Harveysburg News

Authorities have identified a 71-year-old man who died after jumping from the bridge on Ohio 73 at Caesar's Creek State Park.

From Harveysburg, Ohio, to the History Channel? Shane Adams, who runs the bone-crunching Ohio Renaissance Festival jousts, fulfills a lifelong dream by bringing his 'Full Metal Jousting' to national TV on Sundays (10 p.m., History Channel). 'We're not just building a reality TV show, we're rebuilding the sport,' says Adams, 41, who lives part-time near the festival grounds and staffs 20 fairs from coast to coast. With the help of Pilgrim Studios, producers of 'The Ultimate Fighter' mixed martial arts and 'Top Shot' marksmen reality competition shows, Adams introduces America to what he hopes becomes the next new extreme sport. Each show ends with two of the 16 contestants clad in 85 pounds of armor, racing at each other on horses going 25 mph, intent on knocking the other off his steed with an 11-foot lance cut from Douglas fir. It's the same full-contact jousting Warren County visitors have seen since Adams, a Canadian, brought in his Knights of Valour to replace Harveysburg's choreographed jousts in 2005. 'It's not scripted. It's 100 percent real,' says Adams, both of the Harveysburg jousts and the TV series he hosts. Adams missed the Ohio Renaissance Festival last fall to tape the 10 episodes in this season in a modern equestrian center near Jackson, Miss. To broaden the appeal, History Channel didn't want to shoot at a renaissance location, says Dirk Hoogstra, network senior vice president. Reviving the 13th century contests was a 'perfect fit' for History, which has grown into a Top Five cable network with 'Pawn Stars,' 'American Pickers' and other reality shows, Hoogstra says. 'If there ever was a sport we could resurrect from the past, this is it. This really hits our brand,' he says. The winner of the jousting contest will receive $100,000. Helping Adams train teams is Ripper Moore, a Harveysburg veteran who has faced Adams in world competitions since 1998. Adams owns 17 international jousting titles. None of the 16 men in Adams' knight school have ridden at Harveysburg, although several have theatrical jousting experience with flimsy lances designed to shatter on contact. They quickly learned there's a huge difference going olde school. 'In dinner shows, you can't joust for real because they have to be ready to do a show the next day,' says Adams, who started in Toronto dinner-show jousts. He was 'a knight in shining tinsel' before competing for a 1997 championship in Estes Park, Colo. His big break came in 2010, when a New York Times reporter visited Adams for a story headlined, 'Is Jousting the Next Extreme Sport?' Adams' phone buzzed for days. He eventually joined with History and Pilgrim, which produces everything from 'Dirty Jobs' and 'American Choppers' to 'My Fair Wedding.' 'I had to come down here to have my dream become a reality,' he says, 'because the U.S. audience is more open to extreme sports.' And extreme pain. On the show, coaches whack suited-up rookies with aluminum baseball bats to give them the experience of being struck with a lance during a joust. Producers 'do not publicize' that it was truly a full-metal punishment; each bat was packed with 25 pounds of lead, Adams says. Viewers who see participants identified as a polo player or auctioneer won't know all were '100 percent proficient horseback riders,' Adams says. 'I told producers that if they could find me guys who could ride, and had heart, I can turn them into champions,' Adams says. Adams hosts because it was 'his dream come true to have this show on TV. He knows it better than anyone,' Hoogstra says. Adams, who has broken a hand, a wrist and ribs in competition, called his on-camera job more stressful than jousting. 'At a Renaissance festival, I can play a character. I was in 'MacBeth' in high school. This is not theater. This is the real deal,' he says. History spared no expense to film the action with slow-motion and overhead robotic cameras on a wire, 'like a major sporting event,' Hoogstra says. And that's what Adams and Hoogstra see in 'Full Metal Jousting.' It could be the next TV franchise on History, No. 4 this year behind ESPN, USA and TBS with viewers ages 25-54. History was No. 2 last year with men 25-54 and 18-49, says Susan Ievoli, network spokeswoman. 'Five or six years ago, we couldn't have done this. Now we have all these hits. The timing was right,' Hoogstra says. 'We have huge aspirations for this.'

Shane Adams, who puts on the Ohio Renaissance Festival jousts in Warren County,A brings his olde school extreme sports to national TV Sunday with "Full Metal Jousting" . Adams, who lives part-time near Harveysburg, skipped the festival here last fall to fullfill a lifetime dream of taping the 10 episodes at a modern equestrian center near Jackson, ... (more)