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OSMT™ - Old School Monster Trucks

@osmt_1975

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OSMT™: Documenting, preserving and celebrating the history of the monster truck industry. Subscribe on YouTube! Merch: osmt.myspreadshop.com
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For optimal head-banging enjoyment, watch this video and more on the OSMT YouTube Channel! In 1986 the monster truck industry was so young and constantly-evolving, it seemed like *every* year was a watershed, formative, landmark kind of year. Get on YouTube or dig out your favorite old VHS tapes, however, and you very well might find yourself getting caught in a time warp that continually takes you back to one of the single-most pivotal years of that decade.... ...and that year, my friends, is 1986. Go backwards and get caught somewhere in time with us as we revisit the 40th anniversary of some of the seriously cool, important and life-altering monster truck moments from 1986, set to the soothing sounds of metal legends Iron Maiden. This isn't just monster trucks. This isn't just OSMT. This....is DOOMED METAL. by @osmt_1975
3
6 days ago
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“Just say OK in 2027!” With the exciting news that broke over the past weekend that Brett Engleman (MI Ice Monster), Gary Schott (Exterminator/San Diegan/Terminator, etc), Dave Wieczorek (Nite Life) were announced as this year’s inductees into the International Monster Truck Hall of Fame, along with a pair of very-deserving Landmark Award winners in the form of Mike Speller (USHRA) and Steve Reyes (prolific photographer), then we knew it was time to kick off our 2027 election campaign right away this week.....so, introducing the OSMT “Crush The Vote” campaign for 2027: “Just Say OK!” to Oldaker-Koelling in 2027! We at OSMT wish our warmest congratulations to this year’s inductees (look for more on them in the very near future!) and we are stoked to begin our campaign to get Jim Oldaker of Rollin’ Thunder and Kenny Koelling of BIGFOOT inducted into the Hall of Fame where they rightly belong! 🤘🏼 by @osmt_1975
3
4 days ago
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From Kyle & Justin: The photo carousel about says it all….we couldn’t be more proud, excited and grateful to be a part of this project with @bigfoot4x4x4 ! Follow BIGFOOT on all their social platforms for updates as they come available, and dig into those archives for your best BIGFOOT shots! by @osmt_1975
18
a month ago
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We’re DOUBLE LIVE tonight on OSMT! We’re streaming the live premiere of our latest OSMT Medium Raw episode right now on the OSMT YouTube channel, all while taking in the sights, smells and suds of the @toughestmonstertrucks tour event in Loveland, CO! It’s been great catching up with fellow Wyoming monster truckers like the Groth Twins and their families, former teammates like Mullet, former show production cohorts like Brian Manson and of course, BDC co-host Matt Looker. More to come later in the weekend, but for now get your ass over to our YouTube channel to see what kind of monster truckin’ Big Tobacco was buyin’ in 1992! by @osmt_1975
2
7 hours ago
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It’s about time we properly weigh in on the @imtm_hof Class of 2026! While we are sad to see Jim Oldaker and Kenny Koelling are not yet in the Hall, we are absolutely thrilled to see Brett Engleman inducted this year plus you cannot deny the contributions, longevity and creativity of greats like Dave Wieczorek and Gary Schott. Add to that a pair of incredibly-deserving Landmark Award winners in the form of Mike Speller and Steve Reyes, and pretty quickly you see the math adds up to a very accomplished Class of 2026. Congratulations again to the Class of 2026 and here’s to our “Just Say OK In 2027!” campaign for the Oldaker/Koelling ticket! #monstertrucks #monsterjam #bigfoot #gravedigger #michigan by @osmt_1975
4
2 days ago
