A Brief History:  Reminiscences by Ralph the Recumbent Rider (also known as Dixie Neidhardt's husband and captain.)

Recollections of the Founding of HATS by Ralph Neidhardt

My earliest memory of HATS is a ride (probably in the spring) of 1986 in Friendswood.  At either the home of Peter and Tracy Kaestner or Jim and Melinda Wasson, we had a tandem ride around Friendswood.  After the ride, we sat around and talked about starting a tandem group.

I talked with Virgil Fruth and he says that he and Jean got their tandem in the fall/winter of 1985.  In 1986, Virgil remembers that in the summer a notice was put in the Houston Bicycle Club newsletter about starting a tandem club.  Virgil says we had a ride in Fayetteville and started HATS.  We came up with the name by copying the Chicago Area Tandem Society or CATS.  The Tandem Club of America ran a lot of stories about the CATS and LOONS (a Minneapolis tandem club).  Virgil handled the day to day running of the club until the mid 1990s when Mike and Susan Mahoney took over.

Attached (ed. - it was, but it isn't!) is a HATS roster from December 1986.  The club was having a ride at the Stucker's old home over toward Crosby on the east side of Lake Houston.  Of the people on the roster, only the Stuckers and Neidharts are still active.  (Ed Altimus and his wife may still have a membership).  A lot of the folks moved away, some divorced and some just stopped riding.

Mike and Susan Mahoney show up on the 1994 roster.  Not long after that, they took over the running of the club (ed. - 1997?)  I have attached several rosters (not included on the website) and a listing of the participants in the HATS Round Top Mini-Rally, Oct.31-Nov. 2, 1997.  

 UPDATE BY WEBMANAGER:  After ten years steering the HATS, including hosting three SWTR (2 in Waco, 1 in La Grange), the Mahoneys retired to focus on stoking the club and personal issues, including cycling and remodeling a house in Fredericksburg.  From January 2008 to December 2011, Hugh and Becky Reeves led the club, leaving for retirement to a new home in Fredericksburg.  Though having stepped down from the Top Hats position, the Reeves led the SWTR committee to host the 2011 event in La Grange.  As has happened before, the closing of the tandem rally was the opening for a new couple to take point and lead the HATS.  May 1, 2011 while doing scullery duty in La Grange, Janet and Stephen Baine accepted the leadership of the HATS.