In 1967, Redington came up with the idea of a two-day race to commemorate the dog-sled delivery of diphtheria serum to Nome to combat the epidemic of 1925. By the early 1970s, the idea started to expand dramatically.
The race is now an 1150-mile, 10-to-17-day trek from Anchorage to Nome over rugged Alaskan territory. Called the “Last Great Race on Earth”, about 75 teams of dogs plus their mushers run each Spring. Redington, known as the “Father of the Iditarod”, will be buried in a dogsled basket. He died June 24 of esophageal cancer at home in Knik, Alaska. He was 82.