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By:
Tim Lillethorup
Organized
BMX officially began around 1972 in Southern California. Legendary
Californians like Scot Breithaupt and Ernie Alexander are permanently
etched in our minds as the founders of BMX, and deserve their place
in BMX History.
But there
were also many others. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of kids who
fixed up their bikes simply to jump in the backyard or race in vacant
lots from New Jersey to Arizona.
This is the
story of BMX in Nebraska, a place that is often overlooked in popular
accounts of BMX history. But as you'll discover, Nebraska and it's
early riders played a key role in making BMX the exciting sport
it is today.
In the very
early days there were no specialized 20" BMX bikes, only Schwinn
Stingrays and look-a-likes from Huffy, Murray and Sears. My first
bicycle was a red Sears Spider, which had all the cool treatments
of that time period. Ape-hanger handle bars, banana seat and racing
slick rear tire. I learned to ride on the combination gravel/pothole
filled roads around the Keystone neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska.
Adjacent to Keystone, just to the North was a mysterious place we
called the "forest". By 1968 I was seven years old and
had enough courage to ride into the forest. What I found set the
stage for the rest of my life!
The forest was
filled with dirt trails, jumps and naturally banked turns. It was
a place that kids had been riding their bikes in for years! Nearly
thirty years later, a team of historians from the state of Nebraska
discovered that our forest was actually part of the Mormon Trail
that Brigham Young and the Mormons used to travel westward a century
earlier. The jumps and turns were formed by wagon ruts.
By 1970 I had
moved to a neighborhood on the west edge of Omaha called Sunnyslope.
It was here that I would meet a group of friends that would soon
become the backbone of BMX in Nebraska during the 1970's & 80's.
In Sunnyslope,
life centered around your 20" bike. You rode to school, the
park, your friend's house and as far as possible on one wheel. Riding
wheelies and jumping curbs was what a Stingray style 20" bike
was all about! By
the early 1970's we were holding after school dirt races on trails
at the nearby Papio Creek.
By 1975 something
very important also happened. We discovered organized BMX racing!
I can still feel the thrill of saying to my friends, "lets race
BMX!" They were the Heyden brothers, Chris and T.J., Steve Goodnight
and Brad Fanshaw. What a wild bunch!
Brad moved
to Omaha from San Diego and was bummed because he had to leave sanctioned
BMX races behind. There was no track in Omaha. He just had to race!
At an early
age, Brad was a promotional force. Along with Bill Gossin of Bill's
Bicycle Barn, Brad and his dad started one of the first BMX tracks
east of California. It was called Spinnin’ Spokes and was a winding
downhill track with a first jump that resembled a ski jump and launched
riders 40 feet in the air, down a long, gradual slope! At the end
of the slope was an S-shaped turn with large oak trees on each side.
One slip of the pedals and you would slam right into one of those
oak trees! We tied a mattress to a tree to soften the blow!
We all helped
with Spinnin’ Spokes and by the time race promoter Ron Holman took
it over in 1978, it was even on the NBA (National Bicycle Association)
Summer Tour.
The riders of
Lincoln can claim the first BMX track in Nebraska. It was called
Yankee Hill and it opened in 1976, several months before the track
in Omaha. Yankee Hill was an awesome downhill with a very fast opening
section leading to a first jump that launched riders off a 20-foot
drop! I'll never forget the feeling of adrenaline rushing through
my body when approaching that jump! I also remember a few riders
whose racing careers were cut short by it! The next year it was
graded down to extend the downhill section even further.
A friendly rivalry
began between Lincoln’s Yankee Hill racers and our group from Spinnin’
Spokes in Omaha. The elite Lincoln riders were sponsored by Mr.
Bike. We rode for Bill’s Bicycle Barn. The Mr. Bike team had Doug
Olson, Greg Grubbs, Rex Reason, Joe Baumert, Larry Woodruff, Dave
Czech, John Wells, Kevin Renker and many others, and were a powerful
force. Our team was a lot smaller but just as talented with Chris
and T.J. Heyden, Steve and Jeff Gavin, Tim Boren, Brad Fanshaw,
Doug Kahl (Lugnuts) and myself.
1978-1980
- The Pro Class.
BMX grew fast and furiously in Nebraska and the entire country.
Our success on the BMX circuit grew also. Southern Cal had Stompin'
Stu Thomsen but Omaha had Chris Heyden and Lincoln had Doug Olson,
two big, strong kids with the power to dominate racing in the Midwest.
