Daredevil Evel Knievel dead at 69

[RocketFoot]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...x.html?cnn=yes

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) -- Evel Knievel, the hard-living motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over 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.

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.

Although he dropped off the pop culture radar in the '80s, Knievel always had fans and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent years. In later years he still 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.

"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."

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.

Wow...a sad day! How many of you can remember the Evel Knievel Pull Cord Stunt Cycle! I had one when I was just a pup!

http://evelknievel.com/
.

[normanvin]

i was just going to post this. he sure lived a hard life. most of it in a cast.

and yes i had the pull cord motor cycle.

[bogey1]

i remember watching him when i was a kid...

[bloomautomatic]

He was the one and only. There was never anyone like him, and never will be again. Truly a legend.

Vince

[imashooter2]

I had the Stunt Cycle and also collapsed more than one front wheel on my Stingray trying stupid stunts that Evel inspired.

[Emptymag]

I had the Stunt Cycle and also collapsed more than one front wheel on my Stingray trying stupid stunts that Evel inspired.

Heh. Heh. Heh.
I can only imaging how many kids he put in the hospital... I mean, inspired!

Too bad ramp builders aren't much in demand these days... I could use a part time job, and have plenty of experience.



Note: One solid board works better than several boards of varying widths and thicknesses nailed together.

Did they sell elbow pads and bicycle helmets back then, or were those just for pu$$ies? I don't recall having seen any.


bloomautomatic said it... truly one of a kind.

[Frenchy]

Some of you might remember the phrase:

Live life like its the last moment, the winner is the one who can say "Wow, that was the best ride!"

There are people who understand you will have to die some day, there is just no escaping it.

Some of you might remember the phrase:

Live life like it’s the last moment; the winner is the one who can say "Wow that was the best ride!"

Most people who understand you will have to die some day; there is just no escaping it. So when your days end, do you want to say I lived a safe life and I am now going to rest, or I rode it hard, I beat the odds, and now I can say The last one was the Best ride.

On April 1, 2007, Knievel announced to a worldwide audience that he "believed in Jesus Christ" for the first time. He professed his personal faith in Christ to more than 4,000 people who gathered inside the Crystal Cathedral for Palm Sunday services in Orange County, California, and to millions via an Hour of Power telecast of the service to over 100 countries.

Knievel told how he had refused for 68 years to convert to Christianity because he didn’t want to surrender his lifestyle of "the gold and the gambling and the booze and the women." He explained his conversion experience by saying, "All of a sudden, I just believed in Jesus Christ. I did, I believed in him!" Knievel said he knew people were praying for him, including his daughter's church, his ex-wife's church, and the hundreds of people who wrote letters urging him to believe.

Knievel recounted how he "rose up in bed and, I was by myself, and I said, 'Devil, Devil, you bastard you, get away from me. I cast you out of my life….' I just got on my knees and prayed that God would put his arms around me and never, ever, ever let me go." At his request, he was baptized before the congregation and TV cameras by Dr. Robert H. Schuller, Founding Pastor of the Crystal Cathedral. Christianity Today reported that "...Knievel's testimony triggered mass baptisms at the Crystal Cathedral."

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

I truely believe God has him in heaven. This is just proof that it is never too late to believe. In all his career and all his jumps, falls and times in the hospital, he never believed in God. Denied Jesus into his life, then all of a sudden, he prepared for his last ride... I am sure this ws the best ride of his life.

[Wasz]

He beat his wife with a bat.

[axmdr40]

many in my generation didn't even realize he was still alive....knievel means his son robby to us.

[Emptymag]

many in my generation didn't even realize he was still alive....knievel means his son robby to us.

Isn't it past your bed time young man?