Biker APB: MIA Kickapoo Kowboy Jacket Sighting

March 4, 2011
Colorado, USA

See UPDATE at end of post:

Texas -- Once upon a time, nearly 60 years ago... a young man (still in high school) in north Texas worked at a Harley-Davidson shop and rode with a motorcycle club. The club was the Kickapoo Kowboys of Wichita Falls, Texas. Good friends. Good times. Good rides. That's the young man's story.

Ted is pictured in the lower right hand corner in front of his motorcycle.

The young man owned a denim jacket embroidered with his name (Teddy) and the logo of the club. The jacket disappeared years ago and was thought to have been packed along with the young man's motorcycle leathers in a trunk that went missing from his mother's house after the young man joined the USAF in 1954.

There are only a few of the original KK club members still living. Among those who rode with the Kicakapoo Kowboys back in the late 1940s, through the 1950s and early 1960s is legendary Indianapolis race car driver, Lloyd Ruby.

The young man, Teddy, is my Dad, known to most now as Ted, still riding a Harley well into his 70s. The jacket has surfaced, meaning I have a sighting and little more.

Here's the story of the sighting: Occasionally, I do a random search online for the Kickapoo Kowboys but rarely turn up more than a magazine article on Google books. Last night, I happened upon a listing at WorthPoint.com as follows:
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Late 1949 Levi’s Jacket
Sold Date:05/21/2008
We know now it sold for $1500
Channel:Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category:Textiles, Clothing & Accessories
Genuine Levi Jacket - late 1949 - Kickapoo Cowboys Motorcycle Club. Everything is original, missing one button on pocket. Rivets are all there. Men's Xtra small or perhaps a Boy's Large. My husband was a member of this local club along w/Lloyd Ruby, Hambone Harrel, Bob Harrel & Dick Simmons.
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Now, I was thinking - surely not - so I clicked on the image and yep, the pocket is embroidered with the name TEDDY and the back is embroidered with the Kickapoo Kowboy logo, a cowboy with a lasso riding a motorcycle. I am convinced this is Dad's long lost treasure.

WorthPoint.com is not an auction site. It is a clearing house for information about collectible sales. Someone (apparently, the wife of a KK member) sold the jacket on ebay in 2008. The fact that it was submitted to WorthPoint's web site likely means that it brought a nice little chunk of change to the seller. Without a membership to the site, I have no way to verify the amount for which it might have sold. Items like this jacket often sell to private collectors, museums or interior decorators for large restaurant chains, sports bars and things like that. Many vintage clothing pieces sell to Hollywood wardrobe closets. I have a friend in Oklahoma who has sold her husband's old cowboy work hats to wardrobe closets in the past. Items like this vintage jacket, especially those bearing the Levi brand also sell to individuals who simply like wearing retro clothing or to collectors in foreign countries like Japan who adore the whole western/cowboy culture.

THIS JACKET COULD BE ANYWHERE! AND WE ARE STILL LOOKING FOR IT! And any other Kicakapoo Kowboy memorabilia.

So, I am posting the photos of the jacket taken from a digital pic of my computer monitor. Here's where the APB comes in. Next time you visit a museum or sit sipping a beer in one of those restaurants decorated with retro items, look a little harder. That Kickapoo Kowboy jacket is out there somewhere and whether we are ever able to retrieve it or not, we'd like to know it has found a good home. I am putting this out here because - ya just never know who might take a peek at a little ol' Harley blog.

Click on the images for a larger view.




UPDATE March 5, 2011:
Click here to read or download and print:
Missing Kickapoo Kowboy Jacket Sold - $1500!
Thanks Nancy! For the data from WorthPoint.

Lonnie Isam (see comments below) purchased this jacket off of ebay from another individual with the name of Teddy who also belonged to the Kicakpoo Kowboys. Lonnie tells me he had the jacket in a large motorcycle clothing collection and it is published in a book. Lonnie Isam is founder of the Motorcycle Cannonball Run.

Update 2018: The motorcycle world lost Lonnie Isam in 2017
http://www.nationalmcmuseum.org/lonnie-james-isam-jr/