Joe P: 0:00

You and Knievel were paired up and then

Eddie Langert: 0:02

Yeah,

Joe P: 0:02

fist fights or whatever's going on there

Eddie Langert: 0:06

We're getting around to the back nine and that's when he threw his club on about the 14th hole. And I flew back, I could feel the wind from it go by my head, and I got really fried and I went up to Evel and I just said, "If you ever do that again, I'm gonna take a divot right outta your forehead."

Heather: 0:28

Evel Knievel inspired millions of us with this courage and perseverance. We're building a museum so you can relive those memories and being reinvigorated with that spirit of bravery.

Evel Knievel: 0:41

My name is Evel Knievel. I'm a professional daredevil.

Heather: 0:45

Along the way we meet people involved in the life, the times, and the legacy of the King of Daredevils. Here with their stories is your host, Joe Friday.

Frank Gifford: 0:56

He will go.

Joe P: 0:58

And we are go. Hey listeners, it's Joe from the Evel Knievel Museum, and this is The Thrill Show and we have a fantastic guest today. Michael and Eddie Langert are joining us from Minnesota.

Michael Langert: 1:12

Good morning Joe. Yeah. So this is Eddie. This is Joe.

Eddie Langert: 1:15

Glad to meet you,

Joe P: 1:16

Eddie. Hello from the Evel Knievel Museum.

Eddie Langert: 1:19

Small world, my son, Jeff in Las Vegas, finished second yesterday in the Nevada Seniors Championship in the amateurs and He played with Evel Knievel's son.

Joe P: 1:36

Yesterday?

Michael Langert: 1:37

Yesterday.

Eddie Langert: 1:38

Yesterday.

Joe P: 1:39

Oh my gosh. That's cool.

Eddie Langert: 1:42

Yeah, yeah.

Joe P: 1:43

So he lives in Vegas?

Eddie Langert: 1:44

Yes, he lives in Vegas. Yeah.

Joe P: 1:47

Great. That's where our museum is going to move. We've got a lot ahead of us in the coming months. We've restored the Big Red trailer that Knievel had and about a dozen motorcycles or so, all of his leathers and helmets, and costumes, wardrobes that he wore and we've got a lot to move. Plus build a museum. Of course, the star of the show is Evel Knievel, and he's, well, not around. It's fun to, to learn about his friends and his cohorts and his companions and what's going on in this 1970s and Eighties around him. So I was hoping that we could talk about you for a few minutes, and how you got started and how you got this spark of entrepreneurship and sales experience. And then we can talk about the fateful day that, that you and Knievel were, I don't know, apparently paired up and then

Eddie Langert: 2:39

Yeah,

Joe P: 2:39

fist fights or whatever's going on there. and, eventually became friends. Eddie, I wanted to ask you about a famous story about you and Knievel and that relationship, but maybe we can go back to your younger days.

Eddie Langert: 2:57

I just, I loved my job and I love the golf business and I became a pro the week after I graduated from Lamar Tech in Beaumont, Texas in 1958, and I turned pro that week when I came home and I became a teaching pro in Minneapolis here at Frieden's Fairways. And then, went from there onto where I was a teaching pro at the very fine Jewish club here called Oak Ridge Country Club and the pro there would play the tour every year. So we play the winter tour together and I got a sponsor and then I played the full tour, that year 1960 I was 56th on the money list

Joe P: 3:44

Before you met Knievel, somebody came up with the innovative stainless steel faced golf club, right?

Eddie Langert: 3:51

Yeah, the Metalwood.

Joe P: 3:52

Yeah. Metalwood.

Eddie Langert: 3:54

I took 'em out on the tour where I had played and I knew these guys I was talking to Miller Barber and he is a good friend of mine Played many rounds as a rabbit with him before he was so famous and they said, what do you got now for me? A driving range club or something, you know, because I used to make them out of metal, so they'd last and everything at the driving range. And I said, no. I said, "I've got an innovation Miller." I said, "All I want you to do, I got 16 of these clubs and I want you to try one." And that's so I could can go back to McHenry, Illinois where our company is and to Gary Adams, who's the president, and tell them I had Miller Barber try it and then there were a couple other stars there and I said, just hit a few balls with it. So in those days we had caddies that had practice bags of a hundred or 200 balls in them, and they'd be out in the field. And Miller was hitting balls to his caddy with three woods, and he took one one of these super spoons from me and he hit it. And that caddy, just watched go over his head 30 yards and he said, "what in the world?" He said, "what's the deal on these?" I said, "Well, Miller, That's the sad part for me. Right now, we have to charge 20% off a wholesale to the pros because we're just starting out. So it'd be $32. 60, I think $32 and 60 cents if you want one." I think I had 16 of them, the first ones that had come in and I said, let me go out there cause I played with these guys and I can get 'em in their hands. And so I broke, drove down through a storm from McHenry, Illinois.

