An important figure in one of Indiana’s greatest sports traditions played a role this year in possibly the state’s best-known international event, serving last week as an honorary starter for an Indianapolis 500 practice session.

Matt Walker, who as football coach at DePauw coaches the Tigers in the annual Monon Bowl Classic  showdown with nearby Division III rival Wabash, waved the green flag to start last Thursday’s practice session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The speedway, which is celebrating its 100th year, is the site this month of practice and qualifying sessions leading up to the Memorial Day-weekend running of the Indy 500 – the United States’ premier open-wheel auto racing event.

Walker waved the traditional green flag from a platform on the speedway’s pit row, just a few feet away from the cars as they roared onto the track to begin the practice session.

“It was unbelievable,” he said. “It’s hard to put into words because of the appreciation I have for the history and the tradition of this place, and it’s hard to put into words what it was like to meet (three-time Indy 500 champion) Johnny Rutherford, go around the track with him, and get to see the cars right there that close. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

Walker, who also is head baseball coach at his alma mater, took the football team’s reins three years ago and has led the Tigers to victory in the last two Monon Bell games, beating nationally ranked Wabash teams.

The rivalry is one of the nation’s oldest and one of the most closely contested in college football, with each team having won 53 games (with nine ties). DePauw competes in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference and Wabash in the North Coast Athletic Conference, and the school’s football teams traditionally end the regular season by playing each other, with the winner claiming a 300-pound bell from a Monon Railroad locomotive as its trophy.

Walker, a 1999 DePauw graduate, appreciates being part of two Indiana sports traditions.

“It’s something I’m really into, and I feel I get to be part of the two greatest traditions in sports,” he said. “I’m a little biased with the one I’m involved with in football … (with) such a long history and such a deep passion for the people involved in it. To get to be part of the Monon Bell and the Indianapolis 500, it’s a dream come true for me.”

In addition to riding in the pace car driven by Rutherford, Walker was interviewed over the speedway’s video boards and public address system.