Oregon daily emerald., March 30, 1978, Section A, Page 8, Image 8

Citizens want to honor ‘King of Cyclists’
By KEN HASWELL
Of the Emerald
Eugene will soon have its third
bicycle bridge to cross the Wil
lamette, and some Eugene citi
zens want to name it after Willie
Knickerbocker, king of cyclists.
More than 18 years ago, Knick
erbocker was known by almost
every kid in Eugene as "Willie.”
He gained his fame through his
bicycle antics in the annual
Emerald Empire Pet Parade.
Before his death in February
1960, at the age of 92, Knicker
bocker was considered one of
Eugene’s most colorful charac
ters, known far and wide for his
famous one-line letters to the
Register-Guard. He hand
delivered each one, standing in
the R-G’s newsroom holding his
letter until someone came to take
r
it. He signed his letters “W.K.”
Knickerbocker’s writings said
such things as: “I saw a rooster in
the rain, eating gravel to grind his
grain," and “There’s something to
environment. See how the hum
ming bird is better looking than the
buzzard.”
One said, “I saw Oregon go
from geese to gas.”
Knickerbocker was born in
Clayville, N.Y., October 5, 1867.
He had two sisters. When he was
five, his father moved the family to
Iowa to try merchandising and
then to Omaha to raise cattle. Fi
nally, in 1888, they settled on a
160-acre homestead in the
Deadmond Ferry area.
Over the years, the homestead
diminished until it consisted of a
small house on a single acre
where Willie Knickerbocker lived
1
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alone.
It was a 10-mile round trip to
Eugene from his house, and some
have said “it is not unlikely that
WK had pumped some 200,000
miles, or more, just whizzing trips
to town.”
In July 1892, Knickerbocker re
ceived his first bicycle. “Dear
Daddy took some white fir wood to
Eugene and traded it to Frank
Chambers for a solid tire bicycle
with a 30-inch wheel,” he recalled.
At 86 and after 60 years of
bicycling, Knickerbocker had
gone through many bikes and bike
parts. He had a habit of stripping
the fenders off his bike, and ac
cording to Bruce Witbeck, owner
of the Beverly Park Market, his
bikes were direct drive and with
out brakes. When he wanted to
stop, he’d use sheer leg power on
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the pedals.
Knickerbocker would pedal his
bike to Portland, to the coast, to
the Sisters and to the Dalles. Wit
beck says citizens of those com
munities all know Knickerbocker
as well as the citizens of Eugene
did.
“Willie always wore a baseball
cap and rubber boots,” Eugene
Postmaster Eathan Newman,
says. He was not the brightest
person, says Newman, yet he was
very pleasant and the school kids
loved him.
Knickerbocker would stop by
the old Willagillespie Grade
School during recess or after
school let out and put on a one
man bike show for the kids. He’d
do all of his tricks, including his
“High Kick.” Newman says the
more applause Knickerbocker re
ceived from the kids, the more
tricks he would do on his bike.
Harlow Schillios, a Register
Guard staff writer in 1953, de
scribes Willie’s “High Kick.” “His
favorite feat while rolling along is
to stand on the thin, personalized
frame with one foot on the seat,
t’other high in the air in a proud
arabesque.”
Knickerbocker was a small,
white-haired man about 5’4” and
104 pounds. He had a healthy tan
with “blue eyes watered by the
wind his speed creates. His legs
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were ‘like steel bands,’ Newman
says. He claims to have clocked
Willie at speeds up to 50 miles per
hour.
“Willie pedaled his bike to Ti
juana, Mexico and back to
Eugene before the roads were
paved,” Hallie Huntington, pres
ident of the Historical Society
says.
“Willie was the kind of guy that
would do anything for attention,”
Newman says. “If some bystan
ders applauded Willie as he rode
his bike past them during one of
the many parades he participated
in, Willie would ride his bike
around the block just to do more
tricks for the people,” Newman
recalls.
“He even challenged a horse to
a race,” Newman says, “But I was
too young at the time to remember
if he won.”
Huntington says Knickerbocker
was a quiet sort of person, would
pedal his bike into town, walk into
a local store, point at what he
wanted and then pull out a dirty
dollar bill to pay for it.
Eugene’s annual Pet Parade
was Knickerbocker’s event. He'd
polish his bike and then decorate it
with coon tails and crepe paper,
roll up his trousers, cock his
baseball cap and join the parade.
He did handlebar handstands and
High Kicks for the crowds. Some
times a wheelie or two.
Knickerbocker even liked to do
his tricks on top of Skinner’s Butte,
a place where very few bicyclist’s
go today, Newman says.
Knickerbocker died in a Eugene
convalescent home at the age of
92. He had been ill for several
years before his death.
Dan Sellard, who wrote
Knickerbocker’s obituary on Feb.
2, 1960, said Knickerbocker's as
sets proved to be less than $200.
“But poor though he was in
material possessions, Willie was
rich in fans and friends,” Sellard
wrote.
Sellard now says, “Willie’s liter
ature wasn’t quite good enough
for a library to be named for him.
But, by golly, his bike riding was
good enough for a bridge."
Keith Martin, assistant city
manager, says the city has been
trying to avoid naming structures
after people, and the mayor’s of
fice is not concerned at this time
about the new bridge’s name.
But Diane Bishop of the traffic
engineers office feels it would be a
good idea to name the new bridge
after Willie Knickerbocker. “It
would be great," she said.
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