I’m sure more than a few people would like to argue with me on who the first inductee into the Freestyle portion of this Hall Of Fame should be as there is not a lot of detail on the early days of Freestyle BMX in New Jersey and 
there are a lot of “local heroes” whom people probably think should also be in here. Over time, they will be. This first inductee though transcended past the local hero and went into the realm of sponsored rider and helped create one of the biggest teams of BMX’s Old School era.
The person I am talking about is Steve Rulli.
Steve was a North Jersey local and the first BMX rider to really just specialize in Freestyle riding. Racing was not his concern. Even though he could be found at the Jersey City Armory during the 80′s, he was in there freestyling not dropping gates. Steve was the first local NJ guy to travel to New England and compete in Ron Stebenne’s AFA contests there and he brought them down for the first ever AFA contest in North Jersey. Steve believed in freestyle and was always a big advocate for it.
It was this advocacy that landed him with General Bicycles in its formative days and made him leader of their freestyle effort along with Harry Myers (another person who will see induction into the Hall Of Fame this year). General continued to pick up a lot of local shredders and was a dominate force on the local scene for years to come. All of this can be traced back to Steve and his devotion to BMX.
Steve Rulli: First inductee to the BMXNJ Hall Of Fame for BMX Freestyle.
