In 1975, Emmitt Peters brought speed to the Iditarod.

For its first two years, the event could just as well have been called the Iditarod Trail Camping Trip with Dogs. The journey wasn't easy, but it wasn't fast, either. The mushers required 20 days to travel the thousand miles.

Then the rookie from Ruby burst onto the trail, cutting six full days off the time and setting a speed record that stood for five years. An Athabaskan, Peters grew up with sled dogs, and brought a lifetime of knowledge to the race.

''Peters was ahead of his time in the 1970s with his strategies for resting and running his team and in dog care and training,'' Daily News reporter Scott Heiberger wrote in 1990.

The victory was no fluke. For the next five years, Peters was never out of the top 10. His ability to stay among the leaders even in years when his team wasn't the strongest earned him the nickname ''The Yukon River Fox.'' But his fellow mushers remember more than his competitiveness.

''He's never hesitated to offer volumes of valuable advice and encouragement to me and many other rookie mushers,'' wrote reader and Iditarod mushe Don Bowers.

As the years went on, top mushers got big-money sponsors, ran big dog lots, and bred faster dogs. Peters couldn't keep up. Then, in 1986, he shattered a knee in a freak training accident. Although he ran the race a few more times, he did not finish near the top. None of this seems to have marred his reputation in the slightest.

''Even after retiring from the race, Emmitt has served as the checker in Ruby,'' wrote nominating committee member John Tracy. ''Probably the only checker more famous than the mushers. Most of the racers don't consider their race complete unless they've shaken hands with The Fox in Ruby.''

The Hall of Fame wouldn't be complete without him, either.