"The Fiberglass Era" - Circa 1964

[master]

While doing a little "research" of my personal vaulting history I came across this article from my home town newspaper. I thought many of you would find it interesting, and maybe even a little bit of fun.

- master

[souleman]

Very cool article. The last paragraph discussing safety I found very interesting. In 1964 it was assumed by everyone that commonsense should prevail as to equipment used in this sport. Today it's felt that the commonsense has to be legislated. Also interesting was the extreme cost of those fibreglass poles. My my, $45. That's a bunch of dough. That must have been for a brown Skypole or an orange Thermoflex. My 1550 black Cat came along in '68. Dang near broke the bank at $54! Later..Mike

[artparry]

Ah, the good old days. Very interesting article. Your article reminded me of a picture I still have from the San Gabriel Tribune, June 1965. It is at the following link:

http://artparry.spaces.live.com

I am the handsome guy on the left. The guy in the middle is some unknown dude. The interesting part is the pit that shows at the bottom of the picture. It is the old type with the small pieces of foam rubber held together in a net.

[Rhino]

Great article! I am a few years younger than you, but my high school had sawdust until I was in sixth grade, and steel poles too. Artperry, alas! I couldn't load the picture?

[ladyvolspvcoach]

John, neat article!! 13'7" in those days in high school was pretty darn good, old man!! I jumped 12'6" in 1962 to break the Southeastern Highschool record. Of course my 1961 skypole didn't bend at that time....

[souleman]

The "one size fits all" 1960's high school fibreglass pole. 16 feet long and able to accomodate vaulters up to 215 pounds. They bought 'em that way so everybody on the team could use the same pole. I really don't think that anyone in the HS ranks back then really understood the whole concept of the fibreglass pole. Later.........Mike

[2-15-46]

John, neat article!! 13'7" in those days in high school was pretty darn good, old man!! I jumped 12'6" in 1962 to break the Southeastern Highschool record. Of course my 1961 skypole didn't bend at that time....

A STIFF POLE 12-6 JUMP THEN IS LIKE A 15-6 JUMP TODAY..... MY SENIOR YEAR IN 64 THE COACH BOUGHT A 15-180/85 BROWNING....IT WAS SO LONG AND HEAVY AND DID'NT KNOW HOW TO USE IT...SO I STILL USED MY ALUMINUM 14 FOOT GILL TO THE SAME ADVANTAGE....KIDS SHOULD JUMP ON STIFF POLES TILL THEY REACH 12, THEN PUT 'EM ON A FLEXIBLE POLE.....IT'D TAKE ALOT OF THE RISK FACTOR AWAY ;)

[achtungpv]

My HS coach was the first Texas high schooler to jump on fiberglass and also the first to jump 14' back in '63...interestingly enough his vault was 14'1 1/2"...that's exactly 4.30m so I've always wondered if they measured metrically back then for a while and then gave it up.

Anyway, he was jumping 12'6" on steel and he got the fiberglass pole and jumped 13'6" first practice on it and a few weeks later at the state meet jumped that first 14-footer.

There was a pic in his old yearbook of him jumping with a full-bend with no pads, no sawdust, no nothing...just landing on grass. I wish I had that pic. It was pretty awesome.

[2-15-46]

Did he say he was on a Browning?? there was another one....I don't remember what is was back then, it was a carmel colered, plain looking , and were about 14 feet long. Some were fortunate enoungh to get on a pole that was flexible enough to raise thier grip!!!

[master]

Our first fiberglass pole was a Browning Silaflex pole. Yes, I think it was made by the Browning firearms company. From the following web page http://huntingsociety.org/HistBrowning.html, I pulled up this bit of info:

1962-1963 Acquired Silaflex and Gordon Plastics, makers of bows, rods and vaulting poles.

So that is news to me. Just another bit of trivia to add to my vaulting history.

- master

[Bubba PV]

Very cool!! Was a stud and still a STUD!! Bubba

[souleman]

OK, Poles....circa 1960's and 70's in Wisconsin/Minnesota as I remember it.
1960 - 1965 orange and red Gill aluminum poles. The orange was 14 feet and the red one was lighter and 15 feet. Some schools in our conference had those goofy lookin' swedish steel poles. They were tapered at each end and supposedly light to carry.
1965 first Thermoflex 16 foot fibreglass pole at Hudson Wisconson high school.(It was orange like the ones you and I have Bob). Craig Swenson set school record at 12'3". Same kind of pole was used in 1970 by Jim Lee of Austin Minnesota to set state record in Minnesota with a jump of 15' (I used that pole after I broke mine in 1969 and it weighed about a ton).
1968, coach bought me a 14 foot 150 Browning Sky pole (first weight per length spacific pole that I can remember). It was brown (or carmel) colored . I was trying to teach a kid how to vault and he smacked that sucker across the standards in 1969. Two weeks later I busted the thing on the one and only time I think in my whole life I got MAJOR bend and dang near inverted. That lead to Jim letting me use his pole for my last two attempts.
Back to 1968, Seagren....Olympics....Black Cat!
1969.... busted pole ...need to get something for Wednesdays meet. School wanted to get me this white thing called a Wonder Pole for $40 (basically a wooden dowl covered in fibreglass resin that was even heavier than Jim Lee's Thermoflex) . I said I wanted a Cat-a-pole cause that's what Seagren jumped on. They balked and I told them to stick their Wonder Pole ...............no wait a minute .....I nicely declined, and went and bought my own 1550 black Cat and first day on it improved PR by a half a foot. The difference in price? $14. Went on to set school record on that tree trunk at 12' 7 1/2".
1980, went to visit alma mater track practice and what do I see? 10 or 12 black cats in the arsenal but the kids weren't having anything to do with them. They were all on the Pacer III's. Well? Seagren's name was on them so I guess I had to figure that was ok.
Folks? Those were the poles of the time as I can remember it. Keep in mind though...........that was the 60's!!!!! Later.............Mike