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Tom Sheehy was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He moved with his parents to Miami when he was 4 years old. He attended Miami public schools until high school, when he was admitted to the first class at Columbus High School.
After graduating from Columbus High School, he attended the University of Florida for one year. He transferred to the University of Miami for his sophmore year, where he walked on to the football team. He stayed one year at U.M. and went back to Gainesville and joined a rock and roll band.
After his rock career ended, he returned to Miami and learned to fly airplanes at Tamiami airport. He was hired by Delta airlines where he became a DC-9 co-pilot, a 727 captain and then a L-1011 captain. While still working as an airline pilot in the 1960’s, Sheehy started racing small hydroplane boats, with good success.
Miami Marine Stadium was the location of these boat races. The water’s edge stadium was purpose-built for boat racing in 1963. The architect was a 27 year old Cuban/American, Hilario Candela, who designed a beautiful, iconic structure with a 326 foot span of cantilevered concrete, at the time the longest poured concrete structure of its type in the world.
The stadium had 6,500 seats with a floating stage. Concerts were held there for nearly 30 years, including a famous one where Jimmy Buffet arrived on his sailboat, moored it to the stage, and gave a legendary performance. It culminated with him jumping in the water amongst the hundreds of swimmers and rafters who were enjoying the show. There may have been some drinking involved.
The stadium was damaged by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and abandoned by the City of Miami. It is still, for the most part, structurally sound. Notwithstanding private pledges of support from celebrities such as Jimmy Buffet, Gloria Estefan and others, as well as many public-minded entities, the City of Miami has incomprehensibly abandoned this historic waterfront jewel.
Based on Sheehy’s success racing the smaller hydroplane boats, in 1971 he was asked to drive one of the unlimited hydroplanes, the Miss Timex, at the Miami race. (He placed 3rd) An unlimited hydroplane is so named because the builder can put any size/horsepower motor that will fit in the boat. Hydroplanes are more like airplanes than boats. At speed, only a very small part of the boat is touching the water.
In the 1970’s the engines were mainly surplus WW2 Rolls Royce 12 cylinder Merlin and Griffons used in P-51 Mustangs, Spitfires and other very high performance fighters from WW2. They were putting out 3,000-4,000 hp.
There was a 10 race Unlimited Hydroplane series with the first race of the season always at Miami Marine Stadium. Sheehy raced in this series for over 7 years. The hydroplane drivers had the highest fatality rate of any sport or profession. During the 1970’s, 40% of the drivers were killed. The boats ran 150-200 miles per hour and the driver was not strapped in because it was much safer to fly out of the boat during a not infrequent spin-out or flip. Their only safety features were a helmet and a parachute!
Sheehy was seriously injured in a multi-boat accident in Washington State and, among other serious injuries, had a terrible blowout fracture of his right orbital. As he said “not great for a pilot.” After he healed, he went back to racing for a year. He retired from hydroplane racing due to the extreme risk, and his 2 sons, Patrick and Dan. Sheehy stated the obvious when he said “drivers are all nut cases.”
Proving his comment on drivers, he then took up racing very fast cars. He raced in 12 hour and 24 hour endurance races such as Sebring and Daytona. During his race car career, he became good friends with actor Gene Hackman (who borrowed Sheehy’s racecar and wrecked it) and Hackman’s running buddies, Paul Newman and Clint Eastwood. Sheehy looks back on those memories fondly.
He is now 78 years old and married to his second wife. They reside in Clearwater, Florida.
