Mel Zikes

[Ron Hill]

MEL ZIKES:

Now Mel broke into boat racing with a Champion Hot Rod, 1956, that he bought from my dad. He was like never successful but enjoyed the races. He lived in SoCal for a long time. Then, he got some kind of a UNION BOSS job in NorCal and we didn't see much of him.

He was a pretty good friend of Dave Severson and Jerry Tidwell (They started Power Boat Magazine). They had everyone and anyone writing for them because they basically had a habit of not paying too much for articles.... Severson lived in Garden Grove, when I lived in Garden Grove.

He "Started" boat racing magazines at the time. He had started Raceboat, maybe Hot Boat,...I don't know what but usually he printed one or two issues, got all the racers to sign up and for whatever reason ended up going broke.

So, when he needed more money, or got investors, he started more magazines. He was so honest with me, I never thought that he was basically dishonest, maybe there wasn't enough business to carry a magazine. He once got me on TV with the Regis Philbin Show before Havasu. He also had me carry the ABC Wide World of Sports camera in my boat...Pretty cool in those days.

When The World Championship where just getting going at Havasu, Larry Laurie and Associates did McCullough's PR. Dave Severson did all of the Havasu Classic Programs. With McCullough's money, Dave's personality...guys like me and Mel Zikes liked the free food and adult beverages. So we "hung out" with Dave.

We weren't really employees but I'd help sell subscriptions and talk to the good looking women. So, out of the blue Ole Nordskog buys Power Boat...and starts paying employees...everyone kind of goes "WOW"...I wrote two articles for Power Boat, but only one got published...(It took a month for Nordskog to get control)...

But Mel Zikes stayed on for years. He followed the Outboard Scene... Guys like Slick Johnson, who, I think, invented the Jaws of Life for NASCAR, used to put on SHRIMP BOILS for all the tunnel races...Mel and I would stand around, drink beer and eat shrimp. He never took notes, just listened to my BS and went and wrote for POWERBOAT.

I seems to me, it might have been one of THOSE THURSDAY NIGHTS before Parker down , hell can't remember the name, but Jimmy Hauenstein, me and Mel and few others may have played pool too much....Oh, The Sportsman, but I think Nordskog decided he didn't need Mel's services anymore.

Nobody EVER OWNED MEL. I might have been Galveston, when he was setting in the FOUNTAIN at the hotel... that really might have been the end of his writing for POWERBOAT. Mel was one crazy sum bitch!!!

[Ron Hill]

Mel was always a great guy...fun to be with. He loved boat racing and loved to write about it...

[russhill]

Good stuff, Maynard. I always liked old Mel. My memory of Mel's moving to NoCal was to become Chief PR dude for the State or National Trucking Industry. I haven't heard from him or from anybody else who had heard from him since.

[Ron Hill]

Anyone have any word about Mel Zikes... He promoted the Salton Sea 500. Bob Patterson was telling about one time Ruth Ellen Wilson got Mel dressed up as an Italian Count to drive Red's boat at San Diego...The "COUNT" was Mel Zikes with a cape and he drove in to the race in a rented convertible. This APBA paper work was "wrong" for the "COUNT" so Red had to drive the boat...

Bob asked me what happen to Mel and I had to say, "All I know he went to work for a labor union and we never heard from him again!!!!"

Damn, did a Google search...answered my own question...

Archive for Wednesday, May 22, 2002


Mel Zikes, 74; Former Sports Writer, Boating Columnist for The Times

May 22, 2002 in print edition B-11
Mel Zikes, 74, a former sports writer and boating enthusiast who wrote a boating column for The Times four decades ago, died May6 of heart failure in the Sacramento suburb of Roseville, said his wife, Kathy.
Born in Wichita, Kan., Zikes studied journalism at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.
During World War II, he was a member of the Army’s highly decorated 101st Airborne Division, known as “the Screaming Eagles.” He was wounded during their assault on France.
After the war, Zikes wrote sports stories for newspapers in San Antonio and San Diego and for magazines.
He wrote a Times sports column called “Waterways” from 1961 to 1962, about yacht races and developments in sail and motor boating. Zikes later worked in public relations.
An avid boater, Zikes competed in outboard championship races at Lake Havasu and elsewhere around California.
In 1965, he suffered a punctured lung and two fractured ribs when he was thrown out of his speedboat in a turbulent wake at Lake Havasu.