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EVEL KNIEVEL
Motorcycle stuntman Evel Knievel has died at 69.
What a fascinating life he led - a real rough diamond. Coincidentally I was reading his Wikipedia entry last week. It’s worth a few minutes. Rags to riches then rags again. With just about every bone in his body broken several times.
He was every outdoor boy’s hero in the 60s and 70s. Evel Knieval dolls were a popular Xmas present for a certain demographic of young lad.
Posted by walterplinge on 2007 11 30 at 06:16 PM • permalinkMotorcycle stuntman Evel Knievel has died at 69.
That’s the way I want to go.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2007 11 30 at 06:18 PM • permalinkFrom Wikipedia:
Knievel dropped out of high school after his sophomore year and got a job with the Anaconda Mining Company as a diamond drill operator in the copper mines. He was promoted to surface duty where his job was driving a large earth mover. Knievel was fired when he made the earth mover pop a motorcycle-type wheelie and drove it into Butte’s main power line, leaving the city without electricity for several hours.
RIP, Evel.
He jumped live sharks, rattlesnakes, mountain lions, cars, motorcycles, vans, fountains, Mustangs, trucks, and the Snake River Canyon. He suffered broken ribs, groin injuries, broken arms, concussion, broken wrist, broken knees, broken hips, and apparently suffered only minor injuries when he fell in the Snake River Canyon.
And died quietly at home, 69 years of age. Ironic, eh?
It was the death of a lifetime!
Guess he just couldn’t jump the Grim Reaper.
I’ll say this for him, he was an icon of a bygone era. It’s impossible to look back at the 70’s and not think of him.
Posted by joe bagadonuts on 2007 11 30 at 07:13 PM • permalinkRIP Evel. One of a kind, and a great one.
Posted by Simon Darkshade on 2007 11 30 at 09:36 PM • permalinkI had the pleasure of spending an afternoon with Evel and Frank Gifford filming an American Sportsman retrospective on the Snake River Canyon jump. I was very surprised by his intelligence and humor. My favorite quote from the day was “Nobody else has tried to do it” when he was asked if jumping the Snake River was such a big deal. There is no Tim Blair regular that would not have enjoyed his company.
walterplinge wrote:
He was every outdoor boy’s hero in the 60s and 70s. Evel Knieval dolls were a popular Xmas present for a certain demographic of young lad.
Why, yes.
(I think I had one of the motorcycle sets with the hand-cranked launcher you could use to send Evil Knievel speeding across the floor. Also had the Battlestar Galactica sets that shot those little red things. Before all that safety stuff changed them.)
Posted by Patrick Chester on 2007 11 30 at 10:10 PM • permalink#18 Rotorhead: American Sportsman! What a great program! Did you regularly work on that series? Man, the memories. Phil Harris fishing, William Shattner learning to kayak; in fact, I think there might have been a show where Shattner went bow-hunting for grizzlies (and, no, I’m sure the episode I’m thinking of didn’t feature Ted Nugent).
I think I had one of the motorcycle sets with the hand-cranked launcher you could use to send Evil Knievel speeding across the floor. Also had the Battlestar Galactica sets that shot those little red things.
They were fun, I had both as well, but my favourite childhood toys were the giant machinder shogun warriors which shot all manner of nifty projectiles. ( I had Dragun, Godzilla,Raydeen and Goldorak- each one 2 feet of eyeball threatening goodness)
Posted by eeniemeenie on 2007 11 30 at 11:25 PM • permalink#22
Meh. I preferred the live action Samurai.
As a kid I quite like Shintaro.
Right up there with Richard Greene’s Robin Hood.I’m a hopeless case.
Skeeter, according to Aunty ABC, it is Kneivel as in k’noath, and Aunty has a style manual just for these occasions.
As a one time dirt bike racer in my yoot, I admired Evel immensely, fortunately not enough to try jumping my bike over canyons or rows of 15 buses, consequently I am still alive and kicking.
A larger than life showman. RIP, Evel.
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2007 12 01 at 04:19 AM • permalinkAs expected there is a fine obituary in The Telegraph (UK)—
Posted by walterplinge on 2007 12 01 at 06:12 AM • permalinkRobert Craig Knievel was one of the greatest entertainers and self promoters of all time. He led the way for many that ultimately made a living in motorsports entertainment. I will miss him.
Posted by swassociates on 2007 12 01 at 01:43 PM • permalinkSt Peter’s gonna spit when Evel comes flying in over the Pearly Gates…
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 12 01 at 05:38 PM • permalinkJust like I’m spitting now. KC, you beat me to it.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 12 01 at 05:39 PM • permalinkEvel WAS the 70s: a total personification of the era, all that was good and all that was a tad tacky. They don’t make showmen like that anymore. RIP.
Posted by Tommy Shanks on 2007 12 02 at 12:42 PM • permalink
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You know what: I thought that 1) he was a lot older than that, and 2) he’d died years ago. Don’t ask me why. (Probably because he was a feature of my Seventies childhood, which seems a million years ago.)