IMS Retail Employee Waves Green Flag to Celebrate Golden Anniversary at Track
May 17, 2018 | By Phillip B. Wilson, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Judy Hicks didn’t realize she was selecting appropriate attire in wearing a green Indianapolis Motor Speedway shirt for work Thursday.
She was unaware co-workers had planned to celebrate her 50 years of working in retail at IMS, a special day that brought her two sons and working family together at the Yard of Bricks, where the 76-year-old Hicks waved the green flag to open practice for the 102nd Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil.
“That’s cool, huh, with the cars going by?” IMS President Doug Boles asked Hicks.
“Yeah, scary!” she said, excitedly.
A throng of family and friends awaited, many wearing “JUDY HICKS — Thanks for 50 years” buttons.
“That was wonderful,” she said. “I never even thought I’d be in the pits.”
That she was, climbing the pit-road wall with her two sons. After waving that green flag for several minutes, she asked what to do with it. Hicks made an obvious decision when asked her preference.
“I’ll take it!” she said.
Hicks, the daughter of an IMS gift shop employee of 28 years, was initially recruited by her mother. She would eventually inherit the small, cramped IMS Museum office that belonged to Speedway owner Tony Hulman.
“I liked Tony,” Hicks said. “He was a very nice man, very quiet. He used to bring people in and show them our office back here. He would say, ‘These girls kicked me out of my office.’”
Co-workers say Hicks’ green shirt also was appropriate because so much of her career has involved accounting — she’s usually counting money. And she intends to keep on counting.
Married for 43 years to her husband, John, who died in 2003, she recalled how he was retired eight years before departing and didn’t care for having so much free time.
“I like to stay busy, and this job keeps me busy,” she said. “I’ve had such a good time. I really have had a wonderful time, and I hope I’m still going. (Laughs.) It’s been hard work, when I was younger it was a lot of hard work, but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I really have.”
She was thrilled to have an encounter last week with four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt. He’s always been her favorite — her oldest son, who died in 1988, was named Anthony James. She showed the 83-year-old retired racer a picture taken of Foyt and her in the “skinnier” 1970s, he signed a milk bottle, and Hicks wasn’t shy about kissing the legend on the cheek three times.
“It was awesome,” she said.
Hicks has appreciated other celebrity visitors such as actor James Garner, who would always knock on the back door near her office.
“He was a handsome one, I tell you,” she said. “All the women in the gift shop would come flying through the door to see him.”
Jim Nabors and Florence Henderson, who sang on race day for decades, were also popular guests. They cared enough to always take time to mingle with everyone.
Co-workers appreciate Hicks for many of the same qualities, her sweet nature, her laugh and most definitely her spunk.
“I have a good time here, OK?” she said with a smile while in her office Wednesday.
As Hicks waved that green flag a day later, Boles watched with an admiring gaze.
“It’s not often somebody works in one place for 50 years,” he said. “You think about it, it’s about half the time the Indianapolis 500 has been racing. Judy does wonderful work. The team that she gets to work with absolutely loves her. She had no idea this was happening. Big smile on her face.
“It’s always fun when you get to celebrate the people that make the Speedway special.”
Credit colleague Raeann Suggs for a creative fib to lure Hicks from her office.
“She told me I was going to see A.J. again,” Hicks said. “I’ll always come down for A.J.
“I will remember this forever.”