No Bones About It — Evel Knievel Holds the Record For Most Breaks

By Commonplace Fun Facts on August 10, 2021 • ( Leave a comment )

Evel Knievel Holds the World Record for the Most Broken Bones

Do you think life has handed you some tough breaks? Odds are that as bad as things get for you, you haven’t had as many tough breaks as Evel Knievel.

Robert Craig Knievel (October 17, 1938 – November 30, 2007), was one of the most famous stuntmen in history. As a boy, he had many run-ins with the law, including an incident at age 13 when he stole a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. This led to him getting the nickname “Evil” Knievel. He later modified the name to “Evel” and adopted it as his legal name.

Throughout his 12-year career of active stunts, Knievel attempted more than 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps. Known by his professional name as Evel Knievel, was an American stunt performer and entertainer. Over the course of his career, he attempted more than 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps, with his longest being 141 feet (43 meters) over the fountain at Las Vegas’ Caesar’s Palace.

Another accomplishment during his career is one he probably didn’t aspire to. He holds the Guinness World Record for the most broken bones in a lifetime. His 84 completed jumps earned him 433 broken bones. that averages out to a little more than 5 broken bones per jump.

A visit to the Evel Knievel Museum in Topeka, Kansas will give you a chance to examine the breaks — and the stunts — in greater detail. An X-ray display shows all 433 broken bones, allowing visitors to touch the break and see an explanation of what Knievel was doing when it occurred.

While many of Knievel’s injuries occurred during practices, the following list shows the injuries that occurred during professional stunts.

