Sid Collins, “The Voice of the 500,” grew up in Indianapolis where he would help out putting price tags and unloading merchandise at his father's store. He attended Shortridge High School which would have a major influence on his life. Shortridge had the first daily high school paper in the nation and Collins became the editor of the Wednesday edition. One year ahead of Collins was Kurt Vonnegut who was the Tuesday editor of The Daily Echo.
From Shortridge, Collins went to Indiana University to study business with an emphasis on advertising. He took a broadcasting course and became the moderator of IU’s “Editorial of the Air.” During his first live broadcast, one of the interviewees died. Remarkably, Collins was able to carry on without anyone in the radio audience knowing the scene that was unfolding in the broadcast studios. He graduated from IU in three years in 1943.
From IU, he joined the Army where, after basic training, he was stationed in Wales. He returned to the United States as the Legal Affairs Officer for Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia. His final post was as a recruitment officer for Indiana. He was discharged from the military in March 1946.
He joined the staff of WKMO, the Kokomo Indiana radio station. After a year, he became a radio announcer for WIBC in Indianapolis. It was while he was working at WIBC that Collins became involved with the Indianapolis 500 where he was stationed in the south turns on race day.
When it appeared that Bill Slater, the primary announcer, Bill Slater,would miss the Indianapolis 500 due to illness, Collins was tapped to fill in for the 1951 race. Slater was able to make it to Indianapolis that day, and they co-anchored the broadcast. At the time, the broadcast of the race was carried on the Mutual Broadcast Company network. The format was a thirty minute opening segment, five minute hourly updates throughout the race, and a thirty minute wrap up after the race concluded. The very next year, Mutual Broadcast raised the advertising rates and lost the primary sponsor.
In 1952, Tony Hulman, owner of IMS, and Wilbur Shaw, IMS president, decided to bring the broadcast of the race in-house and established the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network. They tapped Collins as the chief announcer and he presented the idea of covering the race from the beginning to the end. He sent letters to multiple stations, but only twenty-six signed up for the first year of full coverage. The next year, they had 110 stations participating. By the time of his death, the IMS Radio Network was carried by 1200 stations including the Armed Forces Network in Europe and the Armed Forces Radio Service in Asia and was heard by more than 100 million listeners.
There were thirty-five people on his team on race day. He was a perfectionist and had to be in control. To prepare for a race, he would prepare year-round by studying tapes of the previous races. He would go to the Speedway each May to begin preparations for the race. He would research the people and the events that occurred during May which he would eventually use during the four-hour broadcast. He insisted that things be done his way and if they weren’t he wouldn’t hesitate to cut off an announcer that wasn’t cooperating.
His coverage of the Indianapolis 500 made Collins a legend in broadcasting. He coined the phrase “the greatest spectacle in racing” in 1955 as a signal to those participating radio stations that they were about to do a station break. From his broadcast studio at IMS, he told listeners about the fatal crash of Bill Vukovich in 1955, and the multiple crashes in the 1973 race. Sid Collins was at the microphone when on the first lap of the 1964 Indianapolis 500, a terrific crash occurred which took the lives of Eddie Sachs and Rookie Dave MacDonald. The race was stopped and the news spread through the standings. Letting those listening to the race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network know of the tragic outcome, Sid did an impromptu eulogy to Eddie Sachs. Later, he received 30,000 requests for the eulogy which began:
“You heard the announcement from the public address system. There’s not a sound. Men are taking off their hats. People are weeping. There are over 300,000 fans not moving. Disbelieving.”
His coverage of the Indianapolis 500 always ended with either quoting a serious thought or some poetry dedicating it to the Indianapolis 500 winner.
As a broadcaster, Collins won many awards including nine times by the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters for the best auto racing broadcast in the nation. Not only did he broadcast the Indianapolis 500, for two years he was also the anchorman for TVS Network in New York for auto racing broadcasts from Trenton, Milwaukee, Langhorne (Pennsylvania), and Castle Rock, Colorado.
Collins was also an account executive for WIBC for eighteen years from 1951 until 1969. While in this role, he was not only WIBC’s top salesman, but he was the top salesman in Indiana.
Collins had been having health issues for several years and went to the Mayo Clinic where he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. A very active man, Collins Collins took his life two weeks later on May 2, 1977.