Don Toshach

The Managing Editor Who Helped Launch Freestylin' Magazine

A Legend Bike Co. industry page · sources: a period facsimile of Freestylin' Vol. 2, No. 2 (May 1985), Andy Jenkins' own account published on 23mag.com, and the USA BMX National Hall of Fame's Class of 2024 announcement

At a glance

Role Magazine editor — Managing Editor at launch, later Associate Editor
Scene Wizard Publications, Torrance, California, 1984 to the mid-1980s
Magazines Bicycle Sport (before 1984), Freestylin' (from its founding in 1984)
Known for Being part of the founding editorial team behind Freestylin' magazine, inducted into the National BMX Hall of Fame in 2024 as part of the Freestylin' staff

Don Toshach's name doesn't headline the story of BMX freestyle's first magazine the way Andy Jenkins' or Spike Jonze's does, but he was in the room when it started. He came over from Bicycle Sport magazine to run the editorial desk on a new title Bob Osborn wanted to build around the sport nobody had a magazine for yet, and he stayed on staff through the run that made Freestylin' the magazine an entire generation of freestylers read cover to cover.

From Bicycle Sport to a New Magazine

Bob Osborn and Wizard Publications, the company already putting out BMX Action, decided in early 1984 to build a magazine devoted entirely to the fast-growing freestyle scene. Osborn hired 19-year-old Andy Jenkins, an art student and BMX racer from Wyoming, as editor, and brought in Don Toshach, who'd previously worked at Bicycle Sport magazine, to handle Managing Editor duties. The first issue of Freestylin' hit newsstands in the summer of 1984, with Ron Wilkerson on the cover.

The Founding Staff

Toshach was one of a small founding team that built Freestylin' from a quarterly into one of the most influential titles in BMX. According to the National BMX Hall of Fame's own Class of 2024 writeup, the staff also included Valerie Adlam handling advertisers, Dian Harlan running production in the art department and darkroom, Mark "Lew" Lewman (hired as Assistant Editor after starting out in Kalamazoo, Michigan), Andy Jenkins' sister Janice Jenkins as full-time Art Director, and Spike Jonze, hired out of high school as Associate Editor and photography assistant. Jenkins later described the Wizard offices as less like a workplace and more like a playground with a darkroom, a copier, bikes, and curbs to skate right in the parking lot.

On the Masthead Through 1985

By the magazine's May 1985 issue — Volume 2, Number 2 — the printed masthead lists Bob Osborn as Publisher, Andy Jenkins as Editor/Illustrator, and Don Toshach as Associate Editor, a title shift from his original Managing Editor role at launch. That same issue's editorial page makes a joking reference to Toshach having a cold, the kind of in-house aside that shows up in a magazine written by a small staff who all knew each other, not a masthead credit filled in for show.

Leaving the Magazine

Toshach eventually left his position at Freestylin', and proofreading duties he'd handled passed to other staff. The exact date of his departure is not documented in the sources checked for this page. Freestylin' itself kept publishing into the late 1980s before combining with BMX Action around 1990 to form GO: The Rider's Manual, by which point Toshach was no longer listed on staff.

2024 Hall of Fame Induction

In 2024, the USA BMX National Hall of Fame inducted the staff of Freestylin' magazine as a group in the Industry category — a rare group induction recognizing what the Hall of Fame called one of the industry's all-time most influential media voices. Don Toshach was named among the founding staff in that induction, alongside Jenkins, Lewman, Jonze, Janice Jenkins, Adlam, and Harlan.

Where the public record runs thin

Don Toshach's birth details, hometown, the exact date he left Freestylin', and any career after magazine publishing are not documented in the period magazine archives or databases checked for this page. Web searches on his name also surface a LinkedIn profile and Facebook page for a Don Toshach connected to wedding officiating and creative consulting, and a separate connection to Bicycle Sport magazine predates the digitized record checked here — none of that later material is confirmed to be the same person as the Freestylin' editor, and none of it is included as fact on this page. oldschoolmags.com and bmxsociety.com were checked directly for independent period coverage; both returned general Freestylin' magazine-archive scans and forum mentions, not a dedicated Toshach profile beyond the masthead credits already sourced from period scans.

Where Don Toshach fits in the bigger story

Brands and magazines: Freestylin' Magazine, BMX Action Magazine, GO: The Rider's Manual. People: Bob Osborn. The bigger arc is in our History of BMX series.

Sources

Previouspage.co.uk, facsimile reproduction of Freestylin' Vol. 2, No. 2, May 1985, previouspage.co.uk/issues/27-may-nineteen-eighty-five — primary source; period masthead listing Don Toshach as Associate Editor. 23mag.com, "Freestylin' BMX Magazine 1984," 23mag.com/mags/fs/fs.htm — Andy Jenkins' own account of the founding staff and how Toshach and the team were hired. USA BMX, "BMX Hall of Fame — Class of 2024," usabmx.com — official induction writeup naming Don Toshach as Managing Editor on the founding staff, with his prior tenure at Bicycle Sport magazine. oldschoolmags.com and bmxsociety.com were checked directly by site-restricted search for independent period coverage; both returned general magazine-archive material and forum mentions, not a dedicated Toshach profile.