The thousand-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race wasn’t always supposed to run from Anchorage to Nome, according to Dick Mackey, one of the people who helped establish the race more than five decades ago.
“There was never any mention of going to Nome. The idea was to put a race on that went from Anchorage to Iditarod,” Mackey said in an interview with KNOM.
Iditarod, as in the once-bustling gold rush town along the Iditarod River, hundreds of miles west of Anchorage.
“It wasn’t until it was suggested by someone that thought they could raise a bunch of money that they said, ‘Where’s Iditarod? Why don’t you go to Nome? Everybody knows where Nome is.’ ”
Mackey worked closely with Joe Redington, who is widely considered the “Father of the Iditarod”. The race’s interim CEO, Mark Nordman, likened their relationship to that of a captain and a general.
“Joe’s trying to raise money, Dick’s trying to cut down brush. Without Joe, we wouldn’t have a race,” Nordman said. “Without Dick, it would have been a lot harder for Joe.”
Mackey wasn’t just clearing brush and marking trail. He raced too, and finished in the top 10 of the first six Iditarods. In 1978, he famously beat Rick Swenson to the finish line by one second to win the race.
The Iditarod grew rapidly in the decades that followed. More mushers entered, and the spectacle of racing dog teams across the Alaska wilderness began attracting international attention.
In 1987, ABC began broadcasting the race. By 1991, more than 75 mushers lined up at the starting line — more than twice as many as the first race.
Sponsors like the powdered drink mix company, Tang, and pet food company, IAMS, flocked to get a piece of the pie.
The race needed all the sponsorship money it could get. Putting on an event that spans more than a thousand miles — almost entirely off the road system — isn’t cheap.
Airplanes are essential to the operation. A network of bush pilots known as the Iditarod Air Force ferry people, supplies and equipment between remote checkpoints. In the early years, sponsorship money helped pay for most of the airfare.
But as the Iditarod’s profile grew, so did scrutiny from animal welfare groups. The deaths of six dogs during the 1993 race intensified criticism of the event, and sponsors began to pull out.
Chrysler and ABC backed off from the race in 1993, according to Outside Magazine.
In 1994, IAMS announced it was ending its $175,000 annual sponsorship of the race. A week later, one of the race's biggest sponsors, the apparel and footwear company Timberland, announced it was pulling out of its $500,000 annual deal.
“At the time Timberland was responsible for, gosh, just about everything, and the Iditarod was not going to function without Timberland,” current director of operations for the Iditarod Air Force, Danny Seybert said.
Seybert comes from a flying family. His father, Orin Seybert, founded the Anchorage-based airline PenAir in 1955. When the Iditarod’s finances were on thin ice, Seybert said his father instructed him to go to race officials and “do whatever you have to to make sure this race keeps on going.”
At 35, Seybert didn’t have $500,000 to replace the Timberland sponsorship, but he did have a plane. And he knew other people with planes, too.
“I went to Bert Hanson, who was the chief pilot of the Iditarod Air Force, and said, ‘Bert, I’m here to help you, and I’m going to bring you some airplanes,’” Seybert said.
Dozens of pilots volunteered their planes to help keep the race going. All they asked for in exchange, Seybert said, was fuel, insurance and instructions on where to go.
The 2026 Iditarod Hall of Fame class
In mid-October, Iditarod supporters gathered at the Alaska Aviation Museum in Anchorage for the Iditarod’s second-ever Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Four people, including Dick Mackey, were honored in this year’s founders class along with John Norman, Dick Tozier and former Nome Mayor Leo Rasmussen.
Nordman said each of the inductees left a unique mark on the race.
“When you say Leo, you know who we’re talking about when it’s in the adepts of Iditarod,” Nordman said. “He brought so much color to it.”
Three veteran mushers, Doug Swingley, DeeDee Jonrowe and Aliy Zirkle were inducted in the musher class. Swingley made history as the first musher from outside Alaska to win the Iditarod. Nordman said Jonrowe and Zirkle helped blaze new trails for women in the sport.
“Both those ladies were just so vibrant and full of life and really really all about the dogs,” he said.
Two lead dogs, Granite, who raced with Susan Butcher, and Andy, who raced with Rick Swenson were inducted to the canine class.
Race headquarters coordinator, Cheryl Zachary, and veterinarian, Bob Sept, were named to the volunteer class. Sept began working with the Iditarod in the ‘70s when the sport was still adapting to the demands of a 1,000 mile endurance race.
“They needed 8,000 calories a day. We were used to feeding dogs that needed about 1,000 calories a day,” Sept said. “So it was a challenge for us to know how to treat and care, and we did it.”
Sept said the sport has evolved a lot since those early days. But through all the changes, the spirit of volunteerism has persisted.
“The heart of the organization is volunteers. You couldn't pay some of these people enough to do what they were doing for the Iditarod, but they would sure volunteer for the Iditarod,” Sept said.
The Iditarod Air Force was inducted to the contributor class of this year’s Iditarod Hall of Fame. Seybert now serves as director of operations for the Iditarod Air Force and sits on the race’s board of directors. He said the decision to induct the Iditarod Air Force as a group, rather than recognize individual pilots, reflects the collective effort required to keep the race alive.
“It’s really the concept that deserves the credit,” Seybert said. “There’s no one single person that has made this into what it is today.”
Iditarod Air Force pilot and nine-time Iditarod finisher Diana Moroney accepted the award on behalf of the group. In a speech at the ceremony, Moroney said some cargo is more exciting than others.
“We haul the vets, communications folks, race officials, checkpoint personnel, and of course our favorite passengers, the return dogs off the trail,” she said.
As the Iditarod honors the people who helped shape its past, preparations are already underway for its next chapter.
Following the departure of seven-year CEO Rob Urbach this summer, the Iditarod is searching for new leadership. Interim CEO Nordman said more than 120 people applied for the job, and the organization is now working to narrow a field of 25 candidates.
“Then we'll take a group of three to the board, and then the board will decide on that next person,” Nordman said. “But we're taking our time because we really want to have the right person in there.”
24 mushers have signed up for next year’s race, including nine rookies. Notably, no former champions are in the mix at this time. Two-time defending champion Jessie Holmes, six-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey and 2023 champion Ryan Redington are among the recent winners to not enter the race.
Nordman said he expects “a couple champions” to join the field before the race begins in March.
