Legendary RAGBRAI pioneer Thompson dies at age 86
He racked up thousands of miles, lots of friends
Frank “Huck” Thompson will go down in RAGBRAI history as the ride’s first superfan — an influencer long before the days of social media whose enthusiasm for the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa helped establish the traditions of what is now the world’s oldest and largest annual bike tour.
Thompson, who died March 4 at age 86, rode every day of 28 editions of RAGBRAI, beginning with the inaugural ride in 1973. He covered more than 15,000 miles before he gave it up after completing the first day of the 2001 ride.
After his streak ended, Thompson told the Des Moines Register, “I’ve made so many friends from so many places, people from everywhere. That’s why it’s so special for me.”
In the formative years of RAGBRAI, Thompson became a ride celebrity who preached the virtues of respect for the road and for the Iowans who made the event possible, said his friend, retired longtime Des Moines Register columnist Chuck Offenburger.
For several years Thompson rode 2,000 to 3,000 miles annually, including the 400 to 500 he would cover on RAGBRAI.
“The guy was just a physical specimen. But he enjoyed it. That’s what he loved to do, and boy, he brought it,” Offenburger said. “He introduced a whole lot of people to RAGBRAI.”
Thompson reveled in traveling through small towns, buying lemonade from kids and church-lady pie, said his daughter, Shawnda Poortinga.
“He was all in. It was all or nothing for him,” Poortinga said.
Spreading the word
Thompson’s record for complete RAGBRAIs may have been matched or surpassed at some point in the ride’s 50 years, but Offenburger finds it unlikely, saying, “Typically, riders today just would not be as driven by that.”
And there’s no matching the impact Thompson had as one of the ride’s early evangelists, Poortinga said.
Even if someone rode more complete RAGBRAIs, “I don’t think it would have the same effect,” she said. “He was all about meeting all the people on the ride, new people, old people, young people, and being able to share the ride with them and his experience with them and get the future of RAGBRAI interested and excited about the ride.”
During his 28-year-streak Thompson endured RAGBRAI’s most legendary extremes. On Soggy Monday, July 27, 1981, the temperature never rose above 55 and constant rain and 30 mph headwinds made it feel far colder. Fourteen years to the day later came Saggy Thursday, a hilly, 74-mile day with 35 mph headwinds and temperatures
in the mid-90s.
Thompson almost missed a day in 1991 after getting the flu or food poisoning, later admitting “There were a couple of days when I probably shouldn’t have been riding.” But he recalled Soggy Monday as the worst, saying in 2000, “I shivered all day, but I made it. I stopped in Schleswig and bought wool clothes from this guy who was selling them out of his attic.”
Thompson loved RAGBRAI, the Register and his family
Born in Cincinnati, Thompson was raised in Miami. He followed his brother to Iowa in the late 1960s to work for the Register, bundling newspapers. After his retirement in 2002 he worked for the Teamsters Local 90 and for Toyota of Des Moines before retiring again.
Thompson never rode RAGBRAI for the beer or parties. He and his Team Silver Streak compadres enjoyed potent potables, but the journey and the people were the most important things to them, Offenburger said.
“They were mostly worker-bee types of guys and gals, but they would really have fun on RAGBRAI, and yet they were respectful of what few rules we had to follow,” Offenburger said. “He figured out how this should work and was going to make sure it stayed a cool event for as many people as possible.”
In his younger years Thompson was a runner and speed skater. He played ice hockey in his 30s until a puck hit him in the jaw and loosened his bottom teeth. Then he decided that cycling would be friendlier.
Thompson loved RAGBRAI and the Register, but he loved being a family man most of all. Each year after RAGBRAI the family drove from the ending town to the Lake of the Ozarks in MidMissouri and he checked out for a week, Poortinga said.
“The next thing you know Sunday afternoon he’s laid out in the lake on his raft drinking a beer,” Poortinga said. “That was our two weeks of vacation in the summer every year.”
In retirement, he enjoyed the company of his six granddaughters, Poortinga said.
How it all began
Thompson’s tie to RAGBRAI began when John Karras, RAGBRAI co-founder and Register copy editor, told him in 1973 that he and Washington columnist Donald Kaul planned to ride their bikes across Iowa. Karras asked Thompson, then 36, if he wanted to join them, Thompson said in 1992.
“I thought about it for five minutes and then went right in and put in for vacation,” Thompson said. “It sounded like it might be a great time.”
On Aug. 25, 1973, the night before the first day of the inaugural trip, Thompson worked late into the night, then rode one of the trucks hauling newspapers to Sioux City to start the ride that morning.
‘It just didn’t feel right’
Over the years Thompson’s status on RAGBRAI became part of his identity. He would be wherever there was fun to be had, said Offenburger.
But maintaining his record weighed on him, his daughter said. He likely rode a few too many years as he felt pressure to keep going, she said.
On the first day of RAGBRAI 29 in 2001 Thompson left Sioux City to ride to Storm Lake, just like he had 28 years before. But the day felt ominous.
Overcast skies spit rain on the riders for much of the day. A 74-year-old rider from Storm Lake collapsed around 3 p.m. and died of a heart attack a few miles outside Storm Lake. Halfway through the day Thompson, then 64, decided that he would not ride the second day.
“It didn’t feel right this year,” he said at the time. “There wasn’t anything wrong with the ride. I love the ride. It was me. I wasn’t ready physically, and I wasn’t about to have a heart attack out there.”
Thompson took his team’s bus as far as Perry, the overnight town on the fourth day. He saw a doctor, hoping to feel well enough to ride on, his daughter said. Instead, he went home to Des Moines with his family.
Thompson rode his bike occasionally afterward, but never returned to RAGBRAI, his daughter said.
Last summer RAGBRAI passed through Pleasant Hill, where Thompson lived in an independent living facility after his wife Cheryle died in 2022. Poortinga offered to take him to the route to see the cyclists pass by. He declined, saying he would watch it on television.
Thompson was in hospice with a kidney disease for three months before dying. A celebration of life will be announced at a later date.
Thompson will be remembered for his grit, work ethic, and most of all inspiring others to revel in things they love, his daughter said.
“That was always important to him,” Poortinga said. “Always have fun with whatever you are trying to do.”