There may not have been a more famous person in sports entertainment in the 70's than Evel Knievel. His motorcycle jumps were legendary... both the successful ones and the not so successful ones. And in the summer of '74, Evel was on the cover of Sports Illustrated about to trade in his bike for a rocket ship... the Sky-Cycle... so that he could jump the Snake River. It too was not successful, but the attempt just increased Knievel's status with his fans... especially young boys.
One of those boys was a kid growing up in the South by the name of Bubba Blackwell, who, like millions of others, idolized Knievel. But Bubba wasn't like millions of others... No, he was one in a million. And when it came to making jumps on a motorcycle, Bubba was second to none. And that includes his friend, Evel Knievel. Bubba would go on to break many of the icon's records and is best known for breaking Evel Knievel's jump record for buses using a Harley-Davidson XR-750 flat-track racing motorcycle.
But when your job title is daredevil, Bubba would be the first to tell you that means sometimes you're going to bite off more than you can chew and that was the case on the 4th of July, 2001 in Del Mar, CA. Blackwell's attempt to jump 22 cars ended in a spectacular crash that almost killed the showman. Bubba went into a coma and broke 19 bones but survived... got healthy... and continued to test the limits.
Now 57 years old, the fearless rider looks back on a career that saw him eclipse his idol's record jumps, talks about his greatest shows, and his worst moments, and how he got to know one of the most famous persons in the world: Evel Knievel...
It's a life like no other we've ever spoken with: Bubba Blackwell on the Past Our Prime podcast.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
