Editing Evel Knievel (section)

== Early life ==

Knievel was born on October 17, 1938, in [[Butte, Montana]], the first of two children of Robert E. and Ann Marie Keough Knievel.<ref name=eknievel2>{{cite web |title= 125 Montana Newsmakers: 'Evel' Knievel |url= http://www.greatfallstribune.com/multimedia/125newsmakers6/knievel.html |work= Great Fall Tribune |access-date= August 28, 2011 |archive-date= July 19, 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130719194321/http://www.greatfallstribune.com/multimedia/125newsmakers6/knievel.html |url-status= live }}</ref> His surname is of [[Germans|German]] origin; his paternal great-great-grandparents immigrated to the United States from Germany.<ref>[http://evelknievel.com/the-man/ The Man] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190114034036/http://evelknievel.com/the-man/ |date=January 14, 2019 }}. evelknievel.com: "Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel was the first of two children born to Robert E. and Ann Keough "Zippy" Knievel. His surname is of German origin; his great-great-grandparents on his father's side immigrated to the United States from Germany and on his mother's side from Ireland."</ref>  His mother was of [[Irish people|Irish]] ancestry. Robert and Ann divorced in 1940, after the 1939 birth of their second child, Nicolas, known as Nic. Both parents decided to leave Butte.

Knievel and his brother were raised in Butte by their paternal grandparents, Ignatius and Emma Knievel. At the age of eight, Knievel attended a [[Joie Chitwood]] auto daredevil show, which he credited for his later career choice as a motorcycle [[stunt performer|daredevil]].

Knievel was a cousin of [[United States Democratic Party|Democratic]] [[U.S. Representative]] from [[Montana]], [[Pat Williams (Montana politician)|Pat Williams]] (b. 1937).<ref name= barker />{{Rp |38}}<ref name= eknievel>{{cite news |last= Emeigh |first= John Grant |title= Book Offers Fresh Look at Evel Knievel |newspaper= Billings Gazette |date= July 27, 2011 |url= http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_216e8361-dbe7-5730-ba45-975128d62942.html |access-date= August 10, 2011 |archive-date= September 24, 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170924093541/http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_216e8361-dbe7-5730-ba45-975128d62942.html |url-status= live }}</ref>

Knievel left [[Butte High School (Butte, Montana)|Butte High School]] after his sophomore year. He got a job in the copper mines as a diamond drill operator with the [[Anaconda Mining Company]]; however, Knievel preferred motorbiking to what he called "unimportant stuff".{{citation needed|date=May 2016}} He was promoted to surface duty, where he drove a large [[earth mover]]. Knievel was fired when he made the earth mover do a motorcycle-type [[wheelie]] and accidentally drove it into Butte's main power line, leaving the city without electricity for several hours.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10250075 |title= Evel Knievel |newspaper= The Economist |date= December 6, 2007 |access-date= August 5, 2010 |archive-date= September 4, 2009 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090904011459/http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10250075 |url-status= live }}</ref>

Knievel's website says that he chose his nickname after spending a night in jail in 1956 after being arrested for reckless driving. In the same jail that night was a man named William Knofel, who had the nickname “Awful Knofel”; this led to Knievel being referred to as “Evel Knievel”.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Man They Wanted Me to Be: Toxic Masculinity and a Crisis of Our Own Making|last=Sexton|first=Jared Yates|date=2019|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C-EREAAAQBAJ|publisher=Counterpoint|isbn=978-1640091825|access-date=November 16, 2021|archive-date=January 14, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114044411/https://books.google.com/books?id=C-EREAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The Man: Life of Evel Knievel|url=https://evelknievel.com/pages/the-man|access-date=November 16, 2021|archive-date=November 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211116151130/https://evelknievel.com/pages/the-man|url-status=live}}</ref>

Seeking new thrills and challenges, Knievel participated in local professional [[rodeo]]s and [[ski jumping]] events, including winning the Northern Rocky Mountain Ski Association Class A Men's ski jumping championship in 1959. During the late 1950s, Knievel joined the [[United States Army]]. His athletic ability allowed him to join the track team, where he was a [[pole vault]]er. After his army stint, Knievel returned to Butte, where he met and married his first wife, Linda Joan Bork. Shortly after getting married, Knievel started the Butte Bombers, a semi-pro hockey team.<ref name=barker/>{{Rp |21}}

To help promote his team and earn some money, he convinced the [[Czechoslovakia men's national ice hockey team|Czechoslovak Olympic ice hockey team]] to play the Butte Bombers in a warm-up game to the [[1960 Winter Olympics]] (to be held in California). Knievel was ejected from the game minutes into the third period and left the stadium. When the Czechoslovak officials went to the box office to collect the expense money that the team was promised, workers discovered the game receipts had been stolen. The [[United States Olympic Committee]] ended up paying the Czechoslovak team's expenses to avoid an international incident.<ref name= barker />{{Rp |21–22}} Knievel tried out with the [[Charlotte Checkers (1956–1977)|Charlotte Clippers]] of the [[Eastern Hockey League]] in 1959, but decided that a traveling team was not for him.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://theehl.blogspot.ca/2011/02/proof-evel-knievel-tried-out-withthe.html?m=1|title=Proof: Evel Knievel Tried Out With The Charlotte Clippers|last=Telaar|first=Tom|date=February 21, 2011|website=The EHL|access-date=February 9, 2018|archive-date=February 9, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180209122242/http://theehl.blogspot.ca/2011/02/proof-evel-knievel-tried-out-withthe.html?m=1|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://clture.org/hockey-charlotte-checkers/|title=Hockey Has a Checkered History in the Queen City|last=Gilligan|first=Matt|date=September 15, 2016|website=CLTure|access-date=February 9, 2018|archive-date=February 9, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180209182241/https://clture.org/hockey-charlotte-checkers/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | title=Numbelievable! | page=142 | first1=Michael X.| last1=Ferraro | first2=John | last2=Veneziano | publisher=Triumph Books | place=Chicago | year=2007 | isbn=978-1572439900}}</ref>

