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CONTENTS y a M FROM THE EDITOR
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DON HOOD AND CARL ERICKSON VAULTER MAGAZINE HALL OF FAME 2019
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BOB OLSEN’S LEGACY AS A VAULTER AND COACH
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FROM THE EDITOR May is that time of the year when your anxiety starts to grow for the end of school and start of summer. Summer meets, summer fun to include the sport of pole vaulting. From this year on May, we will begin our annual month of Hall of Fame and Lifetime Achievement awardees for the magazine.
With that said, we had a Vaulter Magazine Hall of Fame celebration for Don Hood and Carl Erickson at Baylor University for this occasion. The event was epic with the awards given to each of the recipients by Olympic Gold and Silver Medalist Jenn Suhr at Baylor University. Friends and family gathered to see these men that provided such prestige to their athletes in their younger years. Pole vaulters from the past came to mark this celebration and Stuart Kantor wrote and excellent article annotating the event. “Says Payne of the Golden Age at Baylor: “The combination of coaching and those three guys [Hodge, Cooper, Shafe] is kind of what got me going.” Payne, mentored by Erickson, set and still holds many Baylor records. “ A great friend of Vaulter Magazine a supporter from day one and a confidante that can be counted on. “While many elite vaulters begin to coach in place of competing when they retire, few are lucky enough to make as much of an impact on the pole vaulting community as Bob Olsen.” Bob Olsen is a Masters Vaulter now and has vaulted his way through a majority of his life. Kreager Taber takes the time to write about Bob and
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open a window into his life as a pole vaulter and a coach. Good job Kreager!
John Clark is back, and he never ceases to make us laugh and think about his journey as a Masters Pole Vaulter. “When I woke up around 8 o’clock that Sunday morning to the sounds of howling wind, booming thunder, and pouring rain outside my hotel room, I pretty much knew the Texas Senior Games vaulting competition was going to be a wash-out.” Read the rest of the story and see what John is up to and who he is writing about this month.
As we finish may and honor those pole vaulters of the past, we will get some insight into the club world and the pole vaulters that make the summer season happen. See you all in June!
Doug Bouma Editor, Vaulter Magazine - Vaulter Club Inc. editor@thevaultermag.com
Texas A&&M Meet 2019
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DON HOOD AND CARL ERICKSON VAULTER MAGAZINE HALL OF FAME 2019 By Stuart Kantor In sports, there are legends, and then there is Royalty, those whom we consider worthy of prominence perched atop a respective Mount Rushmore. In American pole vaulting, Don Hood, Sr. and Carl Erickson have attained this vaunted eminence. Don Hood
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On Saturday, April 20, 2019, Vaulter Magazine recognized these two giants in a ceremony at Baylor’s Clyde Hart Track & Field Stadium during the Michael Johnson Invitational. Future Hall of Famer Jenn Suhr presented each with his plaque, making their Vaulter Magazine Inaugural Hall of Fame inductions official.
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Prior to elevating Abilene Christian University to a perennial DII national powerhouse, Hood coached at four Texas high schools before accepting an assistant coaching job at Wichita State in 1968 and then moving briefly to the University of North Texas and Howard Payne. And in 1976, Hood accepted the head coaching job at Abilene
Christian – a hire that would change the face of collegiate track and field forever.
In eleven seasons at the helm of ACU’s track & field programs, Hood’s squads won eight NCAA Division II national titles, one NAIA national title and nine Lone Star Conference Championships. Also, the visionary coach also
earned Coach of the Year accolades eight times.
A member of the United States Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame (2006) and the Texas Track & Field Hall of Fame (2013), Hood is recognized world-wide for his coaching prowess, especially in the pole vault, where he Prior pole vaulters of Don Hood and Carl Erickson
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has coached more 18-footplus vaulters than any other U.S. coach, and this includes Billy Olson and Tim Bright – two 19-foot Olympians.
Former ACU Coach Donn Hood with his Athletes
Don Hood and Jenn Suhr
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Hood, a high school teammate of Olympic decathlon gold medalist Bob Mathias, understood innately that to be a great program, one must build a complete program, and in 1984, Hood’s Abilene Christian squad displayed rare dominance regardless of the level of competition. Abilene Christian amassed a staggering 246 points to claim the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The runner-up trailed by only 117 points! The ACU Wildcat squad claimed victory in the 200, 400, 800, 1500, pole vault, triple jump, and both relays, along the way setting relay records at 39.20 and 3:03.28 respectively. In a career brimming with accomplishments, the mention of Don Hood’s name still brings to mind his signature event: pole vault. From pool training to film analysis, Hood’s insight into eliciting the ultimate from his vaulters allowed him to coach thirteen vaulters who cleared the 18-foot barrier, including his most famous
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pupil, Billy Olson, who set eleven world records in the 1980s.
