March 22, 1978: The Death of Karl Wallenda

March 22, 1978: Karl Wallenda, the most famous daredevil of his era, dies doing what he loved.

He was born on January 21, 1905, in Magdeburg, in what was then Prussia in the German Empire. In 1922, he formed a high-wire-walking act with his brother Herman, and his eventual wife, Helen Kreis. They toured Europe, and when John Ringling saw them in Cuba, he hired them to America to perform for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

The Great Wallendas made their American debut at the then-new "old Madison Square Garden" in 1928. At some point, the press began calling them "The Flying Wallendas," and the name stuck. The troupe was not all members of the Wallenda family and their in-laws, but were mostly so.

On July 6, 1944, a fire broke out at the Circus' performance in Hartford, Connecticut, during the Wallendas' performance. It killed 167 people, and injured over 700. Wile none of the Wallendas were hurt, it was the 1st time their act had been touched by tragedy. It would not be the last.

The highlight of their act was a seven-person chair pyramid. On January 30, 1962, at the Michigan State Fair Coliseum in Detroit, the front man on the wire, Karl's nephew, Dieter Schepp, fell, and brought everyone down with him. Schepp and Karl's son-in-law Richard Faughnan were killed. Karl broke his pelvis. His adopted son Mario was paralyzed from the waist down. And Karl's niece, Dieter's sister, Jana Schepp, sustained a head injury.

The show went on, including the pyramid. Into his 60s, Karl performed high-wire walks that men half his age would have been crazy to do, including over the Tallulah Gorge in Georgia in 1970, across Veterans Stadium between games of a doubleheader in 1972, and 1,800 feet above the ground at the Kings Island amusement park outside Cincinnati in 1974.

On March 22, 1978, to promote the family's appearance at a circus in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Karl, 73 years old, tried to walk between the 2 towers of the 10-story Condada Plaza Hotel, 121 feet above the ground. He did it because he had heard that there were children who couldn't afford the admission fee, and he wanted them to see it.

There was no net. There were high winds. The wire was not properly secured. He slipped, and despite the long bar meant to help him keep his balance, he wasn't strong enough to hang on. He fell, and landed on a parked taxicab, and then fell to the ground. He never had a chance.

I was 8 years old, and saw the footage on ABC World News Tonight. Ironically, the reporter's name was James Walker. I never knew Karl was alive until I knew he was dead. It shook me up then.  

Karl once said, "The only place I feel alive is on the wire." He may have been a fool to try it at his age, and under those conditions. But there would have been no other way he would have wanted to go.

His great-grandson Nik Wallenda, not yet born when Karl died, now leads the troupe, having started in it at age 13. In 2010, he broke his father's Kings Island record by walking 2,000 feet above the ground. That same year, he completed the San Juan walk that Karl couldn't. He walked across Niagara Falls in 2012, and the Grand Canyon in 2013.

*

March 22, 1978 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash premiered on NBC. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 6 games played in the NBA that night:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Chicago Bulls, 105-99 at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, New Jersey. (It's now named the Jersey Mike's Arena.) Bernard King, not yet the star he would become, had 33 points and 18 rebounds.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 105-99 at the Boston Garden.

* The Washington Bullets beat the New Orleans Jazz, 124-109 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 120-108 at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City. (It's now named the Hy-Vee Arena.)

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Houston Rockets, 124-106 at The Summit in Houston. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 31 points for the Lakers, Calvin Murphy 36 for the Rockets. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Buffalo Braves, 97-92 at the Seattle Center Coliseum. Within 15 months, the Bullets and the Sonics had played each other in back-to-back NBA Finals, each team having won one; while the Braves had moved to San Diego and the Jazz to Salt Lake City.

There were 5 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the St. Louis Blues, 6-1 at the St. Louis Arena -- or, as it was known from 1977 to 1980, during Ralston Purina's ownership of the team, the Checkerdome. Ron Greschner, a defenseman, had a hat trick. Phil Esposito scored 2 goals, and Pat Hickey scored the other Ranger goal.

* The New York Islanders beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The Isles had 6 different scorers: Lorne Henning, Bryan Trottier, Denis Potvin, Billy Harris, Bob Nystrom and Stefan Persson.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Washington Capitals, 6-2 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. This would be the only season, out of the 6 they played in Denver before becoming the New Jersey Devils, that the Rockies made the Playoffs.

* And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Atlanta Flames, 4-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

There were 3 games played in the World Hockey Association:

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the New England Whalers, 5-3 at the Springfield Civic Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, where they were playing home games during the repair work on the Hartford Civic Center. (It's now named the MassMutual Center.)

* The Cincinnati Stingers beat the Houston Aeroes, 9-2 at the Riverfront Coliseum. (It's now named the Heritage Bank Center.)

* And the Birmingham Bulls beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

Also, Josh Heupel was born. He quarterbacked the University of Oklahoma to the 2000 National Championship. He is now the head coach at the University of Tennessee.