Of Slapshots and Scorpions
He shattered records, bones, and probably a couple of wooden Sherwoods. But how was it that legendary motorcycle madman Evel Knievel made a Creston connection?
Locked Up — Evel Knievel in hockey uniform can be found in the Butte city jail where he supposedly received his nickname. Greg Nesteroff Photo
Daredevil motorcyclist, world-famous stunt performer, the godfather of extreme sports, and — unbeknownst to most — a small-town hockey player with a connection to the Kootenays.
Evel Kneivel, the 1970s pop culture icon, grew up in Butte, Montana where he skated for his high school hockey team. Then known as Bob Knievel, he was a gifted scorer whose hotheadedness earned him plenty of time in the penalty box.
“He was decent,” teammate Tom McManus told author Leigh Montville for his book Evel: The High-Flying Life of Evel Knievel. “On a scale of one to ten, he was a seven. But I’d trust him about as far as I could throw him. He was a real show-off; had to be the life of the party all the time.”
Knievel later joined the Copperleafs, the town’s senior hockey team whose main problem was finding competition. They weren’t in a league and their closest state rival was two-and-a-half-hours away in Great Falls, Montana — so they looked north of the border for potential opponents.
Top-flight senior teams from the Kootenays didn’t have time to travel to Butte for what amounted to exhibition matches, but intermediate teams could be enticed.
The Creston Del-Macs, with a top line of Yaqan Nuʔkiy (Lower Kootenay Band) players, first went to Butte in 1955. They returned three years later, rechristened as the Canucks, and beat Knievel’s Copperleafs 9-4 and 8-3. Knievel fought Creston’s Don Vigne.
“Coming from an area where babies are given hockey sticks instead of teething rings, the Canadians outskated the Leafs and played their positions better than the Butte rinksters,” wrote the Montana Standard of the games.
The Copperleafs were replaced the following season by the Bombers, whom Knievel coached and managed. They were described as semi-pro, which meant they charged admission to games and players were supposed to get $50 each. “We never got paid too often,” winger Tubie Johnson told Montville, “but I remember a couple of good meals. “
Bombing in Butte — Evel Knievel (then Bob Knievel, pictured with his team) the Butte Bombers in 1958-59. Greg Nesteroff Photo
That season the Bombers had better luck against Creston, taking two out of three games by scores of 8-6 and 9-1. Another fight broke out when Knievel went after Creston’s Gordon Bens in retaliation for high-sticking.
In the off-season, the Bombers made noise about joining the Western International Hockey League, to which Rossland, Trail, and Nelson belonged, but it came to naught. Instead, they spent another year as an independent team, but this time Creston wasn’t on their schedule. (For some reason, the Bombers didn’t play on the road, so Knievel never actually visited the Kootenays, as far as is known.)
Both the high and low point of the Bombers’ existence came when they convinced the Czechoslovakian national team to play them in a tune-up match ahead of the 1960 Olympics. Czechoslovakia won 22-3. “The score could have been 105-0 if the Czechs wanted, “Johnson said. “They were kind to us.”
At year’s end, facing a lawsuit for unpaid bills, the Bombers folded and Knievel’s hockey career was over. He was on to his next adventure.
Find this full-length story and more in The Trench’s Spring + Summer 2024 edition:
