The End of an Era

Sometime during the summer of 1975 a crew of us made the trek to Cincinnati and King's Island to see Evel Knievel jump fourteen Greyhound Scenicruiser double-decker buses (remember those?). The jump was to be televised by ABC live on the "Wide World of Sports" and Frank Gifford was there to do the color commentary.

At King's Island around eleven a.m. Evel planned to do a couple of practice jumps over seven buses and somehow we got into the show area. Gifford was taping segments to be used later during the live show and he talked with E.K. and then it was time for the practice jumps. Of course Evel used a funky (and HEAVY) Harley-Davidson XR750 that was as suited to jumping one-hundred and fifty-feet as I am to running the 100-yard dash against Carl Lewis.

On his first shot at seven buses he missed the landing ramp completely and went over the bars, tumbling across the parking lot. They gather up Evel, bike parts and bike and about twenty minutes later he's ready to try it again. On the next attempt he actually hits the landing ramp, but that big old Harley bucks up just like you'd imagine and it spit him off again, and again he did the flopping rag-doll impersonation he was so famous for. I thought Frank Gifford was going to swallow his toupee.

They hustled Evel off to his bus and Frank Gifford proceeded to tape this dramatic piece about the practice disasters and that Evel was probably near death and that he surely was in no shape to take a shot at 14 buses later that afternoon after the difficulties of trying to clear seven, and maybe 14 is truly an impossible jump for any mortal man. The proverbial talking head.

Well, the crews came out and they moved the ramps and brought out the rest of the buses and re-positioned the ramps and made ready for the show. The crowd came filtering in and the buzz began to grow, especially as word passed through the crowd about the prior crashes during the morning.

At the appointed time the bus pops open and out strolls Evel Knievel bigger than life in his Elvis styled jump-suit, complete with cape and cane. He plays to the crowd and wheelies about. He undoubtedly did the first stand-up and feet-on-the-seat wheelies that all the road-racers now celebrate their victories with.

Then it's time to talk to Frank for a minute. Jeez, was that somber. They talked about the debacle that was morning practice and his health and well being. Then Evel talked about having to make the show go on, and not wanting to disappoint all us fine folks that came out to see him, and how this might just be his last jump, God and mom and apple pie and the U.S.A. etc. etc. And he worked us all into a frenzy.

Then of course it was time to do it. But, if you've ever seen an Evel jump you know that he made several runs up the launch ramp and the announcer worked in orchestra with him, "Here he goes!" And then he'd stop short at the top and roll back down, sizing up his endeavor. Then he'd ride around for a minute and go talk to a mechanic and they'd look at the bike and then he'd do it again. After about three or four of those teases the crowd was kind of crazy.

When he actually headed up the ramp for real and that Harley was really bellowing it seemed that everyone stopped breathing and time stood still.....

If you search youtube.com for "Evel Knievel 1975 Kings Island" there is a short twenty-one second video of the jump from the Wide World of Sports program. He jumped those 14 buses easier than you put on your socks this morning. If you look right at the end of the video you'll notice that his run-off room was actually the four-lane highway that led to the amusement park and there are guys standing in the street blocking traffic.

And it was fucking great, and after the morning it was almost anti-climactic. I probably smiled for the rest of the week-end it was so cool. I mean, the balls of the guy, he'd already been tossed like a Shaquille O'neal free-throw off the back of the rim and he later came out and just plain threw down.

He definitely paved the way for cats like Travis Pastrana and Cory Hart, but he wasn't like them, he was totally different and a one-of-a-kind showman, a bit larger-than-life, no matter what else you may have thought of him.

It's the end of an era.

R.I.P. Evel Knievel.