Ex-motocross champ has yard full of golden memories

OGDEN (AP) — Even dinged, dusty and derelict, Mike Poulson's trophies shine like a sea of treasure. The gleaming chrome and polished gold glint, reflecting not only sunshine but his youthful glories.

So many glories that they present a problem.

The uncounted trophies, hundreds of them, many 4 feet tall or taller, were stored in his parents' shed until last month. Now his parents are gone and he either had to bring them home or toss them.

He brought them home, but what do you do with your past glories when they clog the back yard?

His trophies are huge because his glories were huge. In the 1980s Poulson, who now lives in a neat little home on Harrison Boulevard, ruled bicycle motocross the way Lance Armstrong rules road biking.

Poulson was Utah state champ five years running.

He was world champ, in his age bracket, twice.

He was on the cover of magazines, featured in bike catalogs and a star of the Schwinn factory team. He endorsed shoes and helmets. Magazines hailed him as one of the 100 best ever.

He even had his own bubble gum card. And what does this world champion do now?

He is "Mr. Sprinkler." He installs lawn sprinkler systems. One year in high school he made $60,000 riding his bicycle, but you can't race a bike forever, and even a champion has to pay the rent.

Poulson, now 41, was a kid in Layton when the motocross bug hit. His dad bought him a Stingray bicycle that he tricked up, but the jumping scared his mom so his dad switched it for a bike not suited to that sort of thing.

It didn't work. "I busted the front fork jumping," he said.

He pulled out a picture of a little kid on a bike suspended in mid-air over two parked cars. That's him, about 12, he said, trying to be Evel Knievel. "My brother rigged up the ramp. My parents weren't home, of course."

He dug out a home movie his dad shot of his first race ever, up at the track near Smith & Edwards on the Box Elder-Weber county line.

"I was just, like, 12 years old and I won all five of my motos that I raced," he said.

The movie showed a skinny little kid on a skinny little bike, pedaling like mad around hay bales, always in the lead.

"I won the first race and was really into it because it was kind of your own thing, you didn't have to rely on teammates or that," he said.