RIP Dick Fosbury

1968 gold medalist who changed high jumping forever.

 

It's difficult to overemphasize his impact. If anything, I would compare it to the Gogolaks making soccer-style placekicking a thing. In both cases, they turned the genre upside down.

I once covered the Keystone State Games in State College. A poor man's local Olympics, if you will. One of the high jumpers was Bill Thierfelder, who was clearing seven feet in the early '80s -- before nearly every state had one or two high school high jumpers doing it. And he was doing it roll-style. The biggest impression I got was how much more difficult that seemed to be than the Flop.

Dr. Thierfelder, incidentally, has enjoyed a long career as president at Belmont Abbey College.

 

There is a statue of him in front of the student rec center at Oregon State, approximately at the same location as the high jump pit at old Bell Field, the track facility at that time. He is clearing the bar at his Olympic height, 7-4.25.

I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing him several times. He was a wonderful, friendly man and a huge booster of his alma mater, even though it no longer sponsors men's track. He was an OSU junior when he won gold, I believe.

 

He was an engineer and lived in Idaho, I think Sun Valley. He became quite an environmentalist in his older years. His remarks at about the 16:00 mark in the dedication video are pretty spot-on. He is a legend in these parts, and deservedly so. Many a couch was busted in Corvallis by local kids emulating the flop.

 

I'm sure someone has done a sports anthology on "Game Changers" - athletes who reinvented or revolutionized their sports. Fosbury is obviously a no-brainer. It would be interesting to take the top high jumpers in the world and see how high they could go doing it the way they used to before the flop took hold.

 

Current world record (8 feet, 1/4 inch) turns 30 years old this year.

 

Though I did not compete, I taught myself to the Fosbury Flop in high school. It was amazing how easy it was to get the hang of it right away.

In related news, years ago I worked with Dick Squires, who competed in platform tennis as a demo sport at the Mexico games. He showed me the set of pins he was given to mark the occasion.

 

High jump pit is in the right-center of the infield. The baseball field (still in use, same location since 1907) is just to the right, you can see the old first base grandstand. Fans could sit there and watch a track meet and a ball game at the same time. The WWII-era quonset hut in the lower right corner was finally torn down about two years ago, it housed the Navy/Marines ROTC program.

 

Dick Fosbury literally DID turn high jumping upside-down.

In 1968, he was a member of the greatest track and field team ever assembled. That U.S. Olympic team didn’t just win and didn’t just break records— they OBLITERATED records, setting marks stood for years and in some cases decades.

 

7,349 feet

Hell of a team, but elevation does matter.

 

2021 Olympic men's 4x400 winning time: 2:55.7
1968 Olympic men's 4x400 winning time: 2:56.1

 

And?