Michael Langert: 5:54

That was in the early days, the very early days where they were trying to struggle to get those clubs in the hands. And have demo days where people could try them out because they believed so much in the performance of the club, that that was key to success. And so, a very critical trade show event down in Florida every year, the annual PGA show in certainly in the early years of the company, they wrote a tremendous percentage of their annual business at that show. And Gary and Eddie were at that show in Florida getting ready for that show. When they

Eddie Langert: 6:30

Disney, it was held at Disney World

Michael Langert: 6:33

and that's where they met Evel during one of those early year trips to the show.

Eddie Langert: 6:38

Evel talked to Gary and he said, I want to get together. I got a proposal for you guys. He said, you gotta come over to Key Largo and meet me you and Gary. That's how it all started. And so we're at this Red Carpet Inn and they're the most reasonable motel. So we drove over to Key Largo. We were in Kissimee, Florida in a little Red Carpet Inn, and I have guys come up and say,"Hey, I was at the Red Carpet Inn when you guys made your happening happen." And so every night at the Red Carpet Inn they had a bar and I went into the gal that was the manager and I said, we want to give a club away one of these new metalwood clubs, and we do it at 10 o'clock and we fill your bar up. She says, "Sounds great to me." So that's what we started doing it every night. Gary came two weeks later down and that's when we drove over to Key Largo to meet Evel and that's how it occurred. We met him and he said, I have a proposal I want to put up for you guys. So after we go over to meet Evel, we have this day and it ends up. Kind of great for us, but it was touchy there for a little while because he threw a club on about the 14th hole and I got

Michael Langert: 8:20

there was two rounds you had with Evel, right?

Eddie Langert: 8:22

We were there and we were gonna just meet him and talk, have a round with him, he was a one handicap at that time. He could really play, so he wanted to play. And I said, Gary, we don't have any money. You came down, you got 20 bucks or something. And I got $22. Evel wanted to play Nassau for 25 bucks, and I said, "Gary, we can't, can't, we can't do that..." Twenty five dollar Nassau, it gets real costly with presses and everything, So I said, "We don't want to..." He said, "oh, just let it go. Let it go. Let it go."

Joe P: 9:02

Mm-hmm.

Eddie Langert: 9:03

So we let it go and Gary made the bets and they were more than we could afford. And so anyway, he's beating the tar out of us. Evel is, both of us. Gary's about a five, six handicap and Evel he said, oh, I'll give you five shots. And what about Eddie? He said, I'll play you even. So we played, and of course we're losing both of us and we're getting around to the back nine and that's when he threw his club on about the 14th hole. And I flew back, I could feel the wind from it go by my head, and I got really fried and I went up to Evel-- little E Langert going up-- and I just said, "If you ever divot right outta your forehead." I touched him, and he just kinda, he didn't know what to do. Well, to make a long story short, he damn near lost every hole from there in, and he kept pressing and doubling up and everything and it got outta hand to 1,750 bucks, and Gary won 20 bucks and I won around 1,750 and we took the carts over, I'll never forget that little trail, hundred yards over to the Big Red bus that he had. He opened that puppy up, he took out the purse and he paid us. And so I was gonna try to thank him. He said," Don't thank me." He said, "I've got reservations for you and Gary tonight at the hotel." He said," I want a chance to get my money back." We said, okay. So we go in and we have a nice dinner and we go and we get to the course the next day. He said, "Well, okay." He said, "I'm gonna play you for$1,751 , and I'm gonna play you, Gary, for $55" or something. Anyway, it was so that if he won, he'd only win five bucks or 10 bucks. really he was trying to do everything he could to make us happy. So when now we're have dinner and we're on the way home and it's in the middle of the night because we have to drive across Florida from Largo, to Kissimee and I said, "Hey, I got a great idea. You know, those special chicken wings that we could buy from a place there in Kissimee" we'd been buying those, buying a box of a dozen and we'd split 'em up and I said, "Hey, why don't we get a WING IT ON TAYLOR MADE party?" And I got back to the motel and I went into that bar manager and I said, "How about it?" She said, "yeah." She said, "Why don't you get a big banner and hang it up on the side of the motel saying when you're going to do this deal?""How would Wednesday night be?" So we started out and we got a big big sign.

