Three days ago, a video surfaced which supposedly shows a young Eddie Van Halen playing football on a beach. The silent video is entitled, “Football in Newport Beach 1972”.
This is starting to circulate online, and some claim that one of the players is Eddie Van Halen. Naturally, some doubt the video’s authenticity. But take it from us, it really is Eddie!
This video was uploaded by Jan Velasco Kosharek, who tagged Van Halen Rising author, Greg Renoff, saying, “My cousin finally found it, Greg.”
Greg Renoff puts this into context for fans at VHLinks:
“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. 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 high school. 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.
“So there you have it. This is the earliest footage of Eddie Van Halen ever seen by the public. (not quite the earliest footage in existance, because the Van Halen brothers say they have footage of an early piano recital of Eddie’s.) Assuming the date of 1972 is correct, and assuming this was shot after January 26th that year (Ed’s birthday) that would mean Eddie is just 17 years old in this video.”
Also, note that the person who filmed this was simply filming their brother, and not the future “World’s Greatest Guitarist”, specifically.
How cool is that?
Here’s a photo that Jan (who’s family filmed the video) posted to her Facebook. She states, “They had come by to visit. And in my room, all of my walls were COVERED with pictures cut out of magazines. Circus, Creem, Rolling Stone, etc. So Edward was in there looking at the walls and there was one of him and David. And the angle made it look like David was grabbing Edward’s ass. So my mom and I were giving him a hard time about it. So when my mom went to take that picture, right before, Edward pretended to grab my ass and we were cracking up. Right then, mommy snapped the pic. So, yeah, probably a little mischievous. Lol”