Eric Rupe

Eric Fitzgerald Rupe (born June 14, 1963) is an American professional bicycle motocross (BMX) racer.

His prime competitive years were from 1978 to 1990.

Considered one of the most underrated BMXers in its history, he also had one of the longest careers in BMX.

This practice continued until the NBA's 1979 season in which the pros earned separate pro points and a separate pro plate from the amateurs.

The NBL and ABA followed suit a year later.

**During the era Eric Rupe turned pro, there wasn't a two-tier system of Junior and Senior pros.

Note: This listing only denotes the racer's primary sponsors.

At any given time a racer could have numerous co-sponsors.

Primary sponsorships can be verified by BMX press coverage and sponsor's advertisements at the time in question.

*Pros could race in the amateur classes at the time.

Note: Listed are district, State/Provincial/Department, regional, national, and international titles in italics.

"Defunct" refers to the sanctioning body in question no longer existing at the start of the racer's career or at that stage of his/her career.

Depending on point totals of individual racers, winners of Grand Nationals do not necessarily win National titles.

Series and one-off Championships are also listed in block.

Eric was one of the first racers to become a family man when he had his first child in 1984 (albeit Greg Hill became a father in late 1983) His clean-cut born again Christian lifestyle and philosophy lent greatly to the family man image.

Over thirty-four years after his first race he was still racing professionally in the ABA Veteran pro class until recently.

Today, he races in the Amateur 45 and Over cruiser class.

He was given the term "Big Daddy" at a 1988 Rockford ABA race by the announcer Dugan Finnel.

He used the phrase “Big Daddy coming out on fire” for his win in Senior pro that day.

He specifically called him that because he knew Eric was a father by then with a few children at home.

He nominally retired from Senior pro racing after the 1990 American Bicycle Association Grand National but would go on to participate in Pro BMX competition on a serious basis for another 11 years, albeit in Masters/Veteran pro class, the class for racers past their peak competitive years, much like the Champions Tour (formally called the Senior PGA Tour) in golf.

Retired (nominally): After 1990 ABA Grand National age 26.

It was according to Eric a forced retirement due to the unsatisfactory contracts that were offered him by Mongoose.

He even made a formal announcement prior in the September 1990 issue of American BMXer, the American Bicycle Association's newspaper in a letter dated July 24, 1990.

However, while he may have retired from the points chasing top pro circuits that contends for no 1 Pro for the year, racing was not out of his system.

Like a lot of retired BMX racers who come back and race a national or two for old time's sake and to keep a thumb in the pie, Rupe raced occasionally after his retirement.

His post-"retirement" racing was one of the more active.

After about 11 months of "retirement" he raced in the October 26–27, 1991 ABA Fall Nationals along with fellow retirees Stu Thomsen and Harry Leary.

He had himself reclassified as an "A" pro and came in second to Eric Carter in that division as well as third in Pro Cruiser on Saturday and a fourth in Pro Cruiser on Sunday.

In the ABA Grand National of that year he raced and won the Pro Cruiser Class.

Most returning pros did it mostly for fun but Rupe had a serious cant to his "semi-retirement".

He raced in the 1991 ABA Grand National on December 1, getting a first place in Pro Cruiser.

Beginning in 1995, he would race and totally dominate in the mid and late 1990s and early 2000s the ABA Veteran Pro Cruiser class and win the 2000 and 2004 NBL Masters class no. 1 plate.

He was still racing seriously in the ABA's Veteran Pro and NBL's Master classes as of 2006.

He is 43 years old.

*At the time there was no separate pro class for pros due to the relatively small number of pros.

They raced with the 16 Experts, making it a Pro/Am class essentially.

This is why during the early years of the pro division the national number one racer of a sanctioning body could be either an amateur or professional.

However, he still is very competitive, winning the USA Cycling BMX National Championship in that class on March 21, 2009.

Note: All first in Pro Class are on the national level unless otherwise noted.