I had the good fortune to be at dinner with Edsel Ford II the other night. It was brought up that the very first trophy ever won by a Ford car is missing. It has been missing for over 50 years and Ford is launching an effort to find it. Henry Ford won the punch bowl in 1901 by defeating Alexander Winton in a 10-lap race on a one-mile oval at the Detroit Driving Club, Grosse Pointe, MI. Winton had been brought in by the race promoters as a "ringer" to attract crowds to the event. Winton agreed to come to the race only after he was allowed to pick out the first place trophy, a punch bowl that he thought would look great in his large dining room window. Well, the race didnt go Winton's way and Henry Ford passed him on the 8th lap and held on to win the race. Winton's coveted punch bowl went to Ford. Henry Ford did not keep paper records of his racing efforts, so when he died in 1947 the punch bowl was not viewed as the first Ford racing trophy, but just as a dust collector that no one in the family wanted (they all had punch bowls), so it was put up for auction in New York, was bought by a private collector and passed out of the hands of the family. Some years later the story of the trophy was discovered and a quiet search for the bowl was launched. It returned no results. More than a few years have passed since then and now Edsel has re-launched the search in public fashion. Ford wants the punch bowl back. If you have any information about this punch bowl, Ford would like to talk to you. PM me and I can get you in touch with the right people. Here is the only known picture of the punch bowl:
I was just reading on FB that he did another speech in Phoenix recently, and it still has not surfaced... JK
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