Evel Knievel

Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel (born October 17, 1938 in Butte, Montana) is an American stuntman, best known for his public displays of long distance, high-altitude motorcycle jumping which often resulted in serious injuries, particularly during the 1970s. The consummate salesman, he was able to turn his popularity into a marketing juggernaut with products ranging from radios to toy action figures. His achievements and failures got him into the Guinness Book of World Records several times including his record thirty-five broken bones.

Early life

Knievel was the first of two children born to Robert and Ann Knievel. Robert and Ann divorced in 1940, just after the birth of their second child, Nic. Both parents decided to leave Butte and their two children to get a new start. The children were raised by their paternal grandparents, Ognatius and Emma Knievel. At the age of eight, Knievel attended a Joie Chitwood Auto Daredevil Show, which he credits for his later career choice to become a motorcycle daredevil.

Related Topics:
Joie Chitwood - Motorcycle

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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. 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 which he crashed his motorcycle, Knievel was taken to jail. When the night jailer came around to check the role, he said "Hey, we got a guy named Knievel in one cell and another named Knoffle in the other. Goddamn! Double the guard! We got Evil Knievel and Awful Knoffle here tonight." The nickname stuck.

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Always looking for new thrills and challenges, Knievel participated in local professional rodeos and ski-jumping events, including winning the Northern Rocky Mountain Ski Association Class A Men's ski jumping championship in 1957. In the late 1950s, Knievel joined the Army. His athletic ability allowed him to join the track team where he was a pole vaulter. After his army stint, Knievel returned to Butte where he met, kidnapped and married his first wife, Linda Bork. Shortly after getting married, Knievel left Butte to join the Charlotte Checkers of the Eastern Hockey League, a minor professional ice hockey league. Realizing that he wasn't talented enough to make it into the National Hockey League and that the real money in sports, at the time, was in owning a team, Knievel returned to Butte and started the Butte Bombers, a semi-pro hockey team. To help promote his team and earn some money, he convinced the 1960 Olympic Czechoslovakian hockey team to play his Butte Bombers in a warm up game to the Olympics. Knievel was ejected from the game minutes into the third period and left the stadium. When the Czech officials went to the box office to collect the expense money that the team was promised, workers discovered the game receipts had been stolen. The U.S Olympic Committee ended up paying the Czech expenses in order to avoid an international incident.

Related Topics:
1957 - Army - Pole vault - Kidnap - Charlotte Checkers - Eastern Hockey League - Ice hockey - National Hockey League - Butte Bombers - 1960 Olympic - Czechoslovakian - U.S Olympic Committee

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After the birth of his first son, Kelly, Knievel realized that he needed to come up with a new way to support his family. Using the hunting and fishing skills taught to him by his grandfather, Knievel started the Sur-Kill Guide Service. He guaranteed that if a hunter signed up with his service and paid his fee that they would get the big game animal that they wanted or he would refund their money. Business was very brisk until game wardens realized that he was taking his clients into Yellowstone National Park to find their prey. As a result of this poaching, Knievel had to shut down his new business venture. Having few options, he turned to a life of crime, becoming a burglar.

Related Topics:
Hunting - Fishing - Game - Game warden - Yellowstone National Park - Poaching, - Burglar

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In December, 1961, Knievel, learning about the slaughter of excess elk in Yellowstone Park, decided to hitchhike from Butte to Washington D.C. to raise awareness and to have the elk relocated to areas open to hunters. He presented his case to Representative Arnold Olsen, Senator Mike Mansfield and Kennedy administration Interior Secretary Stewart Udall. As a result of his efforts, the slaughter was stopped and the animals have since been regularly captured and relocated to areas of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

Related Topics:
Elk - Hitchhike - Washington D.C. - Representative - Arnold Olsen - Senator - Mike Mansfield - Kennedy - Interior Secretary - Stewart Udall - Wyoming - Idaho

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Knievel decided to go straight after returning home from Washington. He joined the motocross circuit and had moderate success, but still couldn't make enough money to support his family. In 1962, Knievel broke his collarbone and shoulder in a motocross accident. The doctors said he couldn't race for at least six months. To help support his family, he switched careers and sold insurance for the Combined Insurance Company of America, working for W. Clement Stone. Stone suggested that Knievel read Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, a book that Stone wrote with Napoleon Hill. To this day Knievel credits much of his success to Stone and his book.

Related Topics:
Motocross - Combined Insurance Company of America - W. Clement Stone - Napoleon Hill

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Knievel did very well as an insurance salesman (even going as far as to sell insurance policies to several institutionalized mental patients) and wanted to be quickly rewarded for his efforts. When the company refused to promote him to Vice-President after a few months on the job, he quit. Needing a fresh start away from Butte, Knievel moved his family to Moses Lake, Washington. There, he opened a Honda motorcycle dealership and promoted motocross racing. Times were tough in the early 1960s for Japanese imports. People still considered them inferior to American built motorcycles and there were still resentments about the attack on Pearl Harbor. At one point, Knievel offered a $100 discount to anybody that could beat him in arm wrestling. Despite his best efforts the store eventually closed.

Related Topics:
Moses Lake - Washington - Honda - Japanese - Attack on Pearl Harbor - Arm wrestling

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