History of the Pole Vault

A forum to discuss pole vaulting related things of a historical nature.
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Russ
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History of the Pole Vault

Unread postby Russ » Sat Feb 22, 2003 12:39 am

I've looked a little online, but I've been pretty disappointed with the overall quality of material that I've found regarding the history of the pole vault. Most of it is recycled generalizations, I think. The authors talk about ancients and folks living in the middle ages vaulting over streams and stuff like that. But I've not found anyone who has pointed to specific texts, accounts, art work, or anything that strikes me as reliable evidence.

Does anyone know whether there is a good, definitive "real history" of our sport?

Has anyone done the homework necessary to write that book/article?

I would love to be able to read a real pole vault history.

Thanks,
Russ

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xtremevaulter

Unread postby xtremevaulter » Sun Feb 23, 2003 7:19 pm

I have always thought that it started back in the days of the greeks. And it used to be a tactic used in war. BUt later on people would jump for distance but i don't know how accurate any of this is.

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Unread postby Oldcoach » Wed Feb 26, 2003 5:55 pm

Seems as though I remember the World Book Encyclopedia claiming that the pole vault orginated in County Meath,Ireland in perhaps 800 AD. This has been 30 years ago and my memory has diminished as much as my vaulting has. It further described the generalizations of the use of polevaulting during the hunting of game during thr Middle Ages and that it was not until the 1880's that English schools adopted it as a sport.
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Bruce Caldwell
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POLE HISTORY

Unread postby Bruce Caldwell » Thu Feb 27, 2003 3:58 pm

Hello Russ I wrote an article on Pole Evolution I posted it on www.polevaultpit.com and on www.polevault.com
SO I will repost it here for al to read.
I think you will find this a more interesting repot

Bruce

A history of the fiberglass pole

A fiberglass engineer, Mr. Herb Jenks working for Browning Arms where they were working on fiberglass tubes for Bows and arrows. Developed a stout and lightweight alternative to the steel pole. As vaulters used it he found he needed to build them up stronger to keep them from bending until he was told bending was good. His first innovation was small tapered grip area and then variable weights on poles.

Browning was the first vaulting pole under the SKY-POLE Label Kind of a Natural Yellow Green pole that evolved into a Chocolate Brown Pole SKY-POLE Herb trained Dan Hiedorn of Sky Pole who is still in the business in Costa Mesa. (Talked with him last week). Dan trained Paul Richards now of Altius. Herb, I believe but not sure also trained Steve Chappell at AMF-Voit who is the developer of the SPIRIT pole.

Herb Jenks left SKY-Pole/Browning in about 1968 and worked for Dura-Fiber in Carson City Nevada where he founded Catapole a Black pole with a greater taper than was used on Sky poles. In 1972 the pole companies started using “S’ Glass a stronger more versatile glass. Sky-Pole adopted the color Blue and Catapole chose Green.
Both color poles were banned in the 1972 Olympics. Not many know this as Sky-Pole kept it quiet and George Moore From Pacer sales printed Full page adds stating the Catapole was the unfair advantage banned by the Olympics but available after the Olympics LOL (He was good at taking a negative and making it a positive) Herb Jenks in 1975 or 1976 went to work with George Moore for AMF VOIT and developed the PACER III Bob Seagran signature pole. A clear pole wrapped in White tape. He at that time developed a patent on a way to increase the hoop wrap on the pole, which aided in faster and more economical manufacturing. The Pioneer of Fiberglass vaulting Poles Mr. Herb Jenks passed away in I believe 1979.

SKY-Pole was sold to Paul Richards and his investor group where he made poles for many World record holders and a private labeled a pole called FiberSport (Blue and Yellow Pole) for Bruce Caldwell; This pole got the 1980 Olympic Gold in Moscow with two World Records.
CATAPOLE went to Ampro Corp. the owners of PORT-A-PIT in Anaheim Ca. and developed the YELLOW Catapole. They too had many World records.

In the first years of the 80’s Sky-Pole was sold to Harry Gill in Urbana Ill and changed colors to MEAN Green taped clear poles. Catapole equipment went to KC-Fiber and the Teal colored ACCELERATOR Pole that was marketed by a Mr. Dan West formerly from KC Fiber and now with Harry Gill Co. In about 1987-88 Harry Gill bought the PACER pole from AMF Voit and the workers for PACER started their own pole through Nevada Plastics Corp. called SPIRIT, ( :yes: In memory of Herb Jenks) distributed by UCS. Paul Richards after working for Gill for a few years on Sky-Pole went back to develop his new pole ALTIUS (a Baby Blue pole) with his new equipment in about 1987 and helped to develop the red taped pole Maxima 4 for Bruce Caldwell at FiberSport. Inc. In 1990, FiberSport Inc., was sold to SSG of Dallas and Bruce Caldwell managed the PORTaPIT Track division 1990 to 1997. The old Catapole equipment went to Utah a company called ICE/Power-x and the YELLOW CATAPOLE were made for the revived PORT-a-PIT(notice different logo) at SSG for Bruce Caldwell 1994-1996.
CATAPOLE’S taped white are still being sold through PORTaPIT managed by Gordon Kluckert and I am not privy to who is making them for them!

Part of the original CATAPOLE equipment has been upgraded converted to an entirely different process and now belongs to ESSXsport Corp. for a White wrapped pole red label ESSX a signature pole by Earl Bell. Earl Bell and Bruce Caldwell are designing these poles. ESSX has the development of it's 10'8" through 16’5â€Â
Last edited by Bruce Caldwell on Tue Nov 01, 2005 9:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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big stick

Unread postby keelowman » Mon Mar 10, 2003 6:52 pm

Very interesting history, but through coaching on a limited budget I have come across places with some off the wall poles. I my self have jumped on most of these different brands ie Accelerator but I have also jumped on BigSticks they have deep purple covering with BigStick logo in the soft spot. They are also a very thick wrap, type of a pole.
My question is how did they (Bigstick) come to be like all of the others you mentioned above?

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Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Tue Mar 11, 2003 7:54 am

This is the most throrough history of records I have ever seen...

http://www.ontrackandfield.com/main/cat ... age48.html

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ashcraftpv
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Unread postby ashcraftpv » Tue Mar 11, 2003 3:40 pm

i know there was a dude at Iowa State or something who had a pretty good online paper about the history of the vault, but i can't seem to find it anywhere anymore......
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Unread postby theflyingkorean » Tue Mar 11, 2003 11:00 pm

According to a respected resource, the pole vault originated in the Netherlands where they had to jump all the ditches. They just laied sticks (large) out on the ground and vaulted across and left them on the said they came from. I always thought that was interesting.

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Bruce Caldwell
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Re: big stick

Unread postby Bruce Caldwell » Fri Mar 21, 2003 12:25 pm

keelowman wrote:Very interesting history, but through coaching on a limited budget I have come across places with some off the wall poles. I my self have jumped on most of these different brands ie Accelerator but I have also jumped on BigSticks they have deep purple covering with BigStick logo in the soft spot. They are also a very thick wrap, type of a pole.
My question is how did they (Bigstick) come to be like all of the others you mentioned above?


Big Stick is a design by the famous vaulter Ron Norris of ON track www.ontrackandfield.com they are a private labeled pole with some very good results. Accelerators made by KCFIