BUTTE -- When his telephone rang late Thursday, Muzzy Faroni's best friend, Evel Knievel, was on the line.

"He don't call me at 11 o'clock at night," Faroni said. "I had a funny hunch something was wrong. He said 'I want you to pray for me.' "

The old friends agreed to talk again Friday or Saturday before ending the conversation, which would be their last.

Knievel died early Friday afternoon. He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis.

"I was really surprised today because he sounded good last night," Faroni told The Montana Standard Friday. "He suffered a lot, that poor guy."

Longtime friends of Butte's famous daredevil recalled a tough, straight-talking guy who was sometimes wily and unpredictable, and personified everything about the scrappy mining town from which he was raised.

Faroni first met Knievel while running the Rose Garden Bar, 1801 S. Montana St., in the early 1950s. Knievel was 13 or 14 at the time, and visited the bar to chat with Faroni and his customers.

"We really became close," said Faroni, who in 1962 opened the Freeway Tavern, 2001 S. Montana St., which he runs today.

Bob Pavlovich

Bob Pavlovich of Butte, a former state legislator, owned the Met Tavern. He remembers a young Knievel from his childhood playing hockey and later as a merchant policeman who checked the security of businesses at night, and as an insurance salesman.

Their friendship grew throughout the years. Pavlovich occasionally traveled with Knievel and attended golf tournaments with the blooming celebrity.

"He put Butte on the map as far as that goes," he said. "He's never forgotten where he comes from."

Evel was proud to call the Mining City home and was always surrounded by friends from his home town. Pavlovich remembers when the daredevil organized a vacation with 19 other people from Butte and flew the whole group to Florida where they played golf and stayed at Knievel's home.

"It was first class," he said. "We had two big limousines and he took care of us."

Knievel also was known for inviting a friend from home to accompany him in his travels.

"He took all of his good friends with him," he said. "He always had someone from Butte with him. That's the way he was though. He took care of the people here. He was big-hearted."

Pavlovich last saw Knievel in August and said he noticed his friend's health waning.

"When you stop and think about all the broken bones and all the pieces of metal he's got in his body, it's got to give out sometime," he said.

Pavlovich described Knievel as a daring showman who was unpredictable and always willing to take a risk.

He recalls one Christmas in the 1960s while closing the Met after 2 a.m. when Knievel took him for a ride in his new Volkswagen, which he bragged he could drive on water.

The two were in Rocker that night when Knievel noticed a huge pile of snow and told Pavlovich to prepare for a wild ride.

"He said 'watch us go through this thing' and I said 'you're nuts, we'll never get through that thing,"' he laughed. "We went right through it. He said 'let's go to Georgetown (Lake) and we'll see if it floats. I said 'you can go, but you're not taking me with you."'

Ron Fisher

Ron Fisher was still shaken by the news of his friend's death as he shared stories about Knievel with patrons at Maloney's Bar Friday afternoon.

"He was all about Butte, he was never afraid to tell people he was from Butte," Fisher said.

Fisher said he still has the red, white and blue bar stools that Knievel personally autographed when he was a regular at a bar Fisher once owned, Sam's Place on North Excelsior.

Fisher said that Knievel may have been an international superstar, but his feet were firmly planted to the ground.

"He was a very down-to-Earth guy who told you what was on his mind," he said.

Jim Dick

Jim Dick is among those from Butte who traveled and worked with Knievel and his son, Robbie.

Dick said he first met Knievel under contentious circumstances while running a poker game. Dick had been out of town and returned to Butte to learn there had been a confrontation between Knievel and a poker dealer.

Dick said he confronted Knievel about the issue while the daredevil was having dinner with his grandmother and wife. Knievel told Dick he wanted to take his family home, but that he would return to settle the spat.

It wasn't until about two weeks later that Knievel approached Dick.

"He said 'I've been looking all over town for someone to kick the s--- out of you, but they are all scared of you and your brothers so I guess we got to be friends,' " he recalled.

Knievel then offered him a job and the two had a close working relationship for more than a decade, Dick said.

"I went from being a kid that had barely been out of Montana to seeing the world," he said. "I met almost every celebrity in the 70s and 80s that was around. He took me to Muhammad Ali's house."

Jack Ferriter

Childhood friend Jack Ferriter said he talked to Knievel on the phone about football just two days before he died.

"I think we even made a bet on the (Green Bay) Packer game," Ferriter said from his Oregon Street home in Butte Friday morning.

Though shocked by the news of his friend's death, Ferriter said he's glad Knievel's torture has ended.

"He's in a better place right now, and he's not suffering anymore," he said.

Ferriter, who knew Knievel his whole life, said most people don't know how great an athlete the daredevil was. He said Knievel was a tremendous hockey player and formed his own hockey club in Butte when he was a teenager.

Knievel also had an interest in art, said Ferriter, who was his art instructor for the past 28 years.

"He had the love of wanting to be an artist since he was in high school," Ferriter said.

Pat Williams

Former U.S. Congressman Pat Williams grew up with Knievel, his first cousin, and said the two were like brothers. The men, whose mothers were sisters, were raised by separate grandmothers in Butte and spent their childhoods together.

Williams described his cousin as a "born daredevil" who wasn't afraid of anything.

"From the time we were little playing in my grandmother's kitchen he was unstoppable and had enormous athletic ability," he said. "When we were in first grade Bobby could walk on his hands and could go like a block. It was unbelievable. He was born with these amazing attributes."

Knievel prided himself on his strength from an early age, but Williams said those who knew him will always remember a kind-hearted man.

"He could be meaner than a Butte blizzard and kinder than a Butte spring and not unlike the Mining City, you saw things in Bobby that you would never see anywhere else," said Williams, who now lives in Missoula.

Williams said he was surprised to learn Thursday of his cousin's death at age 69.

"He died too young," he said.

The two had discussed Knievel's health conditions, but Williams said he didn't envision death actually beating the man who had defied the inevitable for so many years.

"He and I laughed about it and he said 'no Pat, I'm in real trouble,' " he remembers. "I've seen him fall too many times and get up to think that he might actually die."

Wade Dahood

Wade Dahood of Anaconda, Knievel's longtime lawyer, said he'd also talked to his friend Thursday night.

"He called and he said 'Put me on your prayer list, I just don't feel that well but I'm ready to be with God,' " Dahood told The Standard.

Dahood admitted Knievel was a "mixed-up guy at times," but he was "one of a kind. There were times when he was loud and boisterous and domineering, but that was not the real Evel Knievel. The real Evel Knievel was a very considerate, passionate individual, very sensitive to the world in which he lived and wanted people to think well of him. This Evel Knievel that appeared on occasion, saying things that were perhaps not as flatting as you liked - he enjoyed projecting that image. But he loved his children and he deeply cared about his friends and I was proud to be his friend."

Reporters John Grant Emeigh and Justin Post may be reached via e-mail at john.emeigh@lee.net and justin.post@lee.net. Reporter Erin Nicholes contributed to this story.