We had our own
sanctioning group for the Midwest states, the CSBA, but it was pretty
much a joke, so we all joined the fledgling Arizona based ABA (American
Bicycle Association). Chris Heyden and I were founding members of
ABA's Pro Class.
Chris made BMX
history in another way too. He operated his own Omaha BMX track
called Gnarlsbad Raceway, a track that was way ahead of it’s time!
It resembled a stadium supercross track. It didn't cover a lot of
ground but had dozens of jumps, whoop-dee sections and tight turns.
Gnarlsbad was more than racing, it was a celebration of BMX. Every
race was like a festival! We'd arrive early to groom the track,
race and stay late into the evening to ride, hold jumping contests
and have a party!
Pro racing was
a thrill, and we took the competition seriously. We would race up
to three times per weekend. Saturday’s in Lincoln and Crete, Sunday’s
in Omaha. Which one of us won more Nebraska PRO races during that
stretch? Joe Baumert? Gregg Grubbs? Myself? If Joe and Greg are
reading, they know the answer! They called me "Elbows" Lillethorup
for good reason.
1980-1981
- The Cruiser Class.
My elbows
weren't a problem in 1980. It was a nasty shoulder separation. Here’s
a hot tip for the ages - don't slip your pedals while entering a
section of whoops. That injury was probably a blessing in disguise.
While healing up from the injury I discovered the BMX Cruiser class,
and the Cruiser class was very good to me.
The shoulder
injury kept me out of competition for the summer of 1980. I couldn’t
race but I could gently "cruise" around on a 26" Champion cruiser,
and eventually even jump it without hurting the shoulder.
ABA introduced
the Cruiser Class that same year and by Fall my shoulder had healed
and I was into 26" Cruiser racing in a big way! Chris Heyden quickly
got a 26" OM Flyer and we both dominated any Cruiser competition
we could find.
After a few
national races including a win in Omaha and a fourth place at the
Grandnationals, I finished 1980 ranked as #4 nationally behind Cruiser
icon Jeff Kosmala, DG's famous Kevin Harlow and the father of BMX,
Scot Breithaupt.
1981 - The
first
Pro Cruiser competition.
The Cruiser Class took on a life of it’s own. To really appreciate
it, and to want to compete in it, you had to possess certain qualities.
Or possibly lack certain qualities! Whatever the case may be, we
were all a little out there. Just look at one of the key players
- Scot Breithaupt. They don’t come more creative than Scot, the
undisputed true father of BMX, founder of SE Racing, inventor and
designer of some of the coolest bikes made including the Quadangle,
PK Ripper, OM Flyer and Floval Flyer.
Like Scot B.,
Chris and I were Cruiser evangelists. We lived a BMX dream that
year when we raced elbow to elbow with The Old Man. Chris fit the
mold of the quintessential Cruiser competitor. He was creative and
did things his own way. While we all wore full racing gear, Chris
wore a Hawaiian shirt in every competition!
My favorite
piece of BMX memorabilia is a Bob Osborn photo printed as a center
spread in BMX Action. It shows ten Pro Cruiser riders huddled together
at Chandler, Arizona and reads "The Pro Cruiser racers … forerunners
of a whole new breed of BMX competitor. These cruiser dudes are
strange people. They don’t seem to be hearin’ the same music the
rest of us are listening to…"
1981 was a turning
point for our pioneering group from Nebraska. Only four continued
to compete on a national level. Others had either moved on to high
school sports, motocross (the motor- powered kind), cars or in the
case of Chris, were engaged to be married. The field had narrowed
to Joe Baumert, Greg Grubbs, an occasional Chris Heyden and myself.
Joe and Greg
concentrated on the traditional 20" PRO class, absolutely dominated
A PRO racing, and quickly moving up to the AA PRO ranks where they
had top finishes and wins in ABA and NBL competition as well.
Brad and I moved
to Arizona in early 1982 to work as editors and photographers for
the American Bicycle Association, then owned and operated by it's
founder Merle Mennega and his partner from Texas, Gene Roden. This
opened another chapter for me and led to many new friendships and
racing experiences on the race tracks of Arizona.
Is There
Life After BMX In Nebraska?
There was a time and place when BMX meant more to us than anything.
We thought we would always be racing BMX. To this day there are
still times when, for brief moments, I travel back in time in my
mind's eye and see us all like we were then.
I often wonder
what path each of the early Nebraska riders took in life.
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