Monday Blues: The Demise of Floyd McFarland

 Bicycle racers who competed in Los Angeles during the late 1890s and early 1900s were no strangers to dramatic, violent deaths. From Emil Ulbrecht being consumed by a shark, to the painful ends of John Nelson and Gustaf Lawson, theirs were the types of "ends" that Hollywood makes films of these days. Floyd "Human Engine" McFarland, the extraordinary Six Day racer, and later race promoter, whose racing career was tarnished by outspoken racial discriminatory beliefs and attitudes, particularly in regard to his main competitor in the United States, Major Taylor, joins that list of bicycle racers of the turn of the century whose demises were, perhaps, even more dramatic than their racing successes.

McFarland, who won multiple National Championships, as well as Six Day races in Boston, New York and Berlin, also promoted races and managed tracks across the country, including here in Los Angeles could not leverage his fame to avoid a similarly sensational end.

McFarland was managing the Newark Velodrome in April 1915, when he noticed that concessionaire David Lantenberg, who sold refreshments at the venue, had screwed advertising posters into the track railing. Often this left the pointed end of the screws projecting onto the track, causing a hazard, and for that reason was not permitted. When McFarland pointed this out, an argument ensued, and Lantenberg stabbed McFarland in the back of his head with the screwdriver he was using. Reportedly overcome with the shock and horror of what he had done, Lantenberg supposedly rushed McFarland to the hospital where he died a few hours later.