Wikipedia.com is on online encyclopedia that can give you a lot of information on various topics that range from Celebrities to animals. Pretty much anything you want to know about whatever you want to know can be found there with a simple search. During one of my “Think Tank” moments online, I went to the site and typed in the Name Marshall Major Taylor and the Greatest Bicycle Sprint champion of all time pops up! What makes Wikipedia really cool is that anybody anywhere can edit almost anyone’s information at any time. Correct information isn’t something that necessarily has to be present for you to edit. I went to Taylor’s page and did something that is really cool.

There is a place on the bottom where you can ad sites and\or links to drive traffic anywhere you want it to go. I put this blog address as the 3rd link on Taylor’s page! Anyone who goes to the bottom of his biography will see this blog address. If you type in any famous person’s name in Google, Wikipedia is always in the top 5 or 6 search results which makes this a very cool promotional tool (although Wikipedia discourages promoting anything on their site).
My end in mind here is to drive traffic to my blog and to begin a discussion about the truly enormous contributions of this forgotten American Sports hero. Taylor did things in bicycle racing that had never been done, all the while defending himself against racism in a white dominated sport. His hunger and passion for Bicycle Racing made him THE biggest draw in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s worldwide. He was the Michael Jordan of his day. A Champion many times over all over the world, received product endorsements, integrated a once segregated sport and was the wealthiest athlete of his time!

Part of my vision for Marshall Taylor Bicycles is to not only bring recognition to Major Taylor, but to bring worldwide recognition to all of the forgotten athletes of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Athletes like George Dixon, the 1st African-American boxing champion in the world who captured the Bantam Weight boxing title in 1898. When my bicycle company gets to a place where we have product in stores, a small booklet of these athletes and their contributions will be packaged with the bicycle as an educational tool to bring the recognition that is deserved to these forgotten athletes. The world needs to hear and honor these once great athletes because what we all have to remember is that they laid the groundwork for success in athletics for the athletes today. Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods, Evander Holyfield and others. Recognize that without people like Taylor, there would be no Shaq or Kobe.
To better understand exactly what he did, let us take Tiger Woods as an example. As was professional cycle racing in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, golf is and was a white dominated sport.

Tiger Woods came on the scene in about 1997 and did things that not only had no other black golfer did, he did things no golfer, period, had done. Taylor’s career and Tiger Woods career have many parallels. Along with the passing on of The Green Jacket at The Masters, the winner of this prestigious golf tournament is allowed to pick what will be served at the banquet after the tournament is over, a once famous golfer named Fuzzy Zeller said about Tiger “There won’t be any watermelon and fried chicken served at The Masters. Tiger has suffered racism as the lone representative at the top of his sport. Major Taylor suffered such insults and much worse! He beat a guy so bad in a race one time that the guy choked him into unconsciousness; he couldn’t stay at hotels like everyone else either. Yet, he pushed on. Let us all learn from the life of Major Taylor and strive against incredible odds to complete the task in which you feel you were born to complete!