| Born in Rockford, Ill., on Aug. 3, 1921, Tuman didn't even begin racing until he was 25-years-old. He lived in San Francisco after World War II and got a job building race bikes out of the famous Hap Jones race shop. | |
| Tuman quickly made it through the amateur ranks and turned pro in 1947. His first professional race was at Daytona Beach, Fla., in 1947. Tuman earned podium finishes in 1948 and '49, before taking his first national win in Des Moines, Iowa, on Sept. 17, 1950. A month later Tuman took his second national win in Reading, Pa. In March of 1951 at the annual AMA Awards Banquet in Daytona Beach, Fla., Tuman was voted the AMA's Most Popular Rider of 1950. | |
| Tuman's best season came in 1953 when he won the legendary Independence Day weekend event at Dodge City, Kan., a 200 miler over a two-mile dirt oval, on a Norton. The next month Tuman earned the biggest win of his career by taking first at Springfield, Ill., and becoming the newly-crowned national champion. It's interesting to note that Tuman won Springfield racing a borrowed motor from a fellow Indian rider. It would prove to be the final time that an Indian rider would win the prestigious AMA Grand National No. 1 plate. |
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