Dick Fosbury - Track and Field

Among the athletic legends within the state, few have had the impact on their sport like Dick Fosbury, who revolutionized the art of high-jumping so much that the style was named after him – the “Fosbury Flop.”

Born in 1947, Fosbury grew up in Medford and found his way to the basketball and track and field teams at Medford High. His basketball career did not advance and he struggled with the track and field team competing in the high jump using the established technique: the straddle or Western Roll, which ended with jumpers landing on their feet on a pile of sawdust.

While trying to master the outdated upright scissors method as a junior, Fosbury developed a method of jumping where he cleared the bar head first and landed on his shoulders on a foam pad, which was just becoming available. As a sophomore, he was unable to clear 5-feet and qualify for state. As a junior, he cleared 6-feet, 5.5 inches and finished second at the state meet.

Fosbury advanced to Oregon State in 1965 and continued to improve enough that he cleared 7 feet in 1968 and won the NCAA title as a junior. He then won the U.S. Trials for the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Summer Games.

In Mexico City, Fosbury won the Gold Medal and set an Olympic record at 7 feet, 4.25 inches.

Fosbury again won the NCAA title in 1969. But by the ’72 Olympic Trials most of the top jumpers had adopted the Fosbury Flop and he failed to make the U.S. team.

The following year, he became an engineer full-time.

The Fosbury Flop enabled the world record, which had been stuck at 7 feet, 5.75 inches since 1963, to begin advancing again in 1970. It passed 8 feet, ½ inches in 1993, which remains the world record.

Fosbury was inducted to the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame as part of the inaugural class in 1980.