Meet the American who founded the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, 'put the brotherhood in motorcycles'
Fox News
J.C. "Pappy" Hoel founded the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in 1938. It's the world's most successful motorcycle rally, drawing 500,000+ annually to remote South Dakota; it begins today, Aug. 5, 2022.
A record 747,000 vehicles rolled through Sturgis for the 75th anniversary rally in 2015. "Pappy would listen to [World War II veterans'] stories and let them vent." — Sturgis historian Coe Meyer "The rally riders washed their free meal down with iced tea or coffee, served in a tent behind the Hoels’ garage at their dealership." Kerry J. Byrne is a lifestyle reporter with Fox News Digital.
The 10-day festival annually attracts more than 500,000 motorcycle enthusiasts from across the United States, and beyond, to a remote corner of one of the nation’s most sparsely populated states.
"Pappy was the man who put the brotherhood in motorcycles," Coe Meyer, a Sturgis motorcycle historian, told Fox News Digital.