NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Seventy-five years ago today, March 13, 1951, the National Hot Rod Association was formally incorporated in a signing ceremony at the Tam O’Shanter Inn in Glendale, Calif.

It all started with a letter in the March 1951 issue of Hot Rod magazine that began, "Isn't it about time that the thousands of hot rod devotees around the United States band together in a national association?"

Hot Rod magazine's editor in those formative days of the hot-rodding scene was a transplanted Oklahoman whose active automotive interest didn't really surface until after his family moved to California in the early 1920s, but who quickly became part of the car culture, tearing down Model-T Fords and Chevy 4s for street use and in the 1930s and '40s racing in weekend time trials conducted on the dry lake beds of California's deserts. His name was Wally Parks.

Initially, the reader's manifesto in Hot Rod proposed only that, for a minimal membership fee, hot rodders receive a window decal and an NHRA membership card, but the letter went on, in great detail and with great vision, to speak about the need for bylaws and officers and a newsletter with which to communicate to the members and even a big national meet.

The group elected Parks as president of the new corporation and Ak Miller, past president of the Southern California Timing Association, as its vice president and treasurer, and Marvin Lee, a Southern California dry lakes racer and past president of the Pasadena (Calif.) Junior Chamber of Commerce, its secretary. All three agreed to serve without compensation.

The articles of incorporation were drawn up with a $1,500 loan needed to get the legal ball rolling, which was to be repaid out of first year's membership receipts.

The NHRA defined its statement of purpose, in the May 1951 issue of Hot Rod, thusly: "To promote safety, sportsmanship, and fellowship among hot rod enthusiasts through the organization of clubs and associations, encourage a mutual exchange of beneficial views and sponsor educational and safety programs to the end that the hot rod sport will be better regulated and conducted on higher standards, resulting in more favorable acceptance by the press and public ad greater benefits of its active participants."

An annual membership fee of $2 was established to pay for the preparation and distribution of membership decals and cards, as well as special bulletins. All members who enrolled during the association’s first year would be accepted as Charter Members.

Just two months after announcing the idea of a national hot rod association, Hot Rod published the listing of the NHRA’s first 50 members in its June 1951 issue, and followed in July with a listing of the next 350 members. The first two official members were teenage brothers Ken and Kit Williams, of Arcadia, Calif., who, with great pomp before an HRM camera, flipped a coin to see which became the true first member. Membership applications soon hit 1,000 per month.

The challenge of sorting through and organizing the applications fell to Hot Rod magazine's editorial secretary, Barbara Livingston, who, 11 years later, would become Parks' wife.

"We didn't know how many applications to expect, but the letters started pouring in, hundreds of them," she recalls. "We were so busy with the magazine that I took the letters home with me, and at night I opened them, and began assigning numbers. The first one opened would be number one, and so on. I sorted them by state and city and alphabetized them, then typed up membership cards and mailed them with a welcome letter, a membership decal, and a member's manual, and it grew from there."