Today in Aviation History: The “Polish Prince”

Happy April Fool’s Day fellow aviation history aficionados and (not an April Fool’s joke!) also “Happy planned launch of the Artemis 2” to circle the moon again after 54 years since the Apollo 17 mission last accomplished this feat in December, 1972. 

Good luck and God Speed to our Artemis 2 astronauts. 

April Fool’s Day is (or at least it was) one of my favorite “holidays”.  But it seems to have lost its luster over the years.

Why might that be?  Is it because we’re overly sensitive and can’t laugh at ourselves?  Might it be that we’ve got to feel like we’re in control? 

Oh, when we were kids, we could have cared less about insensitivity.  We triggered our share of “middle school” amateur April Fool’s Day pranks.  Dad, left for work early.  That meant mom caught the brunt of our April Fool’s Day jokes. 

Salt in the sugar bowl ruined her first cup of morning coffee.  Exasperated and shaking her head, she reached for and lit her first cigarette of the day, only to have it explode in her face.  We boys, her sons, inserted a cigarette load in her Virginia Slim cigarette that April 1st morning.

With her three boys (all born within five years of each other) comprising a gang of fools scheming the special day’s foolishness, she found it nearly impossible to defend herself. 

While I sort of have the feeling, now, that she would have, if she could have mustered-up the courage, she never ran away from home in the face of her conniving gang of boys and loss of control.  If you knew her three sons, you probably wouldn’t have faulted her if she had run away.

And speaking of strong women and laughing at ourselves and not being overly sensitivity, those of us who came of age in the 70’s may recall that Polish jokes were in their heyday for a decade or so.  “How many Pollocks does it take to screw in a lightbulb”-type jokes that focused on those of Polish descent.  I’m not sure how those of Polish descent came to be “picked-on” as they did back then and, believe me, being the husband of a beautiful and capable woman of Polish descent, my “juvenile” Polish jokes have been left far behind.

Although, just like my mom, my wife Arlene can take it and has a great sense of humor.

But as far as today’s history lesson goes, let’s combine “flying” around the track with NASCAR, some sad aviation history, and Polish jokes.

According to the History.com editors and downloaded today from: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/April-1/the-polish-prince-killed-in-plane-crash?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2026-0401-04012026&om_rid= “on April 1, 1993, race car driver and owner Alan Kulwicki, who won the 1992 National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) Winston Cup championship by one of the tightest margins in series history, was killed in a plane crash near Bristol, Tennessee, where he was scheduled to compete in a race the following day. The 38-year-old Kulwicki had been the first owner-driver to collect the championship since Richard Petty did so in 1979, as well as the first NASCAR champ to hold a college degree.

“Kulwicki was born on December 14, 1954, in Greenfield, Wisconsin, a fact that later marked him as an outsider among the other NASCAR drivers of his era, most of whom typically hailed from the southern U.S. Kulwicki’s father, Gerry, built race-car engines and as a teenager Alan became involved in Go-Kart racing. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in mechanical engineering, Kulwicki raced stock cars, first as a hobby then as a professional. In the mid-1980s, he relocated to North Carolina and, with no financial backing, began competing in NASCAR events. In 1986 he was named the Winston Cup Series (now known as the NASCAR Cup Series) Rookie of the Year. Kulwicki, who earned a reputation as a hard-working perfectionist, later turned down offers to drive for other teams, opting to remain on his own.

“In 1988, Kulwicki, who was nicknamed ‘The Polish Prince’ and ‘Special K,’ won his first Winston Cup race at the Phoenix International Raceway in Arizona. Afterward, he spun his car around and took a victory lap the wrong way around the track, a move that was subsequently dubbed (in a Polish joke sort of way) a ‘Polish Victory Lap.’

“One of the most exciting races of Kulwicki’s career occurred on November 15, 1992, at the Hooters 500, the last race of the Winston Cup season, in front of more than 100,000 fans at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Going into the race, six drivers had a chance to win the Winston Cup championship, which is based on points accumulated over the season. Kulwicki, who considered himself an underdog, altered the lettering on the front of his Ford Thunderbird to read Underbird. He finished the race in second place, behind Bill Elliott, but scored enough points to capture the series championship title. The race was also notable because it marked the first Winston Cup start for future star driver Jeff Gordon and the last for seven-time NASCAR champ Richard Petty, who retired afterward.

“Kulwicki competed in just a handful of other races before he was killed, along with three other people, aboard a private plane that crashed on April 1, 1993. In 2005, a film about his life, titled Dare to Dream: The Alan Kulwicki Story, was released.”

By the way, as young boys we could buy cigarette loads at our corner drug store.  I don’t know if you can even buy them anymore.  Today the regulators might say, “You’ll put your mom’s eye out!” 

Kulwicki During the 1986 Season

Well, I suppose that’s a thing.  Either way, let’s offer a prayer for our Artimus 2 astronauts and, today on April Fool’s Day, here’s to being less sensitive and more able to laugh at ourselves.

Onward and upward!

Source:  History.com