June 30, 2001|By Jacques Kelly | Jacques Kelly,SUN STAFF
Milton "Muggins" Feldman, a veteran racetrack publicist, died Wednesday of complications of heart disease at his Margate, N.J., home. He was 89 and had lived in Laurel until 1984.
He retired in 1984 as publicity director of Bowie Race Course. The Prince George's County track, located in a wooded area, was beset by harsh winter weather, fires and a 1961 train wreck that took the lives of six wagerers and injured 243 travelers. When some of the accident survivors trekked through the snow to place bets, Mr. Feldman dubbed them the "Bowie Breed."
"We get the horse players," Mr. Feldman said in a 1963 newspaper interview. "They're not much interested in scenery."
When a snowstorm on a Saturday in 1958 stranded a track crowd overnight, he fed the story to scores of newspapers around the country.
"He was a happy-go-lucky guy who was loved by everybody," said Charles Lamb, a former News American racing writer who lives in Rodgers Forge. "In his day, he was an excellent athlete and one of the best amateur basketball players in the city."
"Racetrack publicity guys are a special breed and Mugs was the best," said Dale Austin, former Sun racing writer.
Mr. Feldman broke into racing as an assistant to Gale D. "Gaby" Haugh at the Baltimore News-Post. He earned $1.50 a day by phoning in race results from Tropical Park and Hialeah in Florida.
He also worked in the publicity departments of the Laurel, Pimlico and Havre de Grace tracks in Maryland, Delaware Park (where a race is run annually in his honor) in Stanton, Del., and the Atlantic City, Freehold and Garden State courses in New Jersey. He handicapped for the Philadelphia Daily News and the old Evening Bulletin.
In the 1930s, he played basketball for the Young Men's Hebrew Association, Bethlehem Steel, City College, the Stonewall Jackson Democratic Club and the University of Baltimore.
Born in Baltimore, he was raised on East Eager Street in the section of East Baltimore known as the Tenth Ward. He was a graduate of City College. He attended the University of Baltimore.
When he retired in 1984, he told The Evening Sun he earned his nickname Muggsy or Muggins because growing up as a Jewish boy in a non-Jewish neighborhood, he had to be scrappy. He said of his neighborhood scuffles, "I found a kid I could lick, but one day he turned on me and whipped me."
Mr. Feldman served two tours with the Army. He was drafted once, served a year and was called up a second time after World War II broke out. He was discharged as a sergeant after being stationed in New Guinea.
After the war, he edited Salty Breezes, a military newspaper for personnel returning from overseas duty. He ran the paper from the Hotel Dennis in Atlantic City.
Mr. Feldman was a member of the Maryland Racing Writers' Association and a past president of the Turf Publicists of America.
His wife, the former Jean E. "Sandy" McVicker, died in 1994. The couple married in 1948.
Funeral services are private.
Mr. Feldman is survived by a sister, Anita Faure of Coconut Creek, Fla.; and two nieces.