After the birth of his first son, Kelly, Knievel realized that he needed to come up with a new way to support his family financially. Using the [[hunting]] and [[fishing]] skills taught to him by his grandfather, Knievel started the Sur-Kill Guide Service. He guaranteed that if a hunter employed his service and paid his fee, he would get the big [[game (food)|game]] animal desired or Knievel would refund his fee.

Knievel, after learning about the [[culling]] of [[elk]] in Yellowstone, decided to [[hitchhiking|hitchhike]] from Butte to [[Washington, D.C.]], in December 1961 to raise awareness and to have the elk relocated to areas where hunting was permitted. After this conspicuous trek (he hitchhiked with a {{convert |54|in|m|adj=mid|-wide|abbr=off|sp=us}} rack of elk antlers and a petition with 3,000 signatures), he presented his case to [[United States House of Representatives|Representative]] [[Arnold Olsen]], [[United States Senate|Senator]] [[Mike Mansfield]], and [[United States Secretary of the Interior|Interior Secretary]] [[Stewart Udall]]. Culling was stopped in the late 1960s.<ref>{{cite news |title= Montana Guide Hitch-Hikes Here to Save Elk Herd |work=The Washington Post and Times-Herald |date=December 12, 1961 |page= B4}}</ref>

After returning home to the west from Washington, D.C., he joined the [[motocross]] circuit and had moderate success, but he still could not make enough money to support his family. In 1962, Knievel broke his collarbone and shoulder in a motocross accident. The doctors said he could not race for at least six months. Still needing to help support his family, he again switched careers and sold insurance for the [[Aon Corporation|Combined Insurance Company of America]], working for [[W. Clement Stone]]. Stone suggested that Knievel read ''Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude'', a book that Stone wrote with [[Napoleon Hill]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hill |first1=Napoleon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8BQclAEACAAJ |title=Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude |last2=Stone |first2=W. |year=2007 |publisher=Gallery Books |isbn=978-1416541592 |language=en |access-date=March 27, 2022 |archive-date=January 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114044412/https://books.google.com/books?id=8BQclAEACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Knievel credited much of his later success to Stone and his book.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

Knievel was successful as an insurance salesman, but felt that his efforts were being unrecognized. When the company refused to promote him to vice president after he had been a few months on the job, he quit. Wanting a new start away from Butte, Knievel moved his family to [[Moses Lake, Washington]]. There, he opened a [[Honda]] motorcycle dealership and promoted motocross racing.<ref>{{cite news|last=Severo|first=Richard|title=Evel Knievel, 69, Daredevil on a Motorcycle, Dies|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/01/us/01knievel.html|access-date=March 7, 2011|newspaper=New York Times|date=December 1, 2007|archive-date=September 24, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924141948/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/01/us/01knievel.html|url-status=live}}</ref> During the early 1960s, he and other dealers had difficulty promoting and selling Japanese imports because of the steep competition of their auto industry, and the Moses Lake Honda dealership eventually closed. After the closure, Knievel went to work for Don Pomeroy at his motorcycle shop in [[Sunnyside, Washington]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f9knUbMrF8gC&q=1973%20spanish%20motocross%20grand%20prix&pg=PA80 |title=Evel: The High-Flying Life of Evel Knievel: American Showman, Daredevil, and Legend |author=Leigh, Montville |year=2011 |page=80 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing |isbn=978-0385533676 |access-date=February 1, 2017 |archive-date=January 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114044414/https://books.google.com/books?id=f9knUbMrF8gC&q=1973%20spanish%20motocross%20grand%20prix&pg=PA80 |url-status=live }}</ref> Pomeroy's son, [[Jim Pomeroy (motocross)|Jim Pomeroy]], who went on to compete in the [[Motocross World Championship]], taught Knievel how to do a ''[[wheelie]]'' and ride while standing on the seat of the bike.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f9knUbMrF8gC&q=1973%20spanish%20motocross%20grand%20prix&pg=PA81 |title=Evel: The High-Flying Life of Evel Knievel: American Showman, Daredevil, and Legend |author=Leigh, Montville |year=2011 |page=81 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing |isbn=978-0385533676 |access-date=February 1, 2017 |archive-date=January 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114044412/https://books.google.com/books?id=f9knUbMrF8gC&q=1973%20spanish%20motocross%20grand%20prix&pg=PA81 |url-status=live }}</ref>