velcro straps which can be adjusted present. The shoulders have red epaulets with GOODYEAR logos embroidered into them. The vest has classic vest sleeve holes present where the sleeves and gussets would be. The back of the suit has large SWIG and BRUNTON VINEYARDS logos present. The second tag is in the back of the hem. This tag is an identification tag, which has been left black, except for what appears to be DB4 written in blue marker.Next week, we will keep with the vineyard theme, and examine another vest, which, like this vest, has an oddity to it.

By David G. Firestone

The name Andretti is to racing what the name Ruth is to baseball, Jordan is to basketball, Unitas is to football, and Gretzky is to hockey. Between Mario, Michael, Marco, and John, the Andretti family has wins in many different forms of auto racing over a lengthy period. It was with the same expectations that Jeff Andretti, Mario’s son, and Michael’s younger brother started his racing career in the 1980’s. In 1986, he scored his first win, at the 1986 Indy Lights race at Pocono. He followed that in in 1987 with two wins, one at Phoenix, the other in Miami. He had a decent Indy Lights career until 1990, when he went to CART. His career in CART seemed to be taking off in 1991, where he had 4 top 10’s.

Then came the 1992 Indianapolis 500. That race could, at best, be considered a caution-fest. There were a total of 13 cautions for 84 laps over the course of 200 laps. So 42% of the race was run under caution. Lap 115 brought out caution #10, when Andretti and Gary Bettenhausen crashed coming out of turn three. Safety crews needed 18 minutes to cut Andretti out of the car, and he was sent to the hospital with two smashed legs.

That is the kind of wreck that, if it doesn’t end a career, will hamper it, and Jeff was no exception. Although he would return to racing, any chance of a great racing career was long over. After that race, Andretti would only attempt two more CART races, before moving back to the Indy Lights series in 1995, then the North American Touring Car Championship in 1996, then to the Craftsman Truck Series in 1999, before retiring, and becoming a driving instructor.

Jeff’s last grasp as a CART driver came at the 1994 Slick 50 200, at Phoenix. He started 27^th, and finisned 17^th while racing for the AGIP / Hawaiian Tropic Lola / Ilmor for Antonio Ferarri’s Euromotorsport. One of his crew members wore this Pyrotect pit crew firesuit.This single-layer suit shows some light wear, not surprising for a pit crew suit worn for one race.

The collar has a PYROTECT patch across the Velcro closure.This is why I love old open wheel firesuits, instead of one large sponsor across the front torso, there are a series of small sponsor patches in a grid formation, along the white and blue stripe. The suit has no belt, and unadorned legs with standard cuffs.

The shoulders have unadorned epaulets on them. The right sleeve has STP, GOODYEAR, and CAN BALANCE logos present, and no television logos. The left sleeve has an SFI patch, indicating the suit has a 1 rating, which would provide the wearer with the most minimal of protection, 2 seconds at most. The back has an unadorned neck, and a gusset surrondung the AGIP logo, and the stripe containing the smaller logos. Pit crews face serious risks every single day, and unlike this suit, which would provide the most minimal of fire protection, especially in CART, which had a well-known history of pit road fires, the suits that crews wear need to be specifically designed to protect them from fires. How this is done is accomplished through a number of ways. Next week, I begin a huge project concerning those pit crew suits.

By David G. Firestone

Going off topic today, but I’ve wanted to do this for a while. September 18 1968, was an uneventful day during an eventful year. While the rest of America listened to Harper Valley PTA, red Testimony of Two Men, or watched Hang ‘Em High, one lucky person got to meet, and get an autograph from a man who changed the face of fast food, fried chicken, and the cooking industry, all at the same time.

Even if you’ve never eaten at KFC, you know that Col. Harland Sanders founded the company, and came up with the famous “Secret Recipe.” You might not know that he was a jack of all trades prior to KFC. He was a military man, a railroad man, an amateur lawyer, an insurance sales man, a ferryboat operator, and, by 1930, a Shell gas station attendant in Corbin, Kentucky. That Shell gas station was the best thing to ever happen to Harland Sanders, but at the time, he didn’t know it. He served food, including his chicken, country ham, and steaks in the living quarters of the service station.

Sanders’ temper was well documented, having lost no fewer than three jobs due to disagreements or brawls with people, including one in a courtroom during his law practice. During an encounter with Matt Stewart, a competitor, a shootout took place. The story goes like this, Sanders painted an advertising sign to lure more customers to his station, which enraged Smith, who painted over Sanders’ sign. Sanders and two Shell officials caught Smith in the act, and the shootout occurred. Smith was shot in the shoulder, and wound up killing one of the Shell officials. Smith was sent to prison for murder, and Sanders had the market all to himself. Around that same time, Sanders was named a “Kentucky Colonel,” and was recommissioned one in 1950. He began to call himself Colonel Sanders, and the name stuck.

During the World War 2, he was worked as a supervisor in Seattle, and later ran government cafeterias. He had already perfected his now legendary “Secret Recipe” and discovered that frying in a pressure cooker made the chicken more moist and flavorful than pan frying. After the war, he returned to his kitchen, and in 1952, franchised his chicken to Pete Harman of South Salt Lake, Utah. A sign panted named Don Anderson came up with the name “Kentucky Fried Chicken” for the new Utah restaurant. This would be a turning point, as Sanders, who had failed at most of his businesses, found the recipe for success, no pun intended…he just didn’t know it yet.

In 1956, he sold the Corbin Restaurant that he had called home for so long. Realizing he needed money, he started his quest to franchise Kentucky Fried Chicken. Initially, it was slow going, but people began to see that Kentucky Fried Chicken would work, and, by the 1960’s, over 600 locations had opened, in the US, Canada, England, and Mexico. In 1964, an aging Sanders could not handle the stress of managing the restaurants, and sold Kentucky Fried Chicken to John Brown, and Jack Massey for $2 million, over $15 million in 2016 dollars.

Sanders was the mascot of KFC, and continued to appear on packaging, and advertising. Sanders himself wore the white suit and black string tie which he would forever be associated with. Sanders was, in real life, a foul-mouthed control freak, who would visit franchises to make sure that the chicken was being prepared correctly, and would snap if he found that it wasn’t. He remained active, even after being diagnosed with acute leukemia, and was active until his death from pneumonia on December 16, 1980, at the age of 90.

On that rather uneventful day, September 18, 1968, someone met Col. Harland Sanders, and got his autograph.Torn from, appropriately enough, a chicken advertisement, this 7 inch long piece of paper was signed by Sanders, “Sincerely, Col Harland Sanders, 9/18/1964.” While the paper has aged with time, but the signature is still bold. It also looks as though there was something else written, either by Sanders, or an unknown hand, as at the top right corner, there is an underlined S. What was written, has been lost to history.

Next week, I will examine some unique items from the bottom of the sea.