Michael Langert: 12:17

"A Thousand chicken wings sponsored by Evel Knievel Gambling Winnings"

Eddie Langert: 12:22

And so we got, I went into the guy and I said, " Can you get me a thousand chicken wings?" He said, "can you pay for them?" He said, "If you can pay for them, I'll have them ready when you want them." I gave them the order. So we end up with 1000 chicken wings and a boom box with Kenny Rogers music and everything, and right in front of our motel. And I had permission from the manager. And so we had our display out there of all the clubs, , and there were guaranteed sale. If you buy it and you can't sell it, you can send it back and get full credit for it. Mm-hmm. Well, that was the secret to the whole, whole deal. And so we set our, our box up outside of the door and we just wrote business like crazy and we had a big jug of every kind of whiskey. We bourbon and Canadian Club and vodka and everything. And the, and Chicken wings, pros loved it. So anyway, Evel was gonna help us. He said, "Hey, I'll come over, I'll wear my suit and I'll come over to, Kissimee during the show at Disney World." And he said, I'll bring, and he said he'd bring about a hundred pictures. Well, he bought about 300 pictures, autographed them all for these guys.

Michael Langert: 13:57

That was in his leathers, right?

Eddie Langert: 13:58

Yeah. He had his suit on and his signed the thing,

Michael Langert: 14:01

his leathers, so his costume, right?

Eddie Langert: 14:03

Yeah. Right. Yeah. It was just wonderful. And all the pros, they valued these pictures of Evel, of course autographed by him, and so we gave all those out. And that got us off on the right foot. And I got there and the first guy I saw, I said, "Man, do I have something for you!" And his name is Joe Taylor, and he's from Virginia. Great player. So we became friends there and I had him hit balls right out the Red Carpet Inn off the grass there just up, I had some balls and I just put, I said, just hit them up. And he hit them and he says"What are these gonna cost?""$34.60, thank you very much." And that got it started. And there's 200 rooms in this Red Carpet Inn, and they're all coming down to the bar every night. And because we were just a little company starting out, they gave us Room 340 way in the back. The pros had to... it was like a par four to get to our room, but we had them trailing all the way, finding our room. And writing orders for Metalwoods at that show. And I think we, we sold about, two or three million dollars. Got us going. We had 42 chicken wings left the following morning

Joe P: 15:32

ha.

Eddie Langert: 15:32

When it was all over out of a thousand chicken wings. The guys loved it and they just, they'd come up to me,"Hey, I was at your party.""I was at your party." We got sixteen of them, $32 and 60 cents from the pros in the Darrell Survey that they take every week. It's a concise report of what's in their bags. We got six of the clubs played in the tournament that Saturday, and so that was a great step forward for us with the pros, you know, with them giving approval of it. And of course it caught on right away. A tour spoon, that's what it was, a 13 degree three wood and it was powerful and you could knock it outta sight. I mean, it was with a two-piece ball with a Spalding Top Flight ball, you could hit it, I'm not exaggerating, you could go 50 yards further than with a three wood. We called it Pittsburgh Persimmon.

Joe P: 16:38

What a great name. Where'd that name come from?

Eddie Langert: 16:40

Well, it came from the Golf Pro in San Clemente Public Golf course out in California, and I got a list of all these sales in the whole United States, and he had about $5,000 worth of sales of that club already when we weren't really in business, hardly. And so I just picked up the phone and I called him. His name was Alan Cook and he was the pro at the San Clemente Golf Course in California, Southern Cal, just south of Camp Pendleton there. And he was really a cool guy. And I just called and introduced myself and I said, Hey, this is Eddie Langert and I was from the Midwest. I was president of Wisconsin PGA and everything. As soon as he knew I was a PGA member and everything, he relaxed and I said, how in the world, Alan, do you sell all the metalwoods that you do when they're such a brand new product? I said, how in the world do you sell so many of these things that quick? He said, I got that big board right out there where they walk in. It says "Pittsburgh Persimmon, Try It You'll Buy It.", and so they leave their driver's license with him or a credit card and they go out and play. And he said, if I get 50 people to do that, 48 of them buy it because it, it's really a new innovation. He came up with that name and I said, Allen, I said, would you allow me to use that? Oh, he says, sure, run with it. Do the best you can . That's what I mean by him being a great guy. And so I had his permission and right away we put that right on into the mold at the casting house, Pittsburgh Persimmon. A real neat, with our advertising agency who drew up a thing, put it right in the toe of the club the next week and we sold a bunch of them. It was dynamic. What he did, he was genius. And so then later I gave him a trophy and then here's a little background to this. I gave him a trophy "Mr. Pittsburgh Persimmon thank you, from TaylorMade Golf" and he says, you know, I hate to tell you this. I was selling them so quick, I was running out. I took the head that was in the trophy and made a club out of it and sold it.

