BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - The royalty checks still appear in Dave Blase’s mailbox once or twice a year.
They’re not as lucrative as they once were - seldom netting more than $15 - but 35 years after he provided the inspiration for the Dave Stoller character in “Breaking Away,” Blase is happy to be remembered.
It’s been quite the ride for the man who thought very little of himself when he arrived on the Indiana University campus for his freshman year in 1958. The years since provided him with a new hobby, Little 500 glory and a seminal role with one of the most popular sports films of all time.
“It’s certainly gotten me a lot more attention around this time of the year,” says Blaise, now 74 and living in northeast Indianapolis with his wife of more than 40 years, Yolande.
While Dennis Christopher’s portrayal of Stoller in “Breaking Away” isn’t exactly biographical, there were very real parallels between Stoller and Blase, The Herald-Times reported (https://bit.ly/PqmGrC ).
First, of course, is the fondness of Italian culture.
While he was a student, Blase would walk down 3rd street singing Neapolitan songs and Italian arias. His dress aimed to mimic Italian style, building himself into a different character - someone far removed from the scrawny, self-proclaimed shrimp that Blase saw in the mirror.
“I thought I was really a social outcast,” Blase said. “I had maybe three dates my senior year of high school and one more date after my freshman year of college. I think that was it. I figured I was such a nerd and I couldn’t stand myself, so I never bothered to ask. You pretend to be something you aren’t when you are so insecure. It’s sort of like a little shield around you. If people make fun of you, you say, ’Well, that’s not really me.’ I was sort of in my own fantasy.”
But Blase quickly proved his mettle on the bike.
His foray into cycling was nearly accidental. After he reluctantly accepted an invitation to ride for the Rollins House Little 500 team in 1958, Blase quickly had second thoughts. He didn’t want to risk failing and humiliating himself in front of the fellas from his dorm so, on the day the group was supposed to take their first ride together, Blase hid in a bathroom for 20 minutes until the team decided to leave without him.
But he also realized he couldn’t hide forever. When he was confronted about his no-show the next day, Blase agreed to ride.
“I was a little scrawny freshman, but guess what?” Blase said. “I guess being able to bench press 250 pounds doesn’t help you climb hills. I was riding away from them on the hills there on old 37. It was the first time in my life that I actually asked the question: ’Gee, what could I do if I actually tried at something.’”
Blase began training and quickly became one of the best riders on campus. The day after the 1959 race, Blase pledged to ride for the Phi Kappa Psi team, which had just won back-to-back Little 500s. But a new rule instituted by the IU Student Foundation stipulated that riders who switch housing units lose a year of eligibility, so Blase sat out the 1960 race with plans to return in ’61. In the interim, he won a 50-mile road race in Chicago, which sparked controversy in Bloomington.
The IUSF didn’t want its riders competing outside of the Little 500 and a rule was passed declaring anyone who joins an outside race without approval is ineligible. It was a blow to Blase, whose goal was to win the Little 500 upon his return. He left school and returned to his home in Speedway, where he took a few stray classes and worked in a medical center. That’s where he met some Italian doctors, allowing his affinity for the culture to bloom.
By the time he returned to Bloomington for his senior year in 1962, the IUSF erased the rule for outside races and Blase was eligible again. He rejoined the team at Phi Kappa Psi, where he met a young Yugoslavian kid from the east Chicago area named Steve Tesich. The two bonded and trained together for the ’62 race, which the Phi Psi team won handily. Blase rode a record 139 of the event’s 200 laps, which were the most ever at the time.
When the team went to accept its trophy, Blase penned a message on his hat to the student foundation, which he believed had been unfairly targeting him the previous years.
“It says ’Stronzo.” Blase said, “which is Italian for ’turd.’” That was on there because in the eyes of the student foundation, that’s about what they thought of me because I’d actually found a way to win the thing.”
And so the narrative of Dave Blase was complete.
Almost.
When Tesich went to pen the Academy Award-winning screenplay for “Breaking Away,” he called Blase and said he wanted to use his name in the film. The idea was shot down by the legal department at 20th Century Fox for liability purposes, so Tesich combined Blase’s first name with Phi Psi team manager Bob Stohler.
Blase served as a technical adviser during the film’s production in the summer of 1978 and made a couple cameos, too. He was a rider in the Cinzano bicycle race late in the movie and served as the track announcer during the movie’s big race scene filmed at the 10th Street stadium.
“In the movie they wanted to show this sudden end to this Italian fantasy,” Blase says of the scene where Dave Stoller is run off the road by the Italian team. “The reality was it had just gradually faded away. What happens is when you grow in your own self-respect, you don’t need to pretend to be anything than who you really are.”
Of course, 35 years later, being Dave Blase was good enough.
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Information from: The Herald Times, https://www.heraldtimesonline.com
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