Why do Indianapolis 500 winners drink milk in the winners circle?
The tradition of the “500” winner drinking milk in “Victory Lane” began when Louis Meyer, the winner of the 1936 Race was photographed drinking his favorite beverage, buttermilk, after his victory. An executive of the Milk Foundation (now the American Dairy Association) saw the picture and, hoping to set a good example for kids, made sure that from that year on the winner of the Race received a bottle of milk to drink. http://www6.indygov.org/features/trivia.htm Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Louis Meyer regularly drank buttermilk to refresh himself on a hot day and happened to drink some in Victory Lane as a matter of habit after winning the 1936 race. An executive with what was then the Milk Foundation was so elated when he saw the moment captured in a photograph in the sports section of his newspaper the following morning that he vowed to make sure it would be repeated in coming years. There was a period between 1947-55 when milk was apparently no longer offered, but the practic
