EVH Football 1972

[Dutchie5150]

Kind of surprised that no ones posted this here yet. This footage popped up a few days ago..

Light blue shorts...

[xk319]

Done a lot of sports in my life. He actually looks very athletic and coordinated.

[Brett]

Why do we think this is Ed?

[T.B.]

I don’t how this is connected to Ed as several of those kids could pass for teenage EVH but I know exactly where those houses on the sand are located. It’s about a mile North of the Newport Pier around 50th Street. On that small bluff which is across Pacific Coast Highway behind the homes is where Hoag Hospital would eventually put up several towers.

[Flying Ed]

I'm not convinced that's Ed - looks too tall to me

[Dutchie5150]

It was posted on FB by someone who is a family friend. They were actually filming their brother and not Ed. The same person has posted tons of rare photo's of both Ed and Al when they were kids. I was skeptical as well at first until I saw who originally up loaded it.

[mike529]

Dosen't really look like him imo. Even if it is, how odd to have video footage of yourself posted online from 50 years ago and people commenting on it. Being a celebrity must be so weird.

On a message board for a different band about 10 years ago, someone posted a link to the obituary of the lead singers recently passed father. Condolences were offered by all, and someone mentioned what a handsome man the singers father had been, that comment especially struck me as odd. I just imagined what the singer would think if he had seen the messages from strangers on such a personal event? All well meaning of course, but still, maybe a bit strange.

[Zahzoo]

By the thread title, I was expecting to see the stripped football with Charlie Brown and Lucy again...

[WhoHalen]

That guy in the light blue shorts is a foot taller and 30 pounds heavier than Ed ever was...

[Heisenberg]

[scherb]

Eddie with some solid defensive pressure on the QB there! An amazing find and pretty awesome if legit.

[Get The Show On The Road]

Looks like him to me.

His nephew made the Olympic Trials in the steeple chase. Jas Obrecht said he had a good jump shot when he first interviewed him back stage a DOTG.

He had to be a good athlete to do what he did on stage.

[ffoner]

The shirtless guy in the light blue shorts is Ed.

Jan Velasco, whose brothers were best friends with Ed and Al back in the 70s, remembered that this film had been shot. She mentioned it to me when I interviewed her for Van Halen Rising -- at the time she didn't know what happened to the film when I first spoke to her, but it was recently found. As Dutchie mentioned, the Velasco brothers were playing touch football with Ed that day.

Mammoth - Ed, Al, and Mark Stone, used to practice in the Velasco's living room circa 1972 when the Velasco boys and Ed and Al were in HS. If you check her Facebook, you'll see pics of her and her brothers with Ed and Al in 78 and 79 when they used to come by the house when they got off the road.

Those are the facts. I know Jan very well. What possible motivation would she have to put up an old home movie and then claim its Ed? She's known Ed and Al since she was a little girl. She heard Ed sing "I'm Eighteen" by Alice Cooper in her house when she was in middle school. She's not some random person who has no connection to them looking for for clicks and likes or trying to build some VH cred online.

Greg Renoff

[Little Dreamer]

Understood, not saying there's any malignant intent, just I remember reading Ed saying he was being very protective of his hands during that time period. There's no mention ever of Ed doing any kind of sports during that time, as far as I know. I could be wrong.

[Get The Show On The Road]

So we've got film of Ed playing football on the beach but no one thought to take that camera and record any of their party or club performances?

Seems like some misplaced priorities...