6.5 C
New York

Video: Evel Knievel’s First Motorcycle Jump on Wide World of Sports

Published:

Truck Driver Nostalgia and Entertainment
Sometime in the early 70s, Knievel switched off of his smaller Triumph Tracker used for the first televised jump on Wide World of Sports, and switched over to a sturdier, faster Harley Davidson XR-750.

Even “The Last Gladiator” had his first jump. Even the most spectacular journey can have humble beginnings.

In his career heyday, Evel Knievel’s nationally televised motorcycle jumps were four of the twenty most-watched ABC’s Wide World of Sports events to date. They occurred mostly in the late 60s and mid-70s, although he was still able to strike a deal with TV networks into the early 80s.

Evel was one of the original stuntmen who brought epic scale drama to the casino crowd and fly over country alike.

Evel Knievel’s First Televised Jump

Although Knievel had been working for a while in the 60s as sideshow entertainment during motorcycle and car races, he still hadn’t caught the eye of the general public through television yet. This jump, while mostly unimpressive by today’s stuntman standards, was enough to thrill crowds and (most importantly) use this filmed spot to get to the next step of his rocket rise to fame.

ABC's Wide World of Sports DVD History
Buy all the historic moments from Wide World of Sports on DVD at Amazon.

Knievel’s jump here was filmed for the wildly popular ABC’s Wide World of Sports, hosted by Jim McKay. It ran for 37 seasons. This rather pedestrian jump put Knievel’s name into watercooler conversations, office breakrooms and bars – he was finally known by America’s everyman. Always the ambitious showman, he used this new-found notoriety to convince the owners of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas to let him jump their fountain on New Year’s Eve 1967, which was filmed for ABC as a special under the Wide World of Sports marquee. After a failed landing, he spent 29 days in a coma, keeping sports and news audiences riveted in their seats for new developments on his condition.

So while Knievel continued to ratchet up the danger and daring in his televised stunts, with never before seen complexity such as his Grand Canyon and Snake River jumps in heavily modified jet and rocket cars, his legend began small and almost humble as he labored to thrill one race fan at a time.

Here’s where the legend began…

[youtube url=”http://youtu.be/9SGNFEwuxKQ” playlist=”Evel Knievel Stunts” title=”Truck%20Driver%20Entertainment%20Evel%20Knievel” width=”460″ height=”340″]

More about Evel Knievel from CDL Life.

JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER

Get the hottest daily trucking news

This Week in Trucking

Videos