Wearing capes and building ramps, little boys grew up dreaming of being him one day. Grown men pretended to live his exciting life, wishing to be the daredevil stuntman he was. No one could wait to see his next stunt on “ABC’s Wild World of Sports”. He was crazy and everyone in the 1960s and 1970s loved him for it. Robert C. Knievel, known as the iconic “Evel Knievel” was the pioneer of long-jumping exhibitions on a motorcycle.
Unfortunately, throughout his lifetime, he had many injuries resulting from his stunts, including nearly dying from a launch over the fountains in front of Caesar’s Palace in 1965. This crash resulted in a crushed pelvis, a broken femur, and fractures to the hip, wrist, and both ankles. He was unconscious for 29 days following the accident. When he resumed performing, he continued to suffer multiple bone fractures until his retirement in 1981.
He is included in the Guinness Book of World Records (1975) for “Most Broken Bones in a Lifetime” with an estimated 433 total fractures.
