Robert “Evel” Knievel was born on October 17, 1938. Evel Knievel was a stunt motorcycle rider who became famous in the late 1960’s to early 1970’s by performing spectacular stunts that were extremely dangerous.
Knievel was injured many times and every crash seemed to be bringing him one step closer to the end. Ironically, at age 69, Evel Knievel has died not from a stunt gone wrong, but from the long term effects of hepatitis and diabetes. It seems almost anticlimactic that one of my childhood heroes should pass away in such a normal way. Knievel was a superhero figure to many children who grew up during the 1970’s, including myself.
This man captivated the attention of many young children; he almost seemed to be a supernatural figure when he was flying through the air on one of his bikes. I can remember sitting on the floor with my brothers and sisters, watching Evel Knievel on the small television with my family.
We would all try to scoot as close to the television as possible, everyone holding their breath as he performed one daredevil stunt after another. We would all cheer him on and wonder afterwards what he was going to try next. Of course, we always wondered if the jump we were watching would be the last for the daredevil stunt rider.
After we would watch a show featuring Knievel’s spectacular showmanship, my cousins and I would always spend the next several weeks acting out scenarios in which we would pretend to be Evel Knievel. We suffered a lot of injuries during our role playing and I like to imagine now, as a parent, how mortified my parents must have been each time they found makeshift ramps and trenches dug into the lawn. My cousin and I used to fight over the Evel Knievel action figure that we had.
I remember the white suit that the action figure wore becoming dingier and dingier with every toss from the stairs. The motorcycle that came with the figure had to be repaired so many times that we became experts at rebuilding the tiny plastic and metal parts. Evel Knievel wasn’t just a superstar to me. As a child, I was fascinated by the fantastic world of lights and crowds he represented. Daydreaming about his stunts took me away from the bucolic reality that I lived in. As an adult, I appreciate the talent and entrepreneurship that Evel Knievel possessed.
I am amazed at the things that he accomplished all because he decided one day while watching a stunt show that he could take the same risks and make a living for his family doing it. Knievel died on November 30, 2007, aged 69.
According to Wikipedia, he suffered from hepatitis C, diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis,
Knievel’s death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Krysten Knievel.