	Date	Location	Obstacle	Outcome	Injuries
1	1965	Moses Lake, Washington	Rattlesnakes and two Mountain Lions	Successful	Sprained ankle
2	January 23, 1966	Indio, California	Two pick-up trucks	Successful	None
3	February 10, 1966	Barstow, California	A speeding motorcycle	Missed jump	Groin injured
4	June 1, 1966	Post Falls, Idaho	12 Cars	Successful (First jump over cars)
5	June 19, 1966	Missoula, Montana	13 cars	Landed short	Knocked unconscious/broken arm/broken ribs
6	October 30, 1966	Butte, Montana	14 cars	Successful	None
7	November 19, 1966	Tucson, Arizona	10 Dodge Cars	Successful	None
8	March 25, 1967	Ascot Park Gardena, California	15 cars	Successful	None (video of first televised jump)
9	June 1967	Ascot Park Gardena, California	16 cars	Successful	None
10	July 28, 1967	Tacoma, Washington	16 cars	Fell off landing	Light concussion
11	August 18, 1967	Tacoma, Washington	16 cars	Successful	None
12	September 24, 1967	Monroe, Washington	16 Chevrolets	Successful	None
13	November 24, 1967	San Francisco, California	Three Motorcycles	Successful	None
14	November 25, 1967	San Francisco, California	Triumph Banner	Successful	None
15	November 26, 1967	San Francisco, California	Volkswagen bus and a van	Successful	None
16	December 2, 1967	Long Beach Arena Long Beach, California	10 cars	Successful	None
17	December 31, 1967	Caesar’s Palace Las Vegas, Nevada	Caesars Palace Fountains	Crashed on landing	29-day hospital stay[2]/broken ribs/broken hip/crushed pelvis (footage of crash)
18	May 25, 1968	Scottsdale, Arizona	13 cars	Crashed on landing	Broken leg/fractured foot
19	August 3, 1968	Meridian, Idaho	13 cars	Successful	None
20	August 26, 1968	Spokane, Washington	13 cars	Successful	None
21	September 7, 1968	Missoula, Montana	13 cars	Successful	None
22	September 1968	Salt Lake City, Utah	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
23	October 13, 1968	Tahoe-Carson Speedway Carson City, Nevada	10 cars	Struck top of box truck short of landing ramp	Broken shoulder/broken hip
24	April 1969	Los Angeles, California	8 cars	Successful	None
25	July 6, 1969	Gardena, California	17 Cars	Successful	None
26	January 23, 1970	San Francisco, California	11 cars	Successful	None
27	April 5, 1970	Seattle International Raceway Kent Washington	13 cars	Successful	None
28	April 5, 1970	Seattle International Raceway Kent Washington	18 cars	Successful	None
29	May 10, 1970	Yakima Speedway Yakima, Washington	13 Pepsi trucks	Landed on ramp and fell	Broken collarbone
30	June 19, 1970	Vancouver, Canada	12 cars	Successful	None
31	July 4, 1970	Kent, Washington	19 cars	Lost traction in wet grass on approach and landed short on edge of safety ramp. Crashed on down-ramp.	Cracked ribs/fractured vertebrae
32	August 16, 1970	Pocono Raceway Long Pond, Pennsylvania	No obstacles between ramps	Crashed on landing	Cracked vertebrae/broken shoulder/broken hand
33	December 12, 1970	Lions Drag Strip Los Angeles, California;	13 cars	Successful	None
34	January 2, 1971	Astrodome Houston, Texas	13 cars	Successful	None
35	February 1971	Ontario Motor Speedway Ontario, California	19 cars	Successful	None
36	March 1971	Chicago, Illinois	Unknown	Successful	None
37	July 1971	Madison Square Garden New York City, New York	9 cars and 1 van	Successful	None
38	July 1971	Buffalo, New York	13 vehicles	Successful	None
39	July 1971	Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania	12 Stegmaier Beer trucks	Successful	None
40	August 27, 1971	The Spectrum Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	8 cars and 1 van	Successful	None
41	September 16, 1971	Great Barrington, Massachusetts	16 cars	Lost control after landing	None
42	September 18, 1971	Great Barrington, Massachusetts	10 cars	Successful	None
43	September 25, 1971	Hutchinson, Kansas	10 Kenworth trucks	Successful	None
44	October 10, 1971	Lakeside Speedway, Kansas City, Kansas	14 Dodge Colts	Successful	None
45	October 21, 1971	Portland, Oregon	12 cars and 2 vans	Successful	Broken hand on landing
46	January 23, 1972	Tucson, Arizona	12 cars and 3 vans	Successful	None
47	February 1972	Chicago, Illinois	Unknown	Successful	None
48	March 2, 1972	Cow Palace San Francisco, California	12 cars	Successful	None
49	March 3, 1972	Cow Palace San Francisco, California	15 cars	Crashed on landing	Broken ankle/bruised ribs/bruised hand
50	March 1972	Detroit, Michigan	13 cars	Crashed into wall after landing	Broken collarbone
51	April 1972	Plymouth, California	100 rattlesnakes and 2 vans	Successful	None
52	June 11, 1972	Atlanta, Georgia	13 Cadillacs	Overshot practice jump	Hurt both hands/compression fracture in back
53	June 17, 1972	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma	3 cars	Successful	None
54	June 18, 1972	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma	5 cars and 2 vans	Successful	None
55	June 25–26, 1972	East St. Louis	10 cars	Successful	None
56	July 30, 1972	Castle Rock, Colorado	7 trucks and 4 cars	Successful	None
57	September 1–2, 1972	Monroe, Washington	22 cars	Cleared 21 cars and hit safety deck	None
58	January 5–7, 1973	Las Vegas, Nevada	Several jumps leading up to 13 vans	Successful	None
59	February 18, 1973	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, California	50 piled cars	Successful	None
60	February 23–25, 1973	Cleveland, Ohio	Unknown	Successful	None
61	March 2–4, 1973	Uniondale, New York	Unknown	Successful	None
62	March 16–18, 1973	Atlanta, Georgia	Unknown	Successful	None
63	March 23–25, 1973	Chicago, Illinois	Unknown	Successful	None
64	March 30, 1973	Detroit, Michigan	Unknown	Successful	None
65	April 13–15, 1973	St. Paul, Minnesota	Unknown	Successful	None
66	April 27–29, 1973	Cincinnati, Ohio	Unknown	Successful	None
67	June 22–24, 1973	Union Grove, Wisconsin	13 cars	Successful	None
68	July 29, 1973	Providence, Rhode Island	Unknown	Successful	None
69	October 6–7, 1973	Kaukauna, Wisconsin	10 cars and 3 trucks	Crashed during repeat show	Fractured hand/bruised back/bruised kidneys
70	October 20, 1973	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	13 vehicles	Successful	None
71	February 17, 1974	Green Valley Raceway North Richland Hills, Texas	11 Mac trucks	Successful, landed at bottom of ramp	compression fracture in back
72	March 29, 1974	Portland Memorial Coliseum Portland, Oregon	10 cars and 7 vans	Successful	None
73	April 13, 1974	Fremont, California	10 Mac trucks	Successful	None
74	April 20, 1974	Irvine, California	10 Mac trucks	Successful	None
75	April 28, 1974	Kansas City, Missouri	10 Mac trucks	Successful	None
76	May 5, 1974	Tulsa, Oklahoma	10 Mac trucks	Successful	None
77	May 25–27, 1974	West Salem, Ohio	10 Mac trucks	Successful	None
78	August 20, 1974	Toronto, Ontario	13 Mac trucks	Successful	None
79	September 8, 1974	Twin Falls, Idaho	Snake River Canyon	Parachute deployed at launch, slammed into rocks on the river’s edge	Broken nose, minor scrapes and cuts
80	May 26, 1975	Wembley Stadium London, England	13 single-decker buses	Landed on 13th bus	Fractured pelvis/broken hand/concussion[3]
81	October 15, 1975	Kings Island	14 Greyhound buses	Landed on 14th bus	None (footage of jump)
82	October 11, 1976	Worcester, Massachusetts	3 jumps (4 vans then 7 vans, then 10 vans)	Successful	None
83	October 29–30, 1976	Kingdome Seattle, Washington	7 Greyhound buses	Successful	None
84	January 31, 1977	International Amphitheatre Chicago, Illinois	13 sharks	Crashed during practice jump	Fractured collarbone/fractured right arm/heavy bruising