Dick Fosbury. Inventor.

Dick Fosbury changed the sport of high jumping forever. 

He invented the "Fosbury Flop."

Photo: 1965 "Crater," the high school yearbook

Dick Fosbury died on Sunday, age 76, of lymphoma. 

Fosbury was living in Idaho when he died. He had been the city engineer for Ketchum and Sun Valley, Idaho. He recognized in college that there was no living to be had as a professional high jumper, so he applied himself to his studies in engineering at Oregon State University. He was unsuccessful in a run for the Idaho legislature as a Democrat. He won office as a County Commissioner in Blaine County. He was in his second term when he died. 

He made his mark as an innovator who bucked tradition and the pressure from coaches to do the high jump the "right" way. Dick Fosbury attended Medford High school, graduating in 1965. The 1965 Medford High School yearbook gives a glimpse of the revolution he was starting in the world of track and field. He was jumping over the bar backwards. Back then it was a curiosity.

Fosbury hit a limit jumping in traditional ways early in high school by clearing 5' 6".  At the time there were two primary styles of jumping. The Scissors involved jumping off one's strongest foot, raising that leg and then the other high while postured upright, clearing the bar with one's crotch and then quickly raising the other leg, landing on one's feet. The other was the Western Roll. It modified the Scissors by pushing off and raising that leg, then turning the body face down. While over the bar one lifts the trailing leg and turns as one rolls over the bar.

Occasional Guest Post author Jack Mullen practiced high jumping with Fosbury during their junior high and high school years, jumping at the pits at school and in back yards. Jumpers formerly landed in piles of curled wood shavings. They partially cushioned the landing when they were fresh and fluffed up, but after a rain Mullen observed "it was like landing on concrete." Under the best of circumstances the Western Roll hurt as one landed on one's side. By 1963 something changed. Schools began using three-foot-thick loose bags of foam rubber blocks, a much softer landing spot. There was inertia in Medford's coaches as they watched Fosbury experiment with landing on his neck and shoulders into those bags. Traditionally jumpers hurt themselves as they landed. Landing right was part of the art of jumping. Coaches Dean Benson and Fred Spiegelberg worried about neck injuries, paralyzation, lawsuits, but they did not insist. They liked winners and Fosbury kept improving. By high school graduation Fosbury and a classmate, Steve Davis, were equally good jumpers, each clearing 6' 5" in their own styles.

Fosbury went on to Oregon State where he still kept improving using his unique style, becoming NCAA champion. He went on to the 1968 Olympics, where he won the Gold Medal, jumping 7', 4 1/4". The world saw that the technique was not just a curiosity. It was an improvement. Now virtually all elite jumpers jump that way.

The Fosbury technique has gravity on its side. The Scissors and Western roll required the center of gravity of the jumper's entire body weight to be entirely over the bar at one point. The Fosbury technique allows the head and shoulders to be over and then lead downward while one's butt and legs go over. The center of gravity moves in sequence. Here is a photo of a perfected version of the Flop, taken at the 1968 Olympics. Note the change from the high school image. Here Fosbury's head is swinging lower while the legs and butt clear the bar.

Fosbury's innovation combined multiple elements of chance. Fosbury grew up in a culture of athleticism. Medford High was sports crazy. Jack Mullen tells me that Fosbury concentrated on high jumping rather than football or basketball because Fosbury played to his strengths. Fosbury could dunk the basketball but he didn't concentrate on playing football or basketball. "He didn't have great hands," Mullen said, "but Dick could jump." The innovation of foam cushions for jump pits came at just the right time for this innovation. Today fear of lawsuits might cause coaches to declare an outright ban on a new and untested jump style where one crash landed onto one's neck. 

It seems improbable that someone with world class, one-in-a-million jumping skills would also be someone with world class, one-in-a-million creativity to innovate an entirely new way to do something. But they came together with Dick Fosbury. 

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