Saying Goodbye to a Legend

Today, 11/30/2007, we lost a pop culture icon. Evel Kenievel was bigger than life for me when I was a kid. He jumped over big things with motorcycles. There were huge staged explosions. And chances were, he would lay down or just straight out crash his bike on impact when trying to stick a landing. There were very few things in life more entertaining to a boy than a true to life Daredevil. Of course, after growing up a bit, I realized Evel battled a lot of demons such as alcoholism, prescription drug abuse and domestic violence.


After seeing Knievel jump cars, buses, RVs, and the like for a few years I had to have the Evel Knievel toys. I had the Evel Knievel stunt cycle (check it out), it was the coolest. I would crank this cycle up and crash it into everything I possibly could, much to the dismay of my parents who didn't really want their coffee tables and walls dinged up by 2 pound hunk of plastic flying around all over the house.


Then on September 8, 1974 I saw the most bizarre thing on TV I had ever seen. Now, by most bizarre, you have to remember I am not old enough to have seen Lee Harvey Oswald shot in Dallas on live TV and the OJ Simpson slow speed Bronco chase hadn't happened yet. Another day, we can discuss the most twisted things ever seen on live tv. Anyway, back in 1974, Evel Knievel decided to strap himself into a modified rocket and shoot himself (Wiley Coyote-esque) over the Snake River Canyon in Idaho. The distance from the end of the take off ramp to the beginning of the landing ramp was roughly 1500 feet. You have to realize that 1500 feet across wasn't the scary part, it was the fact that he was going to be roughly 2000 feet from the bottom of the canyon. Now add the fact that Evel needed to propel this rocket (again, Wiley Coyote-Esq) approx 800-1000 feet above the rim of the canyon. So, now that 2000 feet to the bottom just got increased to almost 3000 feet, or about 2/3-3/4 of a mile to fall if something goes wrong...what could go wrong?


My dad really had no interest in watching a performance of this magnitude. You have to remember, this was 1974 and the Cowboys were probably playing ball or Arnold Palmer was playing golf that day. So, I was forced to witness this moment in sports/sports entertainment history on a small 9 inch black and white tv equipped with rabbit ears...remember, this is many moons before cable. But for a 6 year old in 1974, this was the biggidy bomb. After all the hoopla and interviews, jump time finally came. Like other things later in life (only a couple of times, mind you) it seems like the whole thing was over before it began.


The rocket shot off the ramp and the parachute accidentally deployed immediately causing the speed to drop drastically and the rocket to gain virtually no altitude. The rocket, as well as the spirits of millions of Knievel fans, crashed and burned on live television. He was rescued, but there would be no Snake River II.



Even as an old contrary fart, Evel Knievel was a daredevil until the day he died. He was more of a showman than P.T. Barnum and more of a promoter than Don King and Vince McMahon combined. He could have sold tickets to a Somoan Tiddlywink contest and made it seem to have the highest level of danger imaginable.


We so enjoyed watching you laugh in the face of danger. Thank you for all the memories. Evel, you will be missed!