One of the worlds nuttiest and arrogant, but lovable "daredevils" passed yesterday. After surviving 35 plus broken bones between 300 plus jumps, Evel couldn't beat the physical odds that were left. Despite having a liver transplant and a blood transfusion in the late 90's that gave him hepatitis, Evel fought for many years finally succumbing to the inevitable. God Bless you Robert " Evel" Craig Knievel Jr., thanx for ALL the great memories. Your fans sure will miss you.
A little info for ya:
Knievel dropped out of high school after his tenth grade year and got a job working at 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 ( Nowthose tires are fucking big). 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. With a lot of time on his hands, Knievel began to get into more and more trouble around Butte.
After one particular police chase in 1956 in which he crashed his motorcycle, Knievel was taken to jail on a charge of reckless driving. When the night jailer came around to check the roll, he noted Robert Knievel in one cell and William Knofel in the other. Knofel was well known as "Awful Knofel" ("Awful" rhyming with "Knofel") so Knievel began to be referred to as Evel Knievel ("Evel" rhyming with "Knievel"). The nickname stuck!!! Thanx Wikipedia.
2 comments:
The man will be sorely missed. May he rest in peace.
Growing up in the sixties, as I did, Kneivel was one of the favorite schoolyard topics of discussion. You should have seen the ways we wrecked our bikes and bruised out bodies. It was like the redneck said, "Hey, y'all, watch this!"
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