by Even though I’m not especially a fan of famed stuntman Evel Knievel, I mean of course we were gonna go to the Evel Knievel Museum in Topeka, Kansas. How could we not?
The museum is pretty extensive, giving a full overview of Evel’s early life and crazy career. I spent most of the experience muttering “OMG!” or “Are you kidding me?!” to myself as we moved through displays, many of which had a “number of broken bones from this experience” count.
Evel was (not surprisingly) not named that at birth. He was born Robert Craig Knievel in 1938. As a youngster he attended a Joie Chitwood auto daredevil show, which inspired to become a daredevil – as soon as he got home he made a ramp from a garage door and began jumping his bike.
As a young man he bounced around among various odd jobs (some more shady than others), including a stint in the Army. He also began participating in rodeos, ski jumping, and motocross events with some success, and a few injuries.
The “Evel” nickname was born after a night in jail (after being arrested for a police chase in which he crashed his motorcycle), where Knievel met William Knofel, whose nickname was “Awful Knofel.” The local constables decided that Awful Knofel’s cellmate for the night could be aptly referred to as “Evil Knievel,” and Evel adopted it!
Knievel’s first sensational-style jump was over a 20-foot-long box of rattlesnakes and two mountain lions. This was followed by more outrageous stunts and it wasn’t long before Knievel wound up in the hospital due to his injuries. The public ate it up, of course, some coming to see a successful jump and just as many coming to see a spectacular crash.
At age 29, Knievel used some shenanigans to arrange a 141-foot jump of the Caesars fountains in 1967. He tried to get ABC to air the event live on Wide World of Sports; they declined but said they’d use film later if the landing was as spectacular as he said it would be.
It was spectacular, but not in the way he’d hoped. In the resulting crash he suffered a crushed pelvis and femur, fractures to his hip, wrist, and both ankles, and a concussion that kept him in the hospital. For the rest of his life he would need a cane as a result of these injuries
Warning! The “landing” on the Caesars fountain jump is hard to watch!
More crazy jumps and broken bones continued with regularity (way too many to list), until he could eventually do it no more. In 1981 he had his final stunt jump, then turned his attention to assisting his son Robbie’s daredevil career.
It’s hard to believe, but Knievel did not die in a motorcycle crash, which honestly never occurred to me. He lived until age 69, dying in 2007 of diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Knievel was very popular during his heyday, and made far more money through endorsements and marketing deals than he did doing his stunts. However, after an assault conviction and related jail time, his popularity plummeted, he lost his endorsements, and he eventually filed for bankruptcy.
The museum was a lot of fun, but will remain in Topeka for just a short time longer. It plans to relocate to Las Vegas, opening sometime in 2025. Honestly, it’s the perfect place for this outrageous guy.
I created Evel Knievel, and then he sort of got away from me.
Evel Knievel
I’d do it all the same…except I’d go faster on a few jumps.
Evel Knieval
“Big Red”
The museum features Evel’s fully restored 1974 Mack truck “Big Red,” which he toured with and used as personal space, in addition to hauling cycles, ramps, etc. The restoration process on this was pretty unbelievable, as it was in terrible shape. There was an interesting 18 minute video (which I couldn’t find online) showing the process, taking 100 people and 18 months. I had no idea that the images and lettering on the side of truck were hand-painted – amazing!!
FYI, on this & your last post when I tried to watch the videos I could not… they both said in order to prove I’m not a bot I had to sign in to you tube, then took me to a different video. This was never a problem before. It used to let me watch your videos , then say if I want to watch it again I have to go to you tube. Just thought you’d want to know.
10/5/24 today I got to watch the video! Thanks for fixing the link. Awesome!