Local history: Karl Wallenda crossed Rubber Bowl on high wire in 1973

High-wire artist Karl Wallenda knew the risks.

He said a prayer, took a deep breath, gripped the balance pole and stepped onto the tightrope.

“I feel better up there than I do down here,” Wallenda often told reporters. “It is my whole life.”

Fifty years ago, the famous daredevil crossed the Akron Rubber Bowl on a 600-foot wire above 37,484 fans at the 20th annual Acme-Zip Game.

Acme grocery stores, the sponsor of the University of Akron football game, had paid Wallenda $2,000 (nearly $13,600 today) to perform the death-defying stunt Sept. 15, 1973.

“We wanted something really special for this 20th game,” Acme President Fred Albrecht explained.

A few days before the event, Wallenda arrived in Akron from Sarasota, Florida, to stay with Albrecht and his wife, Francia, at their home on St. Andrews Drive.

The 68-year-old aerialist was a perfect houseguest. He even performed an impromptu stunt without being asked.

“We discovered that a light on the eave of the house had burned out, so my son Steve and I got the extension ladder out and were arguing over which one of us should climb up three floors to replace the bulb,” Albrecht told a Beacon Journal reporter in 1973.

“First thing we knew, Wallenda had scooted up the ladder and was replacing the bulb.”

‘When you fall, you’re gone’

Wallenda visited the Rubber Bowl on the day before the game to map out his route across the stadium.

“If the weather’s good enough to play football Saturday night in the Rubber Bowl, it’s good enough to walk across a wire 70 feet above the midfield stripes,” he proclaimed.

The German native inspected the stadium’s brand-new AstroTurf, saying it was “pretty, clean and dust-free.”

“But that’s of no importance to me,” he said. “When you fall, you’re gone. I don’t care what you put down there — rocks, water or lions.”

Four decades earlier, he had survived a close call in Akron on a 1930 tour with Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey. Karl and Herman Wallenda were performing 60 feet in the air with their sister Henrietta and acrobat Joseph Geiger when a wire snapped, throwing the performers off balance.

As the crowd gasped in horror, two men desperately clung to the wire while the third wrapped his legs around Henrietta until circus workers could place a net below them so they could drop to safety.

The troupe’s name was The Great Wallendas, but after shows like Akron, reporters began to call them The Flying Wallendas.

In 1962, two members of the team fell to their deaths and a third was paralyzed from the waist down after their high-wire pyramid collapsed during a show in Detroit. Wallenda’s sister-in-law plunged to her death in 1963 and his son-in-law was killed in 1972.

But the circus act continued. The show must go on.

“Our life is show business,” Wallenda explained. “Without show business, we don’t survive, and we have to exist.”

Wallenda attends Acme party

The Albrechts sponsored a circus-themed party at their home on the day of the big game. More than 100 Acme guests attended, including Wallenda. He wore a pink sports jacket to the gathering and sipped ice water while chatting with guests.

“Are you uneasy before such a dangerous performance?” Beacon Journal society writer Betty Jaycox asked him.

“Not a bit,” Wallenda replied. “I couldn’t do the act if I were. Of course, I’m easier when it’s over. You can never be sure of the wire, and if it is tight enough.”

He and his grandson, Ricky, 17, rigged the 600-foot wire across the Rubber Bowl a few hours before his scheduled walk. Nearly 40,000 fans filtered into the stadium. Tickets cost $3.50 for adults and $1 for children.

WSLR disc jockey Jaybird Drennan introduced Wallenda over the loudspeakers. The acrobat wore a long-sleeve shirt and tie, dress slacks with a sash tied around his waist, and ballet slippers that helped him grip the wire with his feet.

Wallenda said a prayer, held the balance pole and began to walk.

A hush fell over the crowd. Some couldn’t bear to watch. There was no net. Far below, men stood on the field and held the lead wires taut.

The daredevil slowly walked across. One foot after the other.

As he reached the halfway point of the 600-foot journey, the crowd watched with amazement as Wallenda bent over and performed a headstand on the high wire. Spectators laughed when Drennan announced that Wallenda was merely resting his feet.

He righted himself and continued the walk. Step after step, he approached the other side. The audience cheered when he reached the end of the wire after about 10 minutes.

All in all, it was just another day’s work for Wallenda.

‘It was a little shaky’

“It was a little shaky once in a while, but outside of that, it wasn’t too bad,” he noted afterward. “When you have men on the ground holding the lead wires, once in a while one will ease up a little and the wire will move some.

“Because of the way it was set up, I was walking right into the crowd. I found that a little strange. My balance pole weighs 35 pounds and I was afraid I might hit someone with it as I came in.”

To cap off the evening, the University of Akron, led by first-year coach Jim Dennison, trounced Butler University 51-19.

Wallenda returned to Akron three years later as the city celebrated America’s bicentennial. Thousands of people watched July 3, 1976, as he walked a 600-foot wire stretched across the Akron Innerbelt. At the midway point, he performed a headstand 80 feet above the pavement.

As always, the audience cheered. No one knew it at the time, but it was Wallenda’s final show in Akron.

Karl Wallenda, 73, was performing a walk March 22, 1978, on a high wire between two beachfront hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico, when high winds knocked him off balance. He fell 10 stories to his death.

“Life is on the wire,” Wallenda once noted. “Everything else is just waiting.”

The Rubber Bowl is gone now, but Wallenda’s descendants continue to perform high-wire stunts around the world as The Flying Wallendas.

Their life is show business. The show must go on.

Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com

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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Karl Wallenda crossed Rubber Bowl on high wire in 1973