Garfield Wood

Gar Wood was born on December 4, 1880, in Mapleton, Iowa, into a family of 13 children. His father was a ferryboat operator on Lake Osakis, Minnesota, and Gar worked on boats from an early age.

In 1916, Wood purchased a motorboat for racing called Miss Detroit. He also bought the company that made it, run by brothers Chris and Henry Smith (who would later found Chris-Craft in 1924). This led to the construction of Gar Wood brand watercraft.

Initially still focused on racing, Wood set a new water speed record of 75 miles per hour (121 km/h) in 1920 on the Detroit River, using a new twin Liberty V-12 powered boat called Miss America. In the following twelve years, Wood built nine more Miss Americas and broke the record five times, raising it to 125 miles per hour (201 km/h) in 1932 on Michigan’s St. Clair River.

In 1921, Wood raced one of his boats against the Havana Special train, 1,250 miles (2,010 km) up the Atlantic coast from Miami to New York City. Wood made the trip in 47 hours and 23 minutes and beat the train by 12 minutes. In 1925, he raced the 20th Century Limited train up the Hudson River between Albany and New York and won by 22 minutes.

As well as being a record breaker and showman, Wood won five straight powerboat Gold Cup races between 1917 and 1921. Wood also won the prestigious Harmsworth Trophy nine times (1920–21, 1926, 1928–30, 1932–33).

In 1931, he lost the Trophy in dramatic circumstances to his younger brother George. The race was held on the Detroit River and was billed as a match race between the Wood brothers and racing driver and record-breaker Kaye Don, driving Miss England II. Before an estimated crowd of over a million spectators (one of the largest-ever crowds for a sporting event), Don won the first heat of the race. In the second heat, Wood was leading Don, when Miss England II suddenly flipped over while rounding one of the turns, without injury to Don and his co-driver. Gar Wood finished the race first, but both he and Don were disqualified because they had jumped the starter's gun by seven seconds. George Wood completed the final race to win the trophy. Wood retired from racing in 1933 to concentrate on his businesses.

In April 1936, Wood, along with many other sports champions and stand outs, was honored at a banquet in Detroit, Michigan. This banquet was the first celebration of Champions Day.

In July 1936, a plaque was presented to Detroit from the White House honoring Detroit as the City of Champions. The plaque has five "medallions" featuring athletes. One of these medallions is of a power boat racer, representing Wood.