The world has lost a legend. RIP Evel Knievel
The 70's were a fun, strange, weird, crazy decade. A big reason why passed away today.
Whenever you were home on a Saturday afternoon on the 70's, you watched ABC's Wide World of Sports. A staple of WWoS were the off beat sports and events. The sort that daredevil types would take part. Barrel jumping, cliff diving, demolition derby, rodeo, surfing, ski jumping, to name just a few.
But one daredevil who often appeared on WWoS stood above the rest. He was the Babe Ruth of daredevils.
Evel Knievel.
He always wore the red, white, and blue, did everything bigger and more dangerously, became an American icon in the process, and was the greatest daredevil of them all.
Evel Knievel was everywhere in the 70's. Movies, TV, commercials, action figures, toys, you name it, you saw Evel on it. And where you saw him him the most, was jumping his Harley on ABC's Wide World of Sports.
I still remember the famous Snake River Canyon and Wembley Stadium jumps like it was yesterday. The fact that he crashed on both of them didn't matter. Not to me, anyway. In fact, the more memorable jumps were the ones the didn't clear, such as the infamous Caesar's Palace fountain jump. They just added to the legend.
The world became that much less cool with the death of Evel Knievel. This child of the 70's will miss him.
