Before Evel Knievel became a household name known for his nationally televised motorcycle jumps and recording-breaking feats, the young daredevil performed a stunt in Barstow which landed him in a local hospital.
The legend of Evel Knievel began on Oct. 17, 1938, when Robert Craig Knievel was born in the mining city of Butte, Montana.
At age 8, Knievel attended a Joie Chitwood Auto Daredevil Show, which inspired him to later become a motorcycle daredevil, according to evelknievel.com.
Growing up, Knievel was a thrill seeker at heart and often found himself in trouble with local law enforcement.
After dropping out of high school in the late 1950s, Knievel joined the Army to avoid jail time.
When he got out of the military, Knievel married his first wife, Linda Joan Bork, they had their first child, and he started a semi-pro hockey team.
Kneival also started a hunting business, sold insurance, opened a motorcycle dealership, and promoted motocross racing that later included stunts, which garnered much attention.
Knievel and His Motorcycle Daredevils
In his late 20s, Knievel and His Motorcycle Daredevils headed to California and debuted on Jan. 23, 1966, at the National Date Festival in Indio in Riverside County.
Some of the death-defying acts on motorcycles performed by his team included wheelies, jumping vehicles, a 32-foot ramp-to-ramp jump, jumping over two pickup trucks, and smashing through brick walls.
After a successful show, the second booking in Hemet was canceled due to a rainstorm.
The group’s third show was scheduled in February 1966 in Barstow, a town of about 15,000.
Sponsored by the Barstow Junior Chamber of Commerce, the two-day Knievel show was scheduled at the Barstow Raceway.
The first show was canceled when high winds made riding dangerous, especially for rider Jack Stroh who was injured and taken to Barstow Community Hospital, the Desert Dispatch reported.
On Feb. 10, 1966, Knievel prepared to attempt a new stunt where he would jump, spread eagle, over a speeding motorcycle driven by Dale Schwark, the Desert Dispatch reported.
As the motorcycle accelerated toward Knievel, he jumped too late and was hit by the cycle. He was taken to Barstow Community Hospital with sprained legs and an injured back.
In a video documentary, Knievel said “One of the worst accidents I ever had was this one in Barstow, California.”
Describing the stunt, Knievel said he would squat in the middle of a racetrack and they’d run a motorcycle or a car right at him.
“I’d jump in the air and spread my legs and it’d go underneath me,” Knievel said in the video. “In this particular stunt, I got hit in the balls. Needless to say, I never did this stunt again.”
Schwark was also injured during the act when his motorcycle lost braking power and he jumped off and into the dirt, the Desert Dispatch stated.
When released from the hospital, Knievel took time off before returning to Barstow to finish the performance he had started almost a month earlier.
No more daredevil shows
Knievel’s daredevil show broke up after the Barstow performance because injuries prevented him from performing, Knievel and His Motorcycle Daredevils.
After recovering, Knievel started traveling from small town to small town as a solo act.
To get ahead of other motorcycle stunt people who were jumping animals or pools of water, Knievel started jumping cars.
He began adding more and more cars to his jumps when he would return to the same venue to attract more people.
Knievel had not had a serious injury since the Barstow performance, but on June 19, 1966, in Missoula, Montana, he attempted to jump 12 cars and a cargo van.
The distance he had for takeoff did not allow him to get up enough speed. His back wheel hit the top of the van while his front wheel hit the top of the landing ramp, according to Evelknievel.com.
Knievel ended up with a severely broken arm and several broken ribs. The crash and subsequent stay in the hospital were a publicity windfall.
Getting national attention
On March 25, 1967, Knievel cleared 15 cars at Ascot Park in Gardena. He attempted a similar jump on July 28, 1967, in Graham, Washington, where he suffered a serious concussion.
After a month, he recovered and returned to Graham on Aug. 18, 1967, to finish the show, but the result was the same and the injuries were more serious.
Knievel first received national exposure on March 18, 1968, when late-night talk show host Joey Bishop had him on as a guest of ABC’s The Joey Bishop Show.
Caesars Palace jump
While in Las Vegas to watch Dick Tiger successfully defend his light heavyweight boxing title at the Las Vegas Convention Center in November 1967, Knievel first saw the dancing fountains at Caesars Palace and decided he would attempt to jump them.
Knievel was scheduled to make the 140-foot jump over the fountains on Dec. 31, 1967.
The morning of the jump, Knievel stopped in the casino and placed his last $100 on the blackjack table, which he lost, according to Evelknievel.com.
Knievel also stopped by the bar and had a shot of Wild Turkey and then headed outside where he was joined by two showgirls.
After warming up, Knievel began his approach and sped toward and off the ramp. Everything was perfectly executed until he landed.
Knievel came up short which caused the handlebars to be ripped out of his hands as he tumbled over them onto the pavement where he skidded into the Dunes parking lot, according to Evelknievel.com.
In the crash, Knievel suffered a crushed pelvis and femur, fractures to his hip, wrist, and both ankles, and a concussion that kept him in a coma for 29 days.
After his crash and recovery, Knievel was more famous than ever, historians say.
Evel Knievel toys
On Jan. 8 and 9, 1971, Knievel set a record by selling over 100,000 tickets to back-to-back performances at the Houston Astrodome.
On Feb. 28, 1971, he set a new world record by jumping 19 cars with his Harley-Davidson XR-750 in Ontario, California. The 19-car jump was also filmed for the movie, Evel Knievel.
Knievel became so famous that the Ideal Toy Company produced a series of Evel Knievel toys from 1972 through 1977.
In 1973, Ideal released the Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle, which became the “must-have” toy that holiday season, according to Vintage Toy Emporium.
Snake River Canyon jump
On Sept. 8, 1974, Knievel attempted to jump Idaho’s Snake River Canyon on a rocket-propelled motorcycle designed by former NASA engineer Robert Truax dubbed the Skycycle X-2.
The state of Idaho registered the X-2 as an airplane rather than a motorcycle.
As the crowd of 30,000 cheered, the Skycycle launched off the incline with a cloud of steam as the parachute prematurely deployed.
The Skycycle floated down and landed on the same side of the canyon Knievel launched from and just a little farther downriver.
After speculation that Knievel may have drowned in the river, video footage showed the daredevil standing in a speeding rescue boat as he waved to the crowd above.
Knievel would retire from professional jumping in 1981 after breaking nearly four dozen bones and becoming an American icon. He died at age 69 in Clearwater, Florida on Nov. 30, 2007.
Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on X @DP_ReneDeLaCruz
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: One of daredevil Evel Knievel’s ‘worst accidents’ happened in Barstow
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