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Would you believe us if we told you that the world’s first major sports venue with a retractable roof was built back in 1961 for less than $250 mil (in 2026 $) in Pittsburgh, PA? What if we told you that the venue was originally intended for the city’s opera and that the roof couldn’t be opened safely if it was raining at all or if the wind exceeded 7MPH? Did we mention a department store owner cooked this whole idea up, too? All of the above is a real-life example of when a designer’s reach exceeds their grasp, but don’t be so quick to lump Pitt’s legendary Civic Arena in with those truly bad buildings like the Oakland Coliseum, Old Mile High, RFK Stadium or The Trop. While the Penguins’ beloved “Igloo” might have been a little ambitious with its design and execution, you have to admit that pounding Iron City beers in the stands while a giant-ass window to the sky opens up just moments before RUSH and their brand-new drummer Neil Peart take the stage for their first-ever American concert date would have been BAD. ASS. Sure, the retractable roof was always breaking down and eventually quit working but c’mon...the seven or eight times it probably actually worked like it was supposed to were probably cool as hell! Let’s get to the point and discuss the dominance that the USHRA held over promoting their events in The Igloo. To our knowledge, no other promoter was able to gain a foothold in the building at any point during the USHRA’s 20+ year reign in the Steel City. From Sgt. Slaughter vs. BIGFOOT tug-o-wars to Camel brawls to even BIGFOOT #4 on freakin’ 10ft tires crushing, it seems like the old Igloo was about the only arena on the planet that could even attempt to contain this much action. Despite wiping out 400 businesses and displacing 8000 residents to build in what was at the time the African-American cultural center of the Pitt, and despite serving as the setting for a cruddy Van Damme action flick, Yinzers everywhere cling to their fond Igloo memories almost as tightly as the Pens did the 3 Stanleys they won inside it. 📸Matt Stoltz/Chris Yuhas/Andy Kotuby/Brian Varmecky/Ryan Matthews/Justin Perkins/Jack Meredith/Bob Flanagan/Julie Kramer by @osmt_1975
20
4 days ago
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Whatever it was that Texas was compensating for when they opened the Houston Astrodome in 1965, they surely can be forgiven for it. Elegantly dubbed (with ample Texas humility) the “8th Wonder of the World”, the Astrodome would ultimately do a damned fine job of living up to that billing until the early 2000’s, when it was usurped in usefulness (if not pedigree & grandeur) by the adjacent Reliant Stadium. For being the world’s first ever domed sports stadium, the Astrodome’s designers pretty much “got it right the first time.” For years the Astrodome welcomed not just the USHRA’s events but also those of TNT, with a floor as big as Princess Lucky’s “huge tracts of land”, you’d swear the Astrodome could have hosted both promoters’ events simultaneously and still had room for Sgt. Slaughter and Go-Go The Gorilla to do battle in a squared circle. From early pulls and simple car-crushing to exciting and sometimes complex monster truck race courses to the breathtaking spectacle of indoor monster truck long-jump competitions, the venerable old warhorse of a stadium gave as good as she got, and in the process gave us some OSMT memories that hang in our mental halls of fame like fine paintings in The Louvre. From Rich Hooser and Fred Shafer’s epic 1987 showdown on the “car pyramid” track to Taurus 3’s stubborn defense against the threatening BIGFOOT #8 in late 1989 to Invader’s famous Monster Wars tumble in 1993 to the debut of “TNN’s Motor Madness Monster Jam” in 1999 (featuring a late 1998 Astrodome show as its season/series opener), the Astrodome is firmly cemented in the OSMT history books as one of this industry’s most hallowed halls of monsterdom. Got a kick-ass Astrodome memory of your own? Share it with the class in the comments! Media credits: Steve Reyes / Bob Chandler / Jim Oldaker / Unknown Design by: Kyle Doyle #monstertrucks #monsterjam #ushra #bigfoot by @osmt_1975
15
12 days ago
