Along East Washington Avenue (U.S. Highway 151), you’ll find a monument to that time Elvis Presley stopped a fight between a group of boys.
How Elvis stopped a fight with karate
On June 24, 1977, around 1:00 a.m. Keith Lowry, Jr. was checking the pumps at Skyland Service Station (3618 E Washington Avenue, Madison) when he found himself targeted by a pair of angry young men.
Lowry’s dad owned the Skyland station, and one of those angry guys had recently been fired by the elder Lowry. And that disgruntled fellow chose that particular moment to make his dissatisfaction with his termination known.
After a short scuffle, the 17-year-old Lowry found himself knocked to the ground and was mentally preparing himself to take a beating. But then something amazing happened.
A pair of limousines had pulled up to the adjacent stoplight and, before any punches were thrown, none other than Elvis Presley, fully decked out in a blue sequin jumpsuit and trademark gold aviator sunglasses (and, according to some accounts, an official DEA windbreaker), jumped out of the second car.
Elvis executed a few karate-style kicks, stared down the two assailants, and drawled in his signature drawl, “I’ll take you two on.”
Lowry and the other two boys were stunned. Of course they recognized this man immediately. He was the King, after all, arguably the most recognizable public figure 1977 had to offer. But the situation was mighty puzzling — just how the heck did Elvis Presley himself end up at that particular Madison street corner in at one o’clock in the morning?
As it turns out, Elvis had just flown into Dane County Regional Airport from a show in Des Moines, Iowa. He was heading, via the aforementioned limousine, to the Sheraton before his big show the next day at the Dane County Coliseum.
According to Police Detective Supervisor Tom McCarthy, who was providing security for Presley on the drive to the Sheraton, Elvis was really ready to fight the two kids. But it didn’t come to that. Faced down by the King of Rock n’ Roll, their tempers slowly fizzled out. Elvis stuck around until he was sure a fight wouldn’t happen. Then, according to some accounts, he made the kids shake hands and asked, “Is everything settled now?”
Of course it was. When the King of Rock n’ Roll shows up at a gas station in Madison in the middle of the night to stop a fight, nothing can be wrong.
Then Elvis shook hands and had some photos taken with a few of the people who’d gathered around to see what was going on, then jumped into his limo and sped off to the Sheraton.
The encounter was written up by reporter Thomas W. Still in the next day’s Wisconsin State Journal, where Still cheekily wrote that the fight was “… Presley’s biggest brawl since Jailhouse Rock.”
The colorful story is something of a Madison legend, and all that more legendary because the event marks the King’s last Madison appearance. 52 days after the Elvis kept the peace on the streets of Madison, on August 16, 1977, the King was dead.
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The Elvis Karate Fight Memorial
Today the momentous event is commemorated with a small marble monument, right near the spot it happened in 1977. It’s a small, easily overlooked monument wedged between the south end of Schoepp Motors and an unmarked, nondescript building (a former Wil-Kil Pest Control office that now houses a U.S. Cellular cell control tower).
On the left side of the monument there’s a sun-faded image of an awkwardly posed young Elvis, clad in attire reminiscent of his 1956 appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. On the right side of the monument there’s a plaque that tells the story of that fateful night.
However, this isn’t the monument’s original plaque. Suburban Wheels of Madison used to be located in the space where Schoepp’s is today, and then-owner Kim Gass had the plaque installed in 2007.
That original plaque and its subsequent replacement have both been stolen. This latest version dates back to sometime after 2017 when the previous plaque was pried off.
The initial version of the plaque was emblazoned with the Suburban Wheels logo at the top and had the image of Elvis on the right side of the expository plaque. You can see a photo of the historic version of the plaque at Elvis: The King’s Court.
To commemorate the unveiling of the monument, the legendary non-fight — complete with an Elvis impersonator — was re-enacted by Suburban Wheels at Noon on Thursday, August 16, 2007 — the 30th anniversary of Elvis’s death.
Elvis Karate Fight Memorial
- 3618 E Washington Ave, Madison, WI 53704
- GPS Coordinates: 43.1168273, -89.325097
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