Having studied under fellow USTFCCCA Hall of Famer Dutch Warmerdam (who taught Bob Mathias to vault), Hood’s keen eye for the minutiae was closely followed by his passion for the event. When he returned to Abilene Christian University as an assistant, he coached multiple female vaulters to All-American status, including Jane McNeill, the first female in NCAA Division II history to win a national championship (1999 Indoors.) Slowed by time and the onset of Alzheimers, Don Hood, Sr. is an American icon in the world of pole vault. Joining Hood as an inaugural member of the Vaulter Magazine Pole Vault Hall of Fame is Carl Erickson, founder of the ubiquitous pole and the company who creates it, Altius. While never a vaulter himself, two incidents channeled Erickson toward the event: 1) his son needed a coach and eventually became the state champion), and 2) Paul Richards was the founder of Altius) (Jeff and Carl bought it and expanded it greatly!)
Erickson, who’s career involvement in the pole vault industry – as a coach and as a partner to one of only four pole vault manufacturing companies in the world – spans more than five dec-
ades, has coached numerous national champions, has been an Olympic coach and has sent multiple vaulters to the Olympic Trials.
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The height (or Altius) of Erickson’s career came as a coach at Baylor University in the 1980s. Three of his Bears cleared 18 feet or higher in the same NCAA meet 1985, the first time this feat was ever achieved, and under his tutelage, Baylor enjoyed its first Golden Age of pole vault: names like Bill Payne, Todd Cooper, David Hodge, Chris
Carl Ericksons Athlete Bill Payne
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Bohanan, Brandon Richards, Mike Shafe, and David Wooten. Baylor did not have a Pole Vault Coach at the time they recruited Cooper, Shafe and Hodge and the school record at the time 1981 was 16’-0”. In 1982 they met Carl Erickson while looking for some poles and discovered that he had a pole vaulting pit in his
back yard of Dawson, Texas about 35 miles north east of Waco. After wearing out the road between Waco and Dawson TX in the fall of 1982, Baylor offered Coach Erickson a volunteer position as the pole vaulting coach. As they say, the rest is history! Cooper, Shafe, and Hodge were pretty good high school
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pole vaulter’s (mid 15’s with a couple of Missouri State Championships) But the next three years were special.
Twenty school records were broken, 7 Conference Championships won and 7 All-American accolades accumulated.
“It is kind of amazing when you look back on it. That four people could come together from different parts of the country and different walks of life and believe in something so much that we almost just willed ourselves to success.” Says Cooper.
Says Payne of the Golden Age at Baylor: “The combination of coaching and those three guys [Hodge, Cooper, Shafe] is kind of what got me going.” Payne, mentored by Erickson, set and still holds, many Baylor records. As one generation fades into the next, it’s imperative that the history is retained, for progress comes on the heels of knowing where we’ve been. With this in mind, we pay homage to Don Hood, Sr. and Carl Erickson as the inaugural inductees of Vaulter Magazine’s Inaugural Pole Vault Hall of Fame Class of 2019.
David Hodge and Todd Cooper
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Carl and Jeff Erickson of Altius Poles
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FOGLEMAN ByJohnClark
When I woke up around 8 o’clock that Sunday morning to the sounds of howling wind, booming thunder, and pouring rain outside my hotel room, I pretty much knew the Texas Senior Games vaulting competition was going to be a wash-out.
Barton vaults at State Meet 1970
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According to the recorded voice on the Games’ scheduling hotline, the April 7 meet at the University of Texas at San Antonio’s outdoor sports complex was delayed, but would continue at some point later in the day.
As the somewhat fierce deluge continued, with prospects of the weather clearing anytime soon not very promising, I decided – reluctantly – to call it a day, pack the suitcase, grab my poles from downstairs, and head on back up U.S. Highway 281 to the house. I hadn’t
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done any jumping in two weeks, and was really looking forward to returning to the site of my first-ever Masters competition.
By the time I got a halfhour or so down the road, one of my training compadres, Cyndy, messaged me to say the event had gone from postponed to officially cancelled. I was relieved that at least I hadn’t made a bad decision in leaving. Oh, well, back to work. Next on the schedule is my first-ever trip to the National Senior Games next month in Albuquerque.
All the gang will be there from New Braunfels, where I first began my pole vault training back in October 2017 at the ripe ol’ age of 60. It’s been an incredible journey so far, and one of the many outstanding friends I’ve made along the way is Masters vaulter Barton Fogleman of Arkansas, who I met last year at the Oklahoma Senior Games, where I won a gold medal and qualified for Nationals. Barton also qualified for Nationals, but has decided to skip that event and wait for the USATF Masters Outdoor
Championships Iowa, in July.
in
Ames,
The 66-year-old grandfather recently was on hand for an up-close-and-personal view of Mondo Duplantis’ record-setting 19-5 jump at the SEC Championships, where he worked the leftside standards for the vaulting competition. Standing pit-side as the young superstar celebrated yet another historic vault was not only a thrill, but reminded Fogleman of his own moment of glory back in high school.
