Inside the Infield: Full moon over the 100th Kentucky Derby

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - It’s been 20 years now since I first started covering the Kentucky Derby as a journalist, and back then the Infield was a very different place. It was still largely defined by random raunchiness and occasional acts of violence. In fact, two of the things commonly on display were women flashing the crowd Mardi Gras-style, and drunken delinquents picking fights with one another. So it was no surprise that the counter cultural magazine I worked for back then requested photos of quote, “*** and fights.”

There was no shortage of material on display back then, but eventually the rise of cellphone cameras and the birth of viral photos would have a calming effect on Infielders. Afterall, a good time should never result in assault charges or loss of employment.

Dial it back even further to the 100th Kentucky Derby in 1974, and the random acts of nudity were not only more abundant, but also a national trend as the art of “streaking’ took hold of pop culture challenging the status quo.

Or in the case of Derby 100 Infielder Nace Huber, it was an intoxicated act of teenage rebellion combined with the desire for a better view, or as he simply describes it now, 50 years later, “I was the fool that streaked up the flagpole in the Infield.”

That single act of rebellion would not only propel Huber into Kentucky Derby history books, but also make him a legend amongst friends. He remained anonymous through the years but agreed to finally out himself in honor of the 150th Kentucky Derby and of course under the assumption that the statute of limitations had long expired for pole streaking or mooning.

I asked him what the Infield was like back in 1974, to which he poetically replied, “A lot of cutoffs and tank tops, and a lot of mud, blood and beer.”

I caught up with Huber at the Kentucky Derby Museum, where staff had provided several photos of pole climbers from that day. Huber is certain that one of those photos is him. His initial motivation was just to get a better view of the big race, but about halfway up the pole, the crowd started encouraging him to do more.

“Everybody was screaming ‘moon the crowd, moon the crowd, moon the crowd’,” Huber said. “So…it’s not easy to pull your pants down while hanging from a flagpole, but I pulled my pants down. That got a huge roar. It was so loud it nearly knocked me off the flagpole.”

Huber’s mooning may have gotten the attention of the crowd, but local law enforcement was suddenly dialed in too, angrily awaiting his descent. Now his adrenaline was focused on an escape. He described those final moments on the flagpole as:

“The…'pigs’, as they were called, had their billy clubs, and they were beating on that thing and saying ‘come down here you hippy ************. There was no way I was gonna come down, so I just jumped out into the crowd. I landed on some poor woman in a lawn chair, rolled back and just took off into the crowd.”

Delightful. Just another fond memory for an Infielder that’s became an enduring story. People have often asked me, have I ever had a chance to actually enjoy myself out here while covering the Infield, partake in the vibe if you will? Well I’ll let you in on a little story. Early in my career, I accidentally ingested some psychedelic mushrooms upon arrival. Ran into some friends, they offered me some chocolate. I thought, hey, I could use the boost in energy, right? Should’ve been suspicious by the fact that they were wrapped in tin foil and possibly smuggled into the track, but I just wanted that energy, so I gobbled that chocolate up, only to then be told ‘mushrooms!’

Well, it was too late then. I just had to take the ride, right? Well I wandered around for hours after that in a full blown trip taking pictures of things that only existed within my mind, but here I am 20 years later telling you about it, and that’s what the Infield is all about: stories, that last forever.

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