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Provel cheese, lager beer, a riverine economy and a gigantic horseshoe stuck in the ground are all things one might associate with St. Louis. You might also think of Ted Drewes, toasted ravs, a bitchin’ rock & roll history and sliding your beers down a shuffleboard table at an underground bar in St Chaz….but I digress, because today we’re talkin’ bout the The Old Barn, The Purina Palace, The Echodome, “The Checkerdome” if we’re being ‘77-‘83 proper and simply “The Arena” if you’re being cool cause you’re from that ‘hood. Built in barely a year with 2 mil in cold, private cash, the St. Louis Arena looked resplendent in 1929 with its Douglas fir lamella roof supported by 20 cantilevered steel trusses. By 1967, after years of varying degrees of maintenance, damage from at least one tornado and the long-overdue removal of those fucked up enforced segregation partitions, The Arena finally played host to its own NHL franchise, The Blues, who would call The Arena home until 1994. From ABA basketball to heavy equipment trade shows to, yes, USHRA truck & tractor pulling, mud bogs and monster truck shows, the Old Barn seemingly did it all. Led Zeppelin, The Who, KISS and Rush? Fuck yeah. Even the uptight pricks playing on the Soviet Red Army Men’s Indoor Soccer Team rocked up into the Old Barn in the mid-70’s to lay an unfortunate ass whuppin’ on the St. Louis Stars. Local legend has it that the Stars exacted revenge later that night by spiking the Sovs’ pizza with laxatives and replacing their fresh Budweisers with expired bottles. The legend also states that the Reds’ sensitive peasant GI tracts couldn’t keep up with the diet of rowdy Midwesterners, and their flight home to Moscow was delayed due to…well, you get the idea. Anyways, the USHRA of course dominated the STL market with their shows at The Arena, with recorded dates going back to the late 70’s (pre-USHRA). Some epic action unfolded in the old barn up until the mid-90’s when the action made the long-overdue move across town to a much bigger floor, at the all-new Trans-World Dome. In ‘99 the Barn came down, and with it went nearly 2 decades of indoor Motorsport history. #monstertrucks #monsterjam by @osmt_1975
8
14 days ago
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For over 100 years, Laidley Field in Charleston has watched the world grow up around itself. Constructed in 1918, the paint on the bleachers and Germany's ink on The Armistice that ended World War I the same year practically dried at the same time. Nearly equidistant from downtown Charleston and the banks of the Kanawha River (a 100-mile long tributary of the Ohio), Laidley Field's "North East" grandstands (the stadium's field runs NW to SE) nearly overhang Interstate 64, the construction of which was the most interesting thing to happen in Laidley in 1957 (probably.) In July of 1988, however, the most interesting thing to happen in Laidley was the Renegades/TNT Monster Truck Challenge visiting the stadium, rendering the football field inoperable so that Rich Hooser in BIGFOOT #4 and Rod Litzau in USA-1 could do battle in their quest to become the first-ever monster truck National Points Champion. The '88 Charleston event at Laidley was the last stop for the points chase before diving head-first into the "New York Mini Tour", which consisted at the time of a grueling 5 shows in 5 days, running from Middletown to Weedsport and finishing at West Lebanon. Laidley Field would host shows (possibly with a year or two off) until at least 1998, when PACE Motorsports' Monster Jam (with BIGFOOT and Snake Bite on the bill) made the last documented visit we're aware of to the facility, but if you know different then let us know! Do you have pictures or videos of any shows at Laidley Field in your collection? We'd love to share 'em up with the OSMT fanbase, so drop us a DM and show 'em if ya got 'em! #monstertrucks #monsterjam #bigfoot #gravedigger #OSMT by @osmt_1975
11
17 days ago
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Some years ago we came into possession of an envelope full of fan photos taken during the USHRA / Meister Braü Mud Bog & Truck Pull Nationals (or something like that) at the historic Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in 1986, and now we finally get to share some of them while also highlighting one of the great under-documented West Coast venues that USHRA played in. (Editor’s Note: More to come in the future regarding the USHRA leveraging both Budweiser and Meister Braü event sponsorships at the same time.) While not of the highest detail or quality, these shots combine to paint