It was at the Arkansas state track meet his junior year, which Fogleman says got off to a rocky start. He had jumped 10-6 earlier in the season, but things had not been “clicking” recently, and after a two-hour ride to the meet, there wasn’t time for stretching, he only had two warm-up jumps, wasn’t wearing his usual spikes, and his district rival looked great.
When the competition started, he was horrified to see the bar open at 11-0, a half-foot over his own P.R. “My first practice jump was scary-bad,” Fogleman recalls. “I didn’t even get my feet high enough to touch
that triangular steel crossbar at 10-6. My second and final practice jump was even worse. I was feeling like I should just go scratch and avoid any further embarrassment, until I saw the other guy from our district staring me down. I knew I had to somehow out-jump this guy. “My heart was pounding as I took the runway for my first attempt. I started down that long runway toward that high bar, and …
“I don’t even know how to describe how it felt to find myself clearing that 11-foot bar by at least six inches, and setting a new school record. Exhilaration, triumph, awe, and just pure unadulterated joy were coursing through my veins as I flew up from that pit, fists raised. I was almost literally floating on air.
“I couldn’t help but think back about that when I saw Mondo’s celebration after he set the NCAA record. He had such a wonderful, exuberant, joy-charged reaction to that amazing performance, and I remembered how I had once experienced a tiny taste of what that must have felt like. “Even though I finished ninth out of 16 vaulters that
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day, it still stands in my mind as my greatest moment as a vaulter.”
His pole vault career ended after high school, as Fogleman went to the University of Arkansas to study architecture. He left school for a while after two years, then went back to Arkansas State, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in botSr Olympics PV - Swing Up
any and biology, and went on to a 37-year career as a wheat breeder, developing new and improved varieties of wheat for grain producers. Around the time of his 60th birthday, as Barton began a program of walking and jogging to try and get back in shape, he often drove by the Bell Athletics facility near where he lived. Sometimes
he’d say to his wife, Jeanne, “I wonder if I could still pole vault …”
Unbeknownst to him, Jeanne one day contacted the folks at Bell, got some information about vault training for senior athletes, and presented Fogleman with copies of her e-mail inquiries, along with Bell’s responses, and enough cash to cover two training sessions, as a wedding anniversary gift. Under the watchful eye of legendary vaulter and coach Earl Bell, Fogleman began his comeback, jumping on “very light poles at very low heights.”
“It felt so awesome. It was an amazing feeling to actually swing on a pole again as a ‘senior citizen.’ I remember Earl shaking his head and saying something like, ‘ Muscle memory is an amazing thing.’ I took that as a compliment.
“If I had been smart enough to quit when my coach suggested, those first two sessions would have been much easier – but not me. I would keep at it until I was worn out and limping out of the facility. I remember having to use both hands to help lift my right leg up to get into my pickup to go to work the first
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few days after my workouts, that first month or so.”
Learning to end training sessions without overdoing it, and recovering from injuries are two of the big challenges for a Masters vaulter, says Fogleman, who has jumped 10-0 in practice; 9-9 indoors and 9-7 outdoors at meets. Since he is not a big fan of exercise, pole vaulting is a good motivator for work-
ing out and staying fit. That, along with the excitement of competition, and the tremendous camaraderie throughout the vaulting community will keep him coming back as long as he is able. “I’m looking forward to the outdoor championships at Ames,” Fogleman said. “Beyond that, I plan to keep vaulting and competing as long as the good Lord and my body let me.”
Barton mugshot
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BOB OLSEN’S LEGACY AS A VAULTER AND COACH By Kreager Taber
Bob Olsen
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While many elite vaulters begin to coach in place of competing when they retire, few are lucky enough to make as much of an impact on the pole vaulting community as Bob Olsen. During the time he spent competing as a top tier collegiate vaulter and Master’s athlete, he amassed the knowledge and skillset to become an incredibly
successful high school and elite coach. Olsen has continued to vault on and off, enter and compete in Master’s competitions, and has touched the lives of countless high school and collegiate athletes through his coaching. However, Olsen’s success is not limited to his coaching prowess– the marks Olsen jumped while competing in
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the Men’s 50-54 and 55-59 age groups in 2010 and 2011 still remain on the all-time world lists for his age groups. Olsen broke onto the track and field scene early with his life-time best of 17’8.50”, cleared at an international track meet in Norway, but his accomplishments as a Master’s vaulter and celebrated coach show us that his collegiate and elite careers were only the beginning. Few coaches are as successful as Bob Olsen with the athletes they train, but fewer still are able to continue to cultivate their own passion for competition while coaching others.
