Dick Fosbury

In the summer between his junior and senior years, 1968, Oregon Stater Dick Fosbury won the high-jump gold medal at the Olympic Games in Mexico City. Any medal won at the Olympics is an outstanding achievement, but this particular medal was and is unique in the annals of OSU and American Sports.

For starters, Dick's winning height was 7-4 ¼, a new Olympic record, topping the old mark of 7-feet 1 ¾ set four years earlier by famed Russian jumper Valery Brumel. Also, it was the first American victory in the event since 1956.

Most significant, however, from the standpoint of sports history and the Olympic drama of the moment, was the way in which Fosbury won this event…by demonstrating to the work a new and different way of conquering high bars…up-and-over backwards, knees, chest and face to the sky, the "Fosbury Flop!"

Journalists covering the game went nuts over the new technique, devoting more space and adjectives to the young man from Corvallis than to most of the other individual medal winners. They realized immediately they were watching a sport being completely revolutionized.

Above: Dick Fosbury "flops" over the bar. Fosbury revolutionized the sport of high jumping with his innovative style, now known as the Fosbury Flop. Right: After winning the Gold Medal at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968, Fosbury returned to a hero's welcome. All photos on this page from The Beaver.

One wrote: "The high jump (competition) provided a sensation of a special and totally unexpected kind. Dick Fosbury, USA, showed an astonished world a brand-new way to jump better and higher. He invented and perfected it himself and there's and indication that many jumpers, novices and world class alike, will begin copying what has been named the 'Fosbury Flop.' It isn't easy to describe in words…one has to see it in action. Fosbury's new Olympic record speaks a clear language. This flop is no flop."

The stadium crown of 80,000 who watched Dick Fosbury make history that day paid the young 21-year old athlete from Medford, Oregon, the ultimate compliment.

It is an understandable custom at the Olympics that when the marathon leader re-enters the stadium after spending a grueling several hours on the course, he or she gets the undivided attention of the crowd for the final lap.

The Olympic Marathon Champion, Mamo Wolde from Ethiopia, ran his final round almost unheeded that day. Fosbury was about to start his run to the bar for the winning jump.

The silver medal in the event was awarded to teammate Ed Carouthers, the bronze to Valentin Gavrilov of the Soviet Union. Both used the traditional style.

-- By George Edmonston Jr. and Chuck Boice