Bob Richards

Robert Eugene Richards (born February 20, 1926) is an American athlete who made three U.S. Olympic Teams in two events: the 1948, 1952, and 1956 Summer Olympics as a pole vaulter and as a decathlete in 1956.[1]

Bob Richards
Bob Richards in 1951
Personal details
Born	(1926-02-20) February 20, 1926 Champaign, Illinois, U.S.
Political party	Populist (1984–1996) American Freedom (2010–present)
Alma mater	University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Sports career
Personal information
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	75 kg (165 lb)
Sport	Pole vault, decathlon
Club	LAAC, Los Angeles
Sports achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	HJ – 1.91 m (1954) PV – 4.72 m (1957) LJ – 7.09 m (1954)
Medal record Representing the  United States Olympic Games 1956 Melbourne Pole vault 1952 Helsinki Pole vault 1948 London Pole vault Pan American Games 1951 Buenos Aires Pole vault 1955 Mexico City Pole vault 1955 Mexico City Decathlon

In the 1984 United States presidential election, Richards ran for President of the United States on the far-right, white nationalist Populist Party ticket.[2] He and running mate Maureen Salaman earned 66,324 votes.

Biography

Richards was the second man to pole vault 15 ft (4.57 m). While a student at the University of Illinois, Richards tied for the national collegiate pole vault title and followed that with 20 national Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) titles, including 17 in the pole vault and three in the decathlon.[3][4][5] The first man to clear 15 feet was Dutch Warmerdam, who set the world record of 4.77 m (15 ft 7 ³⁄₄ in) in 1942, long before Richards came into his prime. While Richards was the dominant vaulter of his time, he never achieved the world record.

Richards later became involved in promoting physical fitness and continued to vault in his later years. He was the first athlete to appear on the front of Wheaties cereal boxes in 1958 (though not the first depicted on all parts of the packaging), and also was the first Wheaties spokesman, setting up the Wheaties Sports Federation, which encouraged participation in Olympic sports.[6] Richards had four sons who were also pole vaulters: Brandon, held the national high school record at 18'2" for fourteen years from 1985;[7] Tom won the CIF California State Meet in 1988; Bob, Junior was second in the same meet in 1968[8] and later ranked #7 in the US in 1973.[9]

Richards while running for president

He was ordained in 1946 as a minister in the Church of the Brethren (which led to his being nicknamed the "Vaulting Vicar" or the "Pole Vaulting Parson"). He is the only male two-time Olympic gold medal winner in the pole vault (1952 and 1956), thus he is also the only man to defend his Olympic title. He also won a bronze medal in 1948, so he won three Olympic medals in the pole vault. All of his feats were equalled by female pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, completed in 2012. He also was 13th in the 1956 decathlon. He was elected to the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983 and the United States National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1975.[10] As he aged, Richards continued participating in Track and Field in a variety of events, particularly throwing events. He was one of the first regular participants in the origins of what now has become Masters athletics.[11] Richards appeared on the panel game show, What's My Line? episode #346 January 20, 1957. In 1984, he ran for president on the newly-formed Populist Party ticket. [12]

As future tennis player Billie Jean King's church minister, Richards inspired King. One day, when King was 13 or 14, Richards asked her, "What are you going to do with your life?" She said: "Reverend, I'm going to be the best tennis player in the world."[13][14] In 1957 the actor Hal Stalmaster played Richards as a teenager in an episode of the ABC anthology series Cavalcade of America.[15]

Awards

Richards was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State's highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 2000 in the area of Sports.[16] Richards is referenced in the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary "Survive and Advance", for the impact he had on former N.C. State coach Jim Valvano. Valvano cites hearing Richards speak when he was a teen and the motivational messages he implored. He was inducted into the Texas Track and Field Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Class of 2017.[17]

See also

• List of athletes on Wheaties boxes

References

1. Bob Richards. sports-reference.com
2. "746 F. 2d 656 – Populist Party v. Herschler". OpenJurist. Archived from the original on April 16, 2015. Retrieved November 4, 2010.
3. THE REV. BOB RICHARDS POLE VAULT-DECATHLON (Inducted 1975). USATF
4. USA Indoor Track & Field Champions. Men's Pole Vault. USATF
5. USA Outdoor Track & Field Champions. Men's Decathlon. USATF
6. "Wheaties – The Breakfast of Champions" (PDF). General Mills. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 20, 2009. Retrieved May 20, 2009.
7. High School Pole Vault Records. polevaultpower.com
8. "California State Meet Results – 1915 to present". Hank Lawson. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved December 25, 2012.
9. All-Time U.S. Rankings — Men’s Pole Vault. trackandfieldnews.com
10. "National Track and Field Hall of Fame". USA Track & Field. Retrieved November 4, 2010.
11. "U.S. Masters International Track Team Newsletter – European Report November 1971" (PDF). masterhistory.org. Retrieved November 4, 2010.
12. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/willis-carto
13. https://vault.si.com/vault/1975/05/19/mrs-billie-jean-king
14. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/30/sports/a-fan-at-the-game-john-leonard.html
15. "Hal Stalmaster". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved April 16, 2011.
16. "Laureates by Year – The Lincoln Academy of Illinois". The Lincoln Academy of Illinois. Retrieved February 26, 2016.
17. Inductees – Name, Category, Year Archived January 16, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. TX TF Hall of Fame

Party political offices
New political party	Populist nominee for President of the United States 1984	Succeeded by David Duke