Cool. I didn't remember that the number grew so large. And yes, it didn't have a name at first. The second year it was referred to as SAGBRAI so that would have made the first one FAGBRAI in retrospect. At some point the paper got involved and it became RAGBRAI. Kaul had a somewhat irreverent column (Black Coffee?) and wrote about anything that came to his mind (or so it seemed...). The whole 'great bike ride' nomenclature was a bit tongue in cheek but it turned out to be prescient in a way. I was in 8th grade in 1973 too so I didn't make it. Still hope to some day.