The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally takes place this week for the 84th time through South Dakota.
Local Indian Motorcycle dealer JC “Pappy” Hoel (1904-1989) was the father of the event, which is now the world’s premier celebration of motorcycles and the American way of life. The 10-day festival annually draws more than 500,000 motorcycle enthusiasts from across the United States and beyond to a remote corner of one of the nation’s least populated states.
“Pappy was the man who founded the brotherhood of motorcycles,” Coe Meyer, a Sturgis-based motorcycle historian, told Fox News Digital.
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“He is the reason why so many people come here today.”
Sturgis is located on the edge of the Black Hills of South Dakota, hundreds of miles from the nearest major city, smack in the middle of the North American continent.
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Hoel’s marketing ingenuity, his enthusiasm for motorcycle racing and – unbeknownst to many – his fatherly affection for American World War II veterans struggling with the emotional scars of combat made Sturgis synonymous with motorcycles.
Hoel (rhymes with “oil”) started the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in 1938, primarily as a racing event and a way to promote his local dealership.
He watched the speed increase far beyond his dreams.
“He was a PT Barnum-type guy. He always had a trick up his sleeve,” said Vinny Terranova, who knew Hoel and his wife, Pearl, and now runs their original motorcycle shop on Junction Avenue as Pappy’s Vintage Cycles.
“He loved motorcycles, loved racing and loved motorcyclists,” said Terranova of Pappy Hoel. “He and Pearl always had a pot of beans and hot dogs on the grill. Nobody went home hungry.”
The Hoels hosted the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally for nearly 50 years before turning it over to the City of Sturgis in the 1980s.
It was an enormous achievement for the couple. And even today it is an impressive achievement for a community with only 7,000 residents.
“The impact is not just on our city, but across the state,” Tammy Even-Cordell, Sturgis’ director of rallies and events, told Fox News Digital.
“The people who come to our rally are stopping all over South Dakota. They’re visiting tourist attractions. They’re gathering in bars, restaurants and hotels. It’s impacting the entire state.”
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In 2018, the city estimated that the rally generated $786 million worth of economic activity across South Dakota.
Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills and the gold mining community of Deadwood all welcome an influx of visitors around the rally.
According to the South Dakota Department of Transportation, a record-breaking 747,000 vehicles rolled through Sturgis for the 75th anniversary rally in 2015 (three rallies were canceled during World War II).
The entire state of South Dakota has a population of just 880,000. In relation to the population, the rally is as if 22 million people suddenly showed up at an event in California.
Sturgis was not fazed by the hysteria surrounding COVID-19.
Attendance fell slightly, but the 2020 rally still attracted about 460,000 people, according to the state Department of Transportation, with no major health problems.
JC Hoel was born on May 30, 1904 in Sturgis. In May 1928 he married Pearl Kinney from nearby Rapid City. The couple remained together for more than 50 years.
Hoel began his business when he inherited an ice cream business from his father in the 1930s.
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There was just one problem. Freon was invented in 1928. By the late 1930s, refrigerators were becoming commonplace in every American home.
Hoel’s ice cream business fell into crisis.
The biker icon took a detour, followed his passion and brought an Indian Motorcycle franchise to Sturgis in 1936.
He founded the Jackpine Gypsies Motorcycle Club, which was formed in 1937. The following year he and the Gypsies held the first meeting.
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It was originally called Black Hills Motor Classic.
“Camping was available in Pappy and Pearl Hoel’s backyard, behind their motorcycle shop on Junction Avenue in Sturgis. The rally included a dirt track race,” the American Motorcyclist Association’s Motorcycle Hall of Fame reported in its profile of Hoel.
Pearl is also a member of the same Hall of Fame.
“Pearl recalled the first year’s menu: ‘Hot dogs, sloppy joes, potato salad and watermelon for dessert.’ Rally drivers washed down their free meal with iced tea or coffee served in a tent behind the Hoels’ garage at their dealership.”
200 motorcyclists took part in the first rally, and the following year there were 800. From then on, things only went uphill.
The event gave Hoel a chance to promote his love of motorcycles – and to promote his fledgling Indian dealership. His idea worked brilliantly. By 1947, “he was selling more motorcycles per capita than anyone else in the country,” the Hall of Fame reported.
Around 1947, in the years following World War II, Pappy’s legend began to spread among the growing veteran community that fueled the postwar American motorcycle boom.
Many World War II veterans suffered from combat fatigue long before post-traumatic stress disorder was diagnosed as an illness in 1980.
“They bought surplus Army motorcycles and drove all over the country just to clear their heads,” History.com reported, noting that Harley-Davidson and Indian built 100,000 vehicles for the military during World War II.
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“Motorcycles were much cheaper than cars and offered veterans an easy means of group transportation at a time when reintegration into society presented certain challenges.”
According to a Veterans Administration study, 37% of World War II veterans who sought treatment after the war suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Not everyone was looking for treatment. Many were looking for the open road. Many found Pappy.
Hoel was “a tough old cat” when it came to business and organizing the rally, said Meyer, the Sturgis historian.
Nevertheless, Hoel had a soft spot for the young Americans who had fought in World War II and were struggling to cope with the brutal bloodshed they had witnessed during the war.
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“A lot of veterans were devastated,” Meyer said. “They were hungry, they were broke, they had no place to live. Their motorcycles needed repairs. And here was Pappy, in the middle of the country.”
“He fed them and fixed their motorcycles. But most of all, he listened to their stories and let them let off steam. When it was time to leave, he would say, ‘You owe me this. Send me a check if you can.'”
The legend of the father figure in Sturgis spread among veterans and led to a rise in the number of motorcycle clubs and motorcyclists across the country.
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Many returned to the rally in Sturgis to see the man they called Pappy – often with friends and a check in hand.
JC “Pappy” Hoel died on February 1, 1989. He was 84 years old.
He is now buried in Bear Butte Cemetery in Sturgis, the city where he was born and which he made famous around the world.
He and Pearl Hoel were founding members of the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame, established in 2001.
His legacy has made Sturgis synonymous with motorcycles.
Horsepower of all kinds is deeply rooted in the local culture.
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“Motorcycles, ATVs and horses. That’s how people grow up here,” says Even-Cordell, rally coordinator for the city of Sturgis, adding that she got her first dirt bike when she was seven years old.
“It’s incredible when you think about it. We are known worldwide as a Mecca for motorcyclists. A place that people put on their bucket list.”
Hoel’s legacy extends far beyond the city limits of Sturgis, Meyer said.
“When two bikers see each other, they wave, shake hands or hug. They call each other brother. It’s an informal brotherhood.”
He added: “That’s what Pappy created. The brotherhood. He promoted the brotherhood of motorcycling.”
Source of the original article: Meet the American who founded the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and “made motorcycles a brotherhood”
