This week in history

Feb. 22, 1979
Siesta Key resident John Stivers, 17, won a 24-hour bicycling marathon at the South Florida Fair Marathon. Stivers broke the record for the 15 to 17 boys age group and placed third overall, biking 310.3 miles and stopping to eat, rest and change clothes for two hours.

To prepare, Stivers biked about 15 miles every day, and 50 or more on the weekends. He spent $30 on tires every month.

Feb. 24, 1983
Off Your Duff, a shoe store that was located in South Gate Plaza, had a “rattiest sneaker contest.” The store’s ad, placed in the Pelican Press, said the winner would get a new pair of Nike shoes. Each pair turned in had a $2 trade-in value, too.

Feb. 25, 1993
Two Australian black swan chicks hatched at Sarasota Jungle Gardens after a mild winter. They were the first new chicks to be born at the gardens since 1985. A Bennett’s wallaby also gave birth to a joey.

Feb. 23, 1989
A group of local designers, architects and railroad buffs wanted to buy “JOMAR,” or John and Mable Ringling’s private railcar.

It was built in 1917 by the Pullman Car Co. and was, at the time, the longest private car in the world. The car had switched hands several times before it ended up in Louisiana. Don Jakeway, the city of Sarasota’s director of development, was trying to help the group get nonprofit organization status so that it could raise money to get the railcar back in Sarasota.

FUN FACT
The railcar did, indeed, make it back to Sarasota, and is owned by Bob Horne, who is restoring it. Horne is the owner and restaurateur of Bob’s Train restaurant