Evel Knievel

[Iceaxe]

It hasn't hit the news yet but through some mutual acquaintances I was told that Evel Knievel just died.

[Iceaxe]

Looks like I beat the AP by 8 minutes.....

Evel Knievel Dies at 69

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP)

[R]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evel_Knievel

[Iceaxe]

Iconic daredevil Evel Knievel dies at 69

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Evel Knievel, the red-white-and-blue-spangled motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over crazy obstacles including Greyhound buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.

Knievel's death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Krysten Knievel. He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.

Knievel had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-shattering spills.

Longtime friend and promoter Billy Rundel said Knievel had trouble breathing at his Clearwater condominium and died before an ambulance could get him to a hospital.

"It's been coming for years, but you just don't expect it. Superman just doesn't die, right?" Rundel said.

Immortalized in the Washington's Smithsonian Institution as "America's Legendary Daredevil," Knievel was best known for a failed 1974 attempt to jump Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered cycle and a spectacular crash at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. He suffered nearly 40 broken bones before he retired in 1980.

Though Knievel dropped off the pop culture radar in the '80s, the image of the high-flying motorcyclist clad in patriotic, star-studded colors was never erased from public consciousness. He always had fans and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent years.

His death came just two days after it was announced that he and rapper Kanye West had settled a federal lawsuit over the use of Knievel's trademarked image in a popular West music video.

Knievel made a good living selling his autographs and endorsing products. Thousands came to Butte, Mont., every year as his legend was celebrated during the "Evel Knievel Days" festival, which Rundel organizes.

"They started out watching me bust my ass, and I became part of their lives," Knievel said. "People wanted to associate with a winner, not a loser. They wanted to associate with someone who kept trying to be a winner."

For the tall, thin daredevil, the limelight was always comfortable, the gab glib. To Knievel, there always were mountains to climb, feats to conquer.

"No king or prince has lived a better life," he said in a May 2006 interview with The Associated Press. "You're looking at a guy who's really done it all. And there are things I wish I had done better, not only for me but for the ones I loved."

He had a knack for outrageous yarns: "Made $60 million, spent 61. ...Lost $250,000 at blackjack once. ... Had $3 million in the bank, though."

He began his daredevil career in 1965 when he formed a troupe called Evel Knievel's Motorcycle Daredevils, a touring show in which he performed stunts such as riding through fire walls, jumping over live rattlesnakes and mountain lions and being towed at 200 mph behind dragster race cars.

In 1966 he began touring alone, barnstorming the West and doing everything from driving the trucks, erecting the ramps and promoting the shows. In the beginning he charged $500 for a jump over two cars parked between ramps.

He steadily increased the length of the jumps until, on New Year's Day 1968, he was nearly killed when he jumped 151 feet across the fountains in front of Caesar's Palace. He cleared the fountains but the crash landing put him in the hospital in a coma for a month.

His son, Robbie, successfully completed the same jump in April 1989.

In the years after the Caesar's crash, the fee for Evel's performances increased to $1 million for his jump over 13 buses at Wembley Stadium in London

[Iceaxe]

Who else had one of these?



Remember the little design flaw where you would grind your knuckles off on the pavement while winding it up?

AAAHHHHHhhhhhh..... Those were the days.

[sparker1]

Sorry to see him go, he was a special kind of showman. Not many are willing to suffer so much injury to entertain the masses.

My wife had major liver surgery (for cancer) around the time of his transplant, and by the same doctor. On one visit to that doctor's office, he pointed out that Knievel had donated a motorcycle (and a beauty it was) to the organization in gratitude for the successful transplant.

I still think he deployed the parachute at Snake River, but don't blame him. It was just a monstrous let-down after all his hype, promising to make the jump.

[JP]

I was just going to say that, too bad.

[Sombeech]

I remember he'd constantly be the subject of our little neighborhood gang as we were building dirt jumps to ride our bikes over.

[Brian in SLC]

Robbie Knievel followed in his father's footsteps as a daredevil, jumping a moving locomotive in a 200-foot, ramp-to-ramp motorcycle stunt on live television in 2000.

Robbie and I are pretty much the same age, same grade. Played football against each other, straight across the line. He was a nice kid. However, don't beat Butte High on Silver B night...

I, uhh, dated Evil's bodyguard's daughter in college...and, serendipity, was NOT watching At Your Leisure the weekend before last but had it on in the background...they had a segment on the show about recreation near Anaconda and I'll be darned if I don't hear a familiar voice...

Yeah, EK put the "rat" in "Butte rat" for sure, and, kinda helped put Butte America on the map.

Butte used to be one of the wildest places to spend St. Patty's day...

My last night in Montana, before I moved to SLC, was in Butte. What a send off....yeeeow.

-Brian in SLC

[accadacca]

God speed. Hope there are motorcycles in heaven.

[Brian in SLC]

God speed. Hope there are motorcycles in heaven.

Uhh, newsflash, but, Evil wouldn't be a goin' to heaven...

I kinda feel sorry for Satan. I mean really, after Sadam made him his beeyotch and all (South Park reference).

-Brian in SLC

[accadacca]

God speed. Hope there are motorcycles in heaven.

Uhh, newsflash, but, Evil wouldn't be a goin' to heaven...

I kinda feel sorry for Satan. I mean really, after Sadam made him his beeyotch and all (South Park reference).

-Brian in SLC

Ah true, okay on the "other side."