Over its 150-year history, the Kentucky Derby has had its share of forefathers, figures who created and nurtured this racing tradition as it evolved from a Kentucky stakes into a bucket-list experience. From Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr.’s vision to Col. Matt Winn’s passion, each man impacted this historic event in his own way, their names synonymous with signature traditions like red roses and mint juleps.

Sportswriter Bill Corum added his own flair to the classic stakes, coining a classic phrase as familiar to fans as its place on the first Saturday in May.

A Boy From Speed

Corum, left, with John C. Clark in 1949. ("Keeneland Library Morgan Collection)

The future president of Churchill Downs started his life far from the call of the racetrack. The oldest of Robert and Vida Corum’s two boys, Martene Windsor Corum arrived on July 20, 1895, in Speed, Mo., an unincorporated township about 40 miles from Columbia. His parents insisted on proper schooling for their son, nicknamed Bill, who played baseball – reportedly he was good enough to play in the major leagues had he pursued it – while focusing on his studies. After graduating from Wentworth Military Academy, Corum attended the University of Missouri at Columbia, earning his degree in 1917 before enlisting in the Army at the start of World War I.

Commissioned as a first lieutenant, the future journalist moved up in rank throughout America’s tenure in the Great War as he commanded Company D, 101st Infantry Battalion of the 96th Infantry Division. He ended the war as the Army’s youngest major and earned a Purple Heart and multiple bronze and silver stars for his service. With his time in the military done, Corum moved to New York to attend Columbia University School of Journalism, first working as a copy editor for the New York Times and then moving to assistant sports editor after graduate school.

His early beats for the Times included the Brooklyn Dodgers, and then when Corum moved on to the New York Evening Journal, he covered the New York Giants before being promoted to lead columnist. When William Randolph Hearts merged the Evening Journal with its morning counterpart, the former soldier became a nationally recognized sports columnist and then added radio to his resume, covering baseball, boxing, and horse racing.

From his earliest years as a sportswriter, Corum had a soft spot for the Kentucky Derby, on which he would leave his mark in the years to come.

A Storyteller of Sport

J.P. "Sammy" Smith with Corum, right. (Keeneland Library Morgan Collection)

Though the native Missourian did not grow up in the sport, he became enamored with racing as a child watching the trotters race at the Sedalia State Fair. During his early years in New York, Corum made the Kentucky Derby a regular part of his calendar, attending his first in 1923, watching Zev beat Martingale and Vigil, the Preakness Stakes winner. The sportswriter’s affection for the race led him to his first chance to make his mark on the classic race.

When Clark planned the first Kentucky Derby in 1875, roses were part of the day’s festivities. Around 1883, roses were first seen at a post-Derby party, the red blooms distributed to the ladies present by socialite E. Berry Wall. The flowers were so popular with those in attendance that Clark adopted them as the official flower for the 1884 Derby. The first report of a blanket of roses for the winner came in 1896 when Ben Brush was awarded a garland of white and pink roses. A decade later, photos show that year’s victor Sir Huon wearing a short blanket of the blooms, a tradition that continues to this day. In 1925, inspired by the familiar cascade of red roses, Corum coined the phrase “Run for the Roses,” a nickname as synonymous with the Kentucky Derby as the roses themselves.

The sportswriter went on to cover the race both in print and on the radio in addition to his duties covering boxing and working alongside writers like Damon Runyon, Grantland Rice, Red Smith, and others. Corum’s voice became a familiar fixture for sports fans across the country, especially in racing. He had his admirers among his colleagues as well, with Runyon reportedly describing his friend as:

“short, chubby, and debonair. He looks cheerful and lives cheerfully … he writes about sports events as he sees them, and he always sees them a little more clearly than the rest of us. … No more popular chap than Bill Corum ever lived in this man’s town. He is one of the ablest journalists of these times and one of the grandest guys.”

Corum continued writing his column for the New York Journal American as he took on jobs within racing. His time covering the sport enabled him to get to know people across the country, the popular columnist becoming executive vice president for Suffolk Downs near Boston in 1947.

In his time covering the Kentucky Derby, the native Missourian became friends with Col. Matt Winn, the promoter who propelled the Bluegrass classic from regional event to the most famous race in America. When this icon died in 1949, Churchill Downs named Corum as his successor, the famed sportswriter taking on the tall task of succeeding his friend as the run for the roses entered a new phase in its history.

A Rosy Friend

Bill Corum guided the Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs into a new decade as his tenure began in 1950. For eight years, until his death in 1958, he led the expansion of the racetrack to accommodate the ever-growing Derby day crowds; introduced the engraved silver mint julep cups in 1951; and supervised the first televised Kentucky Derby in 1952. Though his tenure at the helm was shorter than Winn’s, Corum focused on making the Derby experience better year after year while still writing his column and continuing his broadcasting work.

His love of racing and baseball led Corum into the big leagues of sports journalism in an era that produced greats like Runyon and Rice, the former soldier making his mark on the craft in his time. He became an integral part of Derby history when he coined the phrase “Run for the Roses,” his love for the Bluegrass classic evident in his service to both the race and its home as it grew into one of America’s most important sporting fixtures.