a priceless fan POV from that night, showcasing the USHRA’s grab bag of awesomeness that they brought to hopefully lure LA-area motorsports fans into spending their duckets not just outdoors at Anaheim’s Big A, but also indoors as well. An eclectic variety pack of pullers complimented car-crushing antics courtesy of Bob Chandler’s BIGFOOT, while a not insubstantial mud bog pit (that very nearly choked BIGFOOT) rounded out the evening’s smorgasbord of mechanical hijinx. While the venue would host events for at least one more year, the ‘85 and ‘86 editions would arguably be as good as it got for the Sports Arena, which was doomed to be overshadowed by similar events held at the adjacent LA Memorial Coliseum and that legendary ballpark in Anaheim, which was situated a peaceful and serene 30 miles to the southeast. Take all of that and add in the fact that independent promoters like Golden State and Dave Matthews/ZZYZX were canvassing SoCal with a spread of excellent shows of their own, and pretty soon the math on why the LA Sports Arena never really took off adds up pretty quick. #monstertrucks #ushra #monsterjam #bigfoot #OSMT by @osmt_1975
4
17 days ago
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This season on the OSMT YouTube channel with our Medium Raw, Bottom Dead Center and MST6K shows (and here on IG, of course) we’re paying a ton of tribute to the sport’s longest-lasting and perhaps most archetypal of all promoter/sanctioning body properties, the United States Hot Rod Association (USHRA). The iconic USHRA crest has traditionally served as a marker of quality on a number of levels; the banner hanging at an event signified that this was indeed an affair of the highest quality, while the shield decal appearing on a competitor’s vehicle (often applied with pride and left to remain with permanence) indicated they were one of the few deemed fit to do battle that day. As fans, an event poster commanded by the USHRA crest was immediately attention-grabbing and excitement-inducing, a sure sign from the motorsports gods that access to this most exclusive of events should be secured post-haste. And don’t even get us started on their home video releases. While other promotions have at times rivaled (and in some ways bettered) the on-track product produced under the USHRA marquee, the brand’s parent company-du-jour seemingly always has had the strongest grip on the premier stadium venues nestled among North America’s most desirable population centers, and that would prove to be a key to the trademark’s lasting success and eventual metamorphosis into the “sanctioning body” for what we now know as Monster Jam. Couple that with a taste for top-tier talent and the pocketbook to pay ‘em…well, it was easy to find one’s self craving what they had cookin’ in Hot Springs or Chicagoland or Houston or wherever the hell the home office was today. While USA may have been the easiest to work for, TNT (and later Special Events) the most competition-driven of the “big” promoters/series’, the USHRA events often commanded the highest levels of prestige. Be it live or on TV, the USHRA served an indoor motorsports buffet to big-market-masses and rural enthusiasts alike with the kind of pomp-and-circumstance-with-all-the-trimmings that so many of us fell instantly in love with, and have stayed in love with ever since. by @osmt_1975
7
18 days ago
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ICYMI: OSMT's epic original series, MEDIUM RAW is back for its fourth season of ground-pounding Old School Monster Truck action, exclusively on the OSMT YouTube channel! We kick this season off with the USHRA's final appearance at Washington, D.C.'s RFK Stadium for a rain-soaked Battle Of The Monster Trucks, featuring a star-studded lineup with heavy-hitters like Monster Vette, Frankenstein, Mega-Force, Blue Thunder and Virginia Giant taking on the iconic duo of Jim Kramer & BIGFOOT #4. Mix in a smattering of brave pullers and an equally-brave-but-dumb stuntman and you've got all the ingredients needed for this legendary "lost show." YouTube.com/@OSMT1975 is where you need to go NOW for all of the action! PS: Be sure to crush that "SUBSCRIBE" button so you never miss a drop of the action! by @osmt_1975
5
20 days ago
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