Bicycle riders roaming Campus Corner may now rest their bikes on a newly installed rack that resembles a Norman legend.
The man wears a white baseball helmet with a black face guard attached to its front and a white chin strap to prevent it from falling off. He is often seen around Campus Corner dragging a crimson wagon with a black handle that contains copies of the Norman Transcript, which he sells for 75 cents per paper as a contractor.
Calvin Steves, longtime Norman resident, pulls his wagon along to sell copies of the Norman Transcript along Campus Corner. Steves has sold the papers for more than 40 years.
Calvin Steves knows he's popular. He's been selling those newspapers for more than 40 years.
"I like it, being a legend," Steves said in his leisurely, paced voice.
Most people that pay attention to the Norman community know Steves, or know of him. Barry Switzer once gave Steves a free ticket to Irving, Texas to watch the Dallas Cowboys play football while Switzer served as the team's coach, Steves said.
His recognizable appearance isn't just for aesthetics. When he was eleven, he crashed while riding his bicycle, falling over his handlebars in the process. He developed epilepsy as a result of the accident. The helmet he wears serves as protection when he has epileptic seizures, which happen sporadically.
"I could be talking to you right now and go into one," he said.
The front of the helmet reads "Please Do Not Hit Front Of Helmet." He could also go into a seizure if those directions aren't followed.
"Sometimes, I don't know when I'm going to have one," Steves said.
He's 53 years old and has been a Norman presence since he moved from upstate New York as a boy. Jennifer Robertson, a local artist participating in the Norman Public Arts Board's bike rack project, has known Steves since the mid-1970s. She designed the bike rack that looks like him, which has been stationed in front of Louie's Bar and Grill since the last week of April.
"He was too young to be selling newspapers in bars," Robertson said. She previously worked in a now-closed bar where Brothers Eatery and Pub is currently located. She said the staff would let Steves come in when he was a kid and sell his newspapers to customers if he didn't harass them.
Along with the Steves-inspired rack, Robertson, who works for OU in addition to making art, created four other bike rack designs to send to the arts board.
The bike rack designs have to meet a set of criteria set by the Norman Public Arts Board, and then a panel picks its favorites, Larry Walker, the chair of the board, said. Next, a local metal fabricator decides if the designs are able to be erected, and if approved, creates the rack, Walker said.
The arts board picked two of Robertson's designs: Steves and another she called the "bass-man," which resembles a musician friend of hers who recently passed away.
It was nearly just the "bass-man," though. Robertson almost didn't send the Steves-resembling bike rack to the arts board.
"It wasn't exactly Calvin yet," she said.
But she sent it anyway.
Jennifer Robertson, local artist and OU employee, stands next to a bike rack on the corner of Asp Avenue and Boyd Street May 3. Robertson designed the rack in the image of Calvin Steves.
"The thing about Calvin is that everybody knows Calvin," she said. "And part of the reason I did Calvin is ... with all of these cities lining up with more and more chain places, chain restaurants, every town is starting to look the same.
"The difference is the people. That's what makes it special."
Walker said the arts board's bike rack project is in its third year and has gotten many different bike rack designs installed throughout the city, including Native American-inspired racks, a storm cloud and a jazz musician — all designs connected to Norman culture. He said the Steves-inspired rack instills a personal touch to the project.
"It's beautiful, it's a great bicycle rack, but here we have an actual person who is identified with it, which truly makes it a special touch," he said.
In fact, Walker called Steves a Norman "icon."
"Calvin himself is just kind of like an institution here in Norman," he said. "You see him walking around selling his papers in all parts of the town, and he's been doing it for a long time.
"I've been here on Campus Corner myself for 45 years, and I've seen him virtually all of that time."
The steel on top of the "head" of the bike rack is shaped more like a bicycle helmet than a baseball helmet with a face guard. But Steves doesn't mind.
"I like it just the way it is," he said.
He admires the rack and enjoys that he served as its inspiration. Robertson said she sees him attached to it more than actual bicycles. The steel construct, unless removed, will forever attach Steves to his home — even when he's no longer around.
"I'll be here forever," he said.