Olsen’s track career began as a student at Pleasant Hill High in California. Like many pole vaulters, he did gymnastics as a child, giving him the body awareness, coordination, strength, and dedication to excel at track and field and tennis. In high school, he competed in pole vault and the decathlon, graduating with a personal best of 6,800 points in the latter. Olsen then headed to Hayward State University to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education and Kinesiology. During his time as a member of the Hayward State University Track and Field Team from
1977-1980, he was a twotime All-American pole vaulter and was a member of the 1977 Men’s National Championship Team. On May 7th, 2016, he was inducted along with his teammates from 1977 into the Cal State Hayward Athletic Hall of
Fame. After graduating, Olsen was a two-time National Qualifier in the pole vault, and began work as a physical education teacher, a vault coach and speaker at track and field camps, and continued to train and vault in Master’s competitions.
1977 UC Davis clearance
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While Olsen’s accomplishments as a vaulter speak to his dedication as an athlete, the success he has found while coaching truly showcases his passion for the sport. He has spent time as an assistant coach at the University of California at Davis, worked in the Fairfield/Suisun Uni-
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fied School District, coached pole vault at Acalanes High School, and coached athletes one-on-one. Most notably, Olsen coached Brent Burns to three Olympic Trials appearances in 1992, 1996, and 2000. Before training with Olsen for the Olympic Trials, Burns was the country’s best high school vaulter
and competed for Acalanes High School, then had an extremely successful career as a member of the track and field team at the University of California, Berkeley. Competing as a Bear, Burns was a two-time NCAA Division 1 All-American, and he is still regarded as “the premier pole vaulter in school history”, according to his athlete description in the UC Berkeley Athletics Hall of Fame. Burns cleared a school record of 18’8.25” to earn runner up honors at the NCAA Championships in 1992, his senior year. Additionally, Burns claimed the Pac-10 pole vault title his freshman, junior, and senior years, making him the first athlete in Pac-10 history to win the pole vault three times. Burns not only held the school record at UC Berkeley: he also claimed the Cal freshman record with a jump of 17’7.75”, the indoor record with 17’10.50”, and the Edwards Stadium record with 18’6.50”. After graduating, he began training with Bob Olsen and got third in the 1994 Olympic Trials with 18’8.25”, or 5.70 meters. In 2000, he got sixth place with a jump of 18’1.75”, or 5.53 meters. In 1986, Olsen coached Kevin Rankin at Los Gatos High School to a jump of 16’. He went on to compete at Cal Poly and jumped
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Olsen off top of pole
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17’8.50” in 1990, which still holds a place on Cal Poly’s record board as the 8th best jump in school history. He also won the pole vault at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Division II Championships with this mark. More recently, Olsen coached Acalanes standout Joe Dryer to a jump of 15’6” in 2012. He went on to vault at Questa under Jan Johnson, and jumped to third and fourth places at the JC State Meet.
Due to injuries to his shoulder and Achilles, Olsen had difficulty training for his Master’s competitions but continued to vault as much as he was able. Coaching seemed to take priority, as Burns’ elite career was just getting started. Olsen backed away from his own competitions, taking a hiatus from 1994 to 2010. His silence was broken by his second place finish at the 2010 USA Master’s Track and Field Championships, held at Sacramento State, in which he jumped 13’7.25” for second place. During an interview conducted by
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the Daily Republic, Olsen reported that he hadn’t been able to vault because of his shoulder and Achilles injuries, but then, “finally had surgery two years ago, and now I can do it with no problems”. When asked about his performance, he said he “came in at 11 feet and gained more and more confidence as I went along”. His efforts culminated with his second-place finish in his age category. Gary Hunter of Fort Wayne, Indiana, took the championship title in the men’s 50-54 group with a jump of 13’11.25”. Hunter and Olsen are rivals and have known each other for years, and according to Olsen, Hunter hadn’t been beaten in his age group since Olsen himself had done it in 1994. His hard work to get to the USA Master’s Track and Field Championships culminated with his mark of 13’7.25” earning a spot on the all-time world rankings for the men’s 50-54 group. His success continued into 2011, in which he jumped 4.05 meters to take second in the men’s 55-59
pole vault. This mark earned Olsen a second sport on the all-time world rankings for Master’s track and field. He is still vaulting, and last year his mark of 11’9” made him 7th in the world and 5th in the United States. While it is unclear how long Olsen will continue training and coaching, one thing is certain—he has influenced and inspired countless young vaulters throughout his coaching career, spanning more than forty years. His impressive marks will undoubtedly remain on the all-time world lists for the Men’s 50-54 and 55-59 age groups for years. He is now coaching at College Park High School in Pleasant Hill and beginning to develop a new vault program. Olsen’s passion for teaching has been showcased throughout his career as an educator and a coach, and his love for vaulting will continue to be paid forward by those who have learned from him for generations to come.
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