Get Your Bones to the ABA Hall Of Fame Luncheon!
OK, y'all, it is getting to be that time again. Who's going to the ABA Hall Of Fame luncheon? If, by chance, you missed the honored guests this year, here's who we'll be hootin' and hollerin' for:
Marvin Church: Began his BMX career in the early 70s, when the only bike to race was a Schwinn Stingray with four-inch cranks. Marvin and his dad are credited with building the first straight-tube BMX frame in 1972, as well as cutting cranks apart and welding them to the future standard of seven inches. He briefly rode for the famous Dirt Masters team and was a pioneer in the mono-shock and sidehack era. He also rode for Ricks Bike Shop, Kawasaki, and Shimano. After years of retirement, Marvin came back in the early 80s, racing cruisers for Mongoose. Marvin still shows up to race every few years in the older cruiser classes.
Brian Lopes: Starting at the ripe age of 4 1/2 years old, Brian took his Schwinn Pixie and Rams football helmet to the track at Saddleback Park in California, and the rest is history. From that day, he was a hardcore racer until he turned eight years old, when he stopped racing. But, he was still active at the local trails and in the board-on-a-milk-crate scene in the neighborhood. At age 10, Brian came back into the sport full-force, and started hitting the National scene, riding for a local bike shop. Future BMX Hall Of Famer Toby Henderson would help the team out with their gates, and other secrets only the pros know. That is where he took notice of Brian and introduced him to the folks at SE Racing. At 17, Brian was looking for a new challenge in racing and decided to turn Pro. In his first Pro race, he scored a second, and within five races, he was AA. While sponsored by Elf Bicycles, Brian was enjoying the Pro life, and moved on to Team Mongoose. Around that time, he heard that ex-BMXers were making a good living racing mountain bikes. Mongoose gave him a shot and he exploded onto the MTB circuit. Brian has since won many national and world titles in the Mountain Bike world. At one time, he also held the World Record for bunnyhopping and jumping on a BMX bike.
Jon & Chuck Raudman: Owners/founders of Skyway Recreation (Now Skyway Machine), of Redding, CA. These guys "revolutionized" the BMX wheel business with the introduction of the lightweight (compared to Motomags) and (mostly) indestructible Tuff Wheels. They made the move to framebuilding in 1982 with the introduction of the state of the art T/A Frameset, one of the most well engineered BMX frames of the day. Skyway soon made it's mark on the freestyle frenzy of the mid 80s, introducing a variety of colors that would influence the entire 20-inch juvenile market. Jon and Chuck supported the sport of BMX through sponsorships of the early Mountain Dew Demo Team, to their Skyway race team (which helped put Hall of Famer Cheri Elliott on the map), to their Skyway freestyle team in the late 80s (featuring Robert Peterson, Scotty Freeman, Eddie Roman and an upstart ramp rider from Oklahoma named Mat Hoffman). To this day, they continue to manufacture Tuff Wheels for the bicycle, lawn and garden and healthcare industries. They are also re-issuing a limited-edition of their ground-breaking Skyway T/A frame sets for the vintage market.
So…who's gonna be representing News?
