In his heyday, Big Willie Robinson could command the attention of hundreds of street racers.

He donned his derby hat, hop up into the back of a flatbed truck, and address the masses with a bullhorn.

Back then, drag racing magazine dubbed him, king of the street.

Mel Jones, a street racer turned LA County Sheriff's deputy, remembers those days fondly.

He could have to get a speech in front of him.

He sounded like somebody giving a sermon at a church.

He said, we're all right here with brothers, man.

Well, our brother could we have one thing in common.

We like the street race, our fast cars,

and that makes us all one of the same.

He was right. 20 years later, it was a different story.

By the late 1980s, Willie no longer ruled the scene.

Bullhorn or not, racers didn't want to listen.

Not only that, people didn't even want Willie hanging around the races, including Fabian

Arroyo. Big Willie had been dethroned.

So I didn't like Willie coming out there, and he would come out there, and he'd get the news out

there, and he'd do all that stuff. I didn't like it. I was probably his biggest

protester. I couldn't stand him being there. I was like, why are you here? Why are you bothering us?

Go do your stuff somewhere else, leave us alone. Later, I asked Fabian what he meant by protesting.

Basically, we just would avoid him. If he came and showed up, we'd leave. Big Willie's mere

presence could send racers speeding away in the other direction.

How did this happen?

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