A collector at heart, Tracy Cassel’s basement is covered with Gonzaga basketball lore, nods to Washington State football Rose Bowls, and countless autographs from the famous stuntman Evel Knievel.
Lots and lots of Knievel.
“I was his right-hand man on several projects,” Cassel said. “The takeoffs were perfect. The landings weren’t so good on some of them.”
50 years ago to the month, Evel Knievel attempted to jump the Snake River Canyon just outside Twin Falls, Idaho strapped inside a rocket. He came up short but escaped.
Cassel’s holds tight to memorabilia from the event and old pictures of their friendship since Knievel passed in 2007 from lung cancer.
“I never get sick of looking at it,” Cassel said. “I was adamant that he signed everything. It drove him nuts”
The pair met over a marketing stunt Cassel pulled for pizza delivery drivers; before the magnetic signs on top of the roof, Cassel was flying branded windsocks. Knievel thought it was clever.
“And he signed my prototype, I still have that prototype today,” Cassel said.
Right below Domino’s Pizza, surly, a faded Evel Knievel signature is still inked in the decades-old nylon. It didn’t take long for Cassel Promotions and Signs to earn the real signature that mattered – a contract to the marketing rights of world-famous Evel Knievel.
“It was on a napkin,” Cassel said. “The restaurant was at Flaherty’s.”
Flaherty’s on Sprague Avenue closed decades ago, and that napkin is nowhere to be seen. Cassel admits, lawyers had them draw a more formal agreement at a later date.
As their business partnership blossomed, so did their friendship.
“He would call me late at night – one or two o’clock in the morning – that he couldn’t sleep. We’d just talk. He’d tell me he loved me, and I’d tell him, I loved him,” Cassel said. “Had a very kind heart, and at times very, very generous.”
Cassel isn’t sure what he plans to do with all his memorabilia long-term; he just knows it needs to stay safe. And right now, the best spot for a museums worth of autographs and collectables is in his Spokane basement.
