There is so little for Americans to believe in these days. Sadly, on Nov. 30 we lost one more reason to believe. His name was Robert Craig Knievel, Jr., but you might know him better as Evel Knievel."" Or, if not by his name, then perhaps by his appearance - a man constantly wearing a death-defying smirk and a red, white and blue leather jumpsuit (equipped with a fashionable cape).
Looking back at his life, one can see he was destined for a celebrated career in death defiance since the time he drove an earthmover into the Butte, Mont. power lines while attempting to ""stunt - ~ride"" the coal company's bulldozer at his first job.
His rise to stardom, however, would not be a quick one. First he bummed around as a rodeo cowboy and ski jumper. They say he was quite good - he even won the Northern Rocky Mountain Ski Association Class A Men's ski jumping championship in 1957. He joined the army shortly thereafter and became a pole vaulter on the army track team.
After returning from the army, Knievel played some semi - ~pro hockey, and he eventually started his own team - the Butte Bombers. The team eventually went bankrupt, but not before Knievel somehow convinced the Czechoslovakian national team to come and play an exhibition match against the semi - ~pro Bombers. In that game, Knievel was ejected for fighting, and the Czechoslovakian team was never paid by the Bombers. The expenses were eventually paid by the U.S Olympic committee in order to avoid an international incident.
Next, Knievel opened a hunting guide service called Sur - ~Kill. He promised a refund if he wasn't able to find big game for the hunters to kill, but he was shut down when game and wildlife officials discovered he was leading expeditions through Yellowstone National Park.
This misstep can perhaps be overlooked due to the fact that he once hitchhiked from Butte to Washington D.C. to stop the culling of elk in Yellowstone and to have the excess elk populations moved outside the park to be hunted. On his trip he met with the Kennedy administration's Secretary of the Interior, and as a result, the slaughter stopped and the excess animals were moved into adjacent areas.
In order to support his family, Knievel stooped to theft, and even worse, to selling insurance. According to records, he was quite good (maybe it had something to do with the fact that he sold several policies to institutionalized state mental patients'¦). He was eventually forced to quit, however, because he wasn't being paid enough.
He soon turned to death defiance. In 1965, he jumped over a 20-foot box containing rattlesnakes and mountain lions. He traveled the United States and abroad jumping cars, trucks, busses and canyons. On what he marketed as his last jump in 1975, Knievel smashed his pelvis, but he still gave a speech announcing his retirement. Despite the announcement, Knievel would go on jumping his motorcycle until 1981. During his career, he broke at least 40 bones and had numerous blood transfusions, but to Knievel, that was just part of the job.
I also respect Knievel for the way he lived his life - reckless and wild - and with a deathbed conversion to Christianity. For 68 years Knievel had shunned Christianity because he couldn't do without ""the gold and the gambling and the booze and the women."" Then, ""all of a sudden, I just believed in Jesus Christ. I did, I believed in him!"" You see? Evel Knievel was a risk taker, but at the end of the day, he knew how to cover all the bases.
Sometimes I joke, but in all seriousness, Evel Knievel undoubtedly symbolized something greater than a simple dare-devil. He was a man who eschewed his personal safety for something bigger - for freedom and for fun. These days kids can't hope to emulate Knievel's stunts. In these days, America has become so obsessed with safety that kids aren't even allowed to play tag on a school playground for fear of injury.
Every time I turn on the news I see a ""concerned parent"" talking about unsafe toys. We are overly obsessed with safety in this country. Most of these ""concerned parents"" grew up swimming in quarries, in houses with lead paint, and with mercury drilled into their fillings, but they didn't spend their lives in constant fear. Previous generations realized that some danger is inevitable.
Hell, in my experience, some danger is even fun. But, unfortunately for us, it seems this same obsession with safety has even led to the curbing of some of our most cherished freedoms since Sept. 11, 2001 in the name of unnecessary and unattainable safety.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I once thought that part of being American was the ability to take calculated risks in the personal and professional sectors, while simultaneously being willing to pay the potential price. Someone like Evel Knievel was always there to remind us of that. So, whether you see Evel as a leather - ~clad, cape - ~wearing lunatic bustling with courage, with an obscene tolerance for pain and a severe addiction to adrenaline or as a harbinger of personal liberties who represented the notion that risk - ~taking need not always be bad, you still have to admit, he had a pretty good ride.
Oh, and services will be held at the Butte Civic Area on Dec. 10.
Matt Jividen is a senior majoring in history. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
