Every year, thousands flock to Indiana for an event celebrating one of the state’s most famous athletes. A century after his heyday in the sport, he is recognized in the top echelon of historic Hoosiers, both in Indiana and across the country.
Dan Patch is studied by fourth graders along with President Benjamin Harrison and other figures who are prominent in Indiana history. Railway lines and highways are named after him. His story transcends sports and has achieved mythical status.
His own biography parallels crucial decades in Indiana’s transition from agricultural life to a more industrial society. At the turn of the 20th century, Dan Patch was perhaps the best-known sports figure in the country and among the most recognizable Hoosiers of all. Every Indiana resident has an interest in his story.
a celebrity superstar
Decades before Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, an Indiana-born horse named Dan Patch was one of America’s first famous superstar athletes. Thanks to a savvy marketing owner, Dan Patch’s remarkable success as an advertising icon is responsible for many of the marketing and branding techniques still in use today. From chewing tobacco to washing machines to cars, the Dan Patch name was pure gold for companies trying to differentiate themselves. His face was everywhere. Many of the advertising tactics we take for granted today can be traced back to Dan Patch. If kids today want to “be like Mike,” a century ago Dan Patch was the symbol of unsurpassed excellence. American businesses and consumers couldn’t get enough. Indeed, in the opinion of Frederick Klein of Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal, “it can be argued that, adjusted for inflation and population size, he was bigger than anyone today.”
A legacy that lasts
Dan Patch’s influence on Indiana life, indeed American life, is evident every spring.
On a Saturday at Hoosier Park in Anderson, thousands will gather for the Dan Patch Invitational Pace, a race that pits some of the best harness racing horses in the country against each other for a $200,000 purse. It is the most important race of the season. Hundreds of thousands of dollars will change hands as fans at the Anderson track and at off-track venues in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Merrillville handicap the course. His birthplace of Oxford, Indiana hosts an annual Dan Patch Days festival that began in 1901. There’s a virtual cottage industry in Dan Patch memorabilia. An Internet search for his name returns 3,200 pages and, in fact, there are many sites dedicated solely to the lore and legend of Dan Patch. Just as an example, a Dan Patch thermometer recently sold at auction for $3,000.
Dan Patch heralded a new era in consumer marketing
The reason for his enduring influence has as much to do with marketing as it does with his record-breaking success on the racetrack. The rags-to-riches horse and his owner, Marion Savage, overcame shaky starts to their careers to achieve phenomenal success.
To understand the Dan Patch phenomenon, you have to appreciate the popularity of harness racing in turn-of-the-century America, including Indiana. Dan Patch was born in 1896, when horses were still the main means of transportation; at the time of his death in 1916, horseless carriages called automobiles were rapidly making horses obsolete as a means of passenger transportation.
During Dan Patch’s lifetime, harness racing was immensely popular, especially in rural America. County fairs across the United States staged races, attended by tens of thousands. An appearance in Muncie towards the end of Dan Patch’s run drew 20,000 spectators, at a time when Muncie’s population was less than 23,000 in total.
It was into this pre-automotive America that Dan Patch was born in Oxford, conceived for a $150 tuition fee. The horse at birth did not look like a winner at all. His ankles were very sprained; at first he needed the help of a trainer to get to his feet, and he developed a wildly jerky gait. Some neighbors even suggested “turning it down.”
But his original owners saw something in Dan Patch. They worked on him slowly and he finally started racing at the age of 4. He immediately outclassed the competition. He never lost a race. In fact, other owners stopped racing their horses against him, so his owners switched him to time trial exhibitions.
The magic of marketing: decades ahead of its time
The legend of Dan Patch began to transcend sports when he was bought by Marion Savage. Savage owned a large cattle feed manufacturing company. Savage had been unsuccessful in farming and agriculture-related businesses until he founded the International Stock Food Company and built it into the largest company of its kind. Along the way he earned a reputation as a marketing genius. Like Dan Patch, he started off poorly but now found his groove.
Dan Patch set records on the track that stood for decades. His reputation became world wide in 1906 when he broke the world record with an unofficial mile pace of 1:55. Savage found several creative ways to exploit the horse’s popularity. He developed creative contracts to make a profit at country fairs where the horse appeared, and promoted these appearances relentlessly. The horse earned thousands more for Savage in stud fees. In addition to using Dan Patch’s likeness to “endorse” his own company, Savage licensed Dan Patch’s likeness to other companies. Products ranging from cigars to soft drinks, baking soda, toys, furniture, stoves, clocks, thermometers, clocks, sleds, cutlery, china, stoves and washing machines all sported the Dan Patch name or likeness. There was even a Dan Patch car. As a “spokesperson” for Savage’s feed company, the legend of Dan Patch was used to suggest the performance-enhancing benefits of using International Stock Food products. The company produced flyers promoting the farm where Dan Patch lived and sent them out to customers. The posts were filled with exploits by Dan Patch and advertisements for International Stock products.
While Dan Patch provided Savage with riches, the owner treated his horse like royalty, with his own private train car and a stable so luxurious it was called “Taj Mahal.”
Dan Patch and Marion Savage died within days of each other in July 1916. Their funerals were held on the same day. The country around them had been changing rapidly, from a nation of farmers to a nation of machine builders and car drivers. It had also become a nation of consumers. With that change came a new era in product promotion and branding, brought about through a special horse and its owner’s visionary zeal for merchandising. Both horse and owner were decades ahead of their time. The horse built the brands, and the brands helped build the horse to a larger-than-life mythical status.