The Indiana Magazine of History explores racing, gambling in 1913 Indiana
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Author John Hmurovic leads off the June 2014 issue of the Indiana Magazine of History with a scandal-filled, intrigue-laden story of horseracing and gambling in early 20th-century Porter County, Ind.
Entrepreneur Armanis F. Knotts, seeking to build a northern Indiana rival to French Lick, established the Mineral Springs Resort, where one of the first attractions was a horseracing track. With gambling illegal in Indiana, Knotts swore that profits would come only from ticket sales; but from the first afternoon of racing, the bookies positioned under the grandstand told a different tale. Hmurovic weaves together a story filled with politics, undercover agents, National Guardsmen and two canny businessmen in 1913 Indiana.
In the issue’s second article, John Fraire tells the story of baseball in East Chicago’s Mexican-American community of Indiana Harbor from the 1920s through the early 1940s. Combining the story of his own family’s multi-generational play for various teams with a larger community history, Fraire focuses on the men's baseball team known as the Gallos and the women's softball team the Gallinas. He examines how baseball both reinforced Mexican identity and pride and worked to incorporate immigrants into U.S. society.
Elsewhere in the issue, historians and teachers Anthony Arnove, Keith Erekson, William Munn and Alex Lichtenstein shed new light on the controversy over former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ criticism of the work of the late historian Howard Zinn, including a look back at Zinn’s controversial 1967 antiwar speech on the IU Bloomington campus.
The Indiana Magazine of History is published quarterly by the Department of History at Indiana University Bloomington. For more information, visit the magazine’s website. For general information on the articles or to order a copy of the issue, contact the editorial office at 812-855-4139.
Related Links
The baseball team Los Gallos, pictured in 1940, played an important role in the Indiana Harbor community.
Media Contacts
Dawn Bakken
Associate editor
- Indiana Magazine of History
- Office 812-855-4139
- dbakken@indiana.edu