Joe P: 19:21

oh my gosh.

Eddie Langert: 19:24

I think that's kinda cute. His son is pro there. David, his son is pro at that same course. It's a beautiful public course in San Clemente, but he was just, he was on our team from the first day, you know, because he could see it was a coming thing and it was, coming and that was massive and it just took off.

Michael Langert: 19:47

So the company shortly after that moved from McHenry, Illinois out to Carlsbad, California suburb of San Diego, and that's when Eddie moved out to

Eddie Langert: 19:57

Delmar,

Michael Langert: 19:58

Delmar, California. So then later on as they kept their friendship, he had Evel over to his house out in Delmar.

Eddie Langert: 20:06

So I said, now you come up, "Come to the factory, we'll custom fit you to everything and get you going with a big staff bag and everything." So we had a good relationship. And then I had him to my house there in Delmar. I lived in Delmar at that time and I had him to my house and I cooked steaks on the grill for him. Yeah. And then I got a gorgeous picture I asked Evel, this is interesting. I said, how could you possibly paint a picture of that beautiful? He said, He said, Eddie, he said, you know, I had 29 times I was in the hospital and I broke every bone in my body just about. And so , he said I just thought about it and thought about it and I tried it and that's how it came out. He said, I didn't know if I could or not, so I just tried it. He's got a bird in flight. That's just, it's an awesome picture, especially for somebody that likes sports, you know? Oh God.

Joe P: 21:10

Yeah. I see that. I'm looking at it right now. It, it's got a pheasant maybe, and some birch trees there.

Michael Langert: 21:21

Yes.

Joe P: 21:22

Yeah,

Michael Langert: 21:22

he has a copy of it.

Eddie Langert: 21:24

Oh, it's a duck in flight. Yeah, and the birch trees and everything. And I couldn't believe that anybody could just paint something that didn't know how to paint or that wasn't an artist. He didn't know he was an artist, but he was a great artist.

Joe P: 21:40

Yeah.

Eddie Langert: 21:40

And I, I cherish that picture that I have right here in my home Living Room. He was a, he was a different sort of a person. He had a good idea when we met and he wanted to be a salesman for Taylor Made I said, Evel, we love you. You've been great for us. You've got all these people down here at Key Largo, playing with the club and everything. But I said I've already hired 32 salesmen to cover the United States, and I'm going to give you staff bag with custom fit clubs the whole deal. We're happy to do that. We can't give you a territory or anything because I already, the territories are gone with salesman. They're gonna earn their living that way. And then he understood after that. Yeah. And, and he, he was very cordial about meeting.

Joe P: 22:40

How hard was it to tell him no? He did a sensational one-off sales event for you and signed autographs and sold out of clubs right?

Michael Langert: 22:53

He's asking how hard was it to tell Evel, Evel was so instrumental in you, your success there to have to look him in the eyes and say, sorry, we don't have a spot for you

Eddie Langert: 23:03

Well, then of course we came into that where I had already hired 32 salesman from friends that Gary and I both had at Taylor Made. I think I told you it was awkward because I said I've already hired these guys and committed to them, they're gonna earn their living that way. Being our 32 salesmen, covering the whole United States. And I said, they're all as good as they come. I mean, they're really good and they're, you know, they were perfect. They were all PGA guys and members of the PGA. Now they're all dying. And I read their obituaries in the PGA Magazine. Two of them died last month. Yeah. But anyway, they were just a grand group of guys that really could sell golf clubs. And so I was lucky to have them. I was in college at the time and I was working in the factory during the early days and in those days I used to sneak away and just bring a brown bag lunch and eat it in my dad's office there and about 10 or 12 years ago, Eddie and I had the pleasure of taking a tour of their new manufacturing facility out in Carlsbad. And we happened to pause and just take a breather in the cafeteria. And while we were sitting there, they had a scoreboard- like sign in the cafeteria and it was rolling a message across."Congratulations, Taylor Made employees for 2 billion in sales for the first quarter." we looked at each other and said, we've come a long way from the bagged lunches in your office. Haven't we? When we were selling 250,000 a year and now they sell 2 billion in a quarter. So it was quite the journey. We just looked at each other and reflected wow. Yeah. And then I, let me get a thing in about Michael. He was just in college at that time and I had him selling over the phone, which is a difficult thing. You gotta have a skill to do that. And a personality and one of the executives in the board of directors said, I think you ought to hire him as a sales manager for the whole company. Anyway, that was a good sidelight because he just had a, he has a personality that can get along with the heavy hitters and, talked their language over the telephone, and that was a skill I, even hate to try to sell over the phone like he did, but I'd have guys from Miami, big hitters at, these kind of discount stores that were starting up at that time, they'd say, boy, your son, he can really sell. When I got my order and I thought I'd ordered a thousand dollars worth of, clubs and I got about $3,000 worth . Well, he said I sold them all. Yeah.

Joe P: 26:04

Good way to go, Michael. Good job., I grew up in a family business too, not like that, but, more like the 250,000 rather than the 2 billion. But yeah, , we've done it all. We've been on the shop floor and we've sold on the phone and we're the ones that do the cold calls and... Michael Langert: It's just great to you put blood, sweat, and tears into and put your heart into and then to see it become a success. Of course, we had been removed from the company for 40 years, but it still was quite a day to look back and see that message scrolling across the big sign.

Eddie Langert: 26:43

Yeah. I remember in the back, in the old days, right in the beginning of Taylor Made, I went to the board of directors and I said, I have a chance to sign up Jan Stephenson.

Joe P: 26:53

Mm-hmm.

Eddie Langert: 26:54

And I said, I called Lloyds of London and I can ensure a contract for her for two years, and it's $26,000 to cover it. It's insurance, that's all it is. Lloyd's of London wrote the policy and it took me two weeks going back to three or four meetings with the board and I said, she's right on the verge of becoming one of the outstanding stars in the world. And I finally got them to agree to the 26,000 and what it did, it paid her 50,000 if she won a major. And she won two of them that year. Then the next year I signed Curtis Strange, same type of a deal, and guess what he did? He just won the open two years in a row. So I didn't have a hard time get convincing the board to insure these things, but I remember that as one of the things that I sold them to the Board. And then I remember waking up at 4:30 in the morning and, my wife said, what are you doing? And I said, I just thought of a great name and I have to register them all with the lawyers tomorrow morning. And it was "Tour Preferred" and they still use that on their ball. TP5 is what they have on the side of their golf ball today, TP 5 , and I remember getting up and writing that down so I wouldn't forget it at 4:30 in the morning and the next morning at nine o'clock I was in the lawyer's office and I registered Tour Preferred. I've done a bunch of names with them, but that was the best one that we had fun with, you know?

Joe P: 28:55

Yeah. It's funny how that stuff comes anytime it doesn't come while you're working away sweating and studying

Eddie Langert: 29:02

When you love your work --I don't feel like I ever had to go to work. One thing led to another and I've had such a good life that I'm an old fuddy duddy right now sitting here, up here in snow outside and everything. But I've had a great life.

Joe P: 29:28

There's not a better person that could have happened to send us some of the snow for Christmas. We'll, be ready. But not until then

Eddie Langert: 29:37

Thanks a million. It was a real pleasure. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day both. Thank

Joe P: 29:45

thank

Eddie Langert: 29:45

you. Hope God blesses you with many peaceful days to come.

Michael Langert: 29:49

Best of luck with your venture, Joe. It was fun to

Eddie Langert: 29:52

It sounds exciting. Sounds very exciting.

Joe P: 29:56

I hope you guys can make it out. Until then, happy landings.

Michael Langert: 30:00

Okay, likewise.

Eddie Langert: 30:01

Take care. Nice to have met you.

Joe P: 30:03

You too.

Heather: 30:05

All right. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe. It's our mission to preserve and present the legacy of Evel Knievel. So if you have an idea for an episode or a guest --or have a suggestion to improve our show-- just drop us a line at Joe@Thrill.Show.

Evel Knievel: 30:25

I just think the Evel Knievel way.

Heather: 30:31

We leave you with the encouraging words from the book of Deuteronomy. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified for the Lord your God goes with you. He will never leave you or forsake you. Until next time, happy landings.

Joe Friday: 30:51

If you like to fly by the seat of your pants, this is where you belong.