“His fame had little to do with the stunts he successfully pulled off and everything to do with the epic failures and wipeouts,” says Barker. “Besides…what else would he have done? Not only would he have missed the adrenaline rush of doing what he did, he’d have missed being in the limelight even more.”
The 38-year-old Knievel may have been on the downside of his career before his attempted leap over “the world’s largest indoor saltwater pool, which will be filled with man-eating killer sharks,” as the press release read. But he was still a major star when CBS approached him about a new live, primetime series to be called “Evel Knievel’s Death Defiers.” His jump, to take place at the Chicago International Amphitheatre on January 31, 1977, would be the main event of the much-hyped pilot episode that would also include other daredevil acts.
While Knievel and the show’s promoters played up the dangerous aspects of the jump, in the end, the distance to clear the tank was only 64 feet, which for Knievel was not a challenge. The sharks would also pose little threat. Jerry Clay, the man in charge of supplying them for the show, told The New York Times one week prior to the event: “If he should fall in, he’d spook those animals right out of the pool.” Clay was in Florida rounding up lemon and blue sharks, none that resembled the villainous Great White in Jaws.