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They showed some of the contest LIVE on TV! Some really dope girl (Amy) was in the stands & wanted to meet me. So I talked to her and then went with her and her friend took me back to the dorms after the contest. We hung out there & drank in our room. A bunch of other riders were in my dorm as well. All the riders finally left and the girls stayed. Then I went & got Robbie Morales & he hooked up with Amy’s friend & I was down with Amy a bit. They had to leave at 1:30am, so they dropped us off at another party on their way out. We got there right when it was ending. We stole a bunch of beer & left. Came back & we messed with security & they chased us up a tree. It was a good fun night!”

Looking Back Now
Did you know that the X-Games were originally called the “Extreme Games?” This was the first one that they ever had. None of us knew what to expect. I remember that some guys got invited (like Brian Foster and Matt Pohlkamp) and they didn’t even show up! The dirt contest was on a Tuesday night, so I flew in on Sunday night after a race in Waterford. MI & then flew out on Thursday to another race in Evansville, IN.

What was so cool about the first couple of “Extreme Games” is that ESPN put ALL of the athletes in the local dorms. So we would all get together every night and go out and cause trouble. They would typically have parties for us in the local clubs as well. Keep in mind that first place was $5,000, not $50,000 like nowadays. And it wasn’t so much of a TV spectacle as it is now. So everything was more relaxed & there weren’t security guards everywhere at the contest and it was even free for people to come in and watch. 

Ahh, nothing like “a dope girl in the stands” wanting to meet me! Too bad I had to leave the next day for a race in Evansville. Kennan Harkin was quick to inform me later that he swooped in on her the next night. Oh wells, that’s the life of a BMXer.

Check out an excerpt from my journal entry from the night before: “…Then all of us went out to some club. I got kicked out for stealing beer from behind the bar. But I snuck back in. Later, Dave Mirra got in a fight with a bouncer and I jumped in & got carried out with everyone else. Then when we were out in front of the club, we started acting silly. We were doing some “Extreme” pissing on the club entrance. As we were leaving, the cops just pulled up. But we were out of there. Good timing.”

Man, how much trouble did we cause back in the day!? It’s safe to say that nowadays you won’t see Dave Mirra fighting bouncers at the X-Games parties. And you won’t see me pissing on the front door of nightclubs. Man, I can’t believe none of us ever got arrested! Dave and I were teammates on Haro at the time. Oh, and I ALWAYS used to try to steal beer from bars back in the day.

One thing to note at this first “Extreme Games” is that there was no BMX street contest. Only skate street & Rollerblade street. I’m not quite sure how that happened.

PHOTO: One Jump Check out the one jump madness! Yeah, that’s right. Pedal down the roll-in and sprint across the field and blast that ONE jump! That’s how it all began at the first ever “Extreme Games.”

-Todd Lyons
www.ToddLyons.com

I started keeping a daily journal way back in 1987 when I was only 15 years old. Back then I was a just a freshman in high school. Since then, every single freakin’ day of my life has been documented in these journals. If it happened in my life, then I wrote it down & documented it. And believe me; I’ve got some stories to tell! Looking back over the years, here is a journal entry that stands out and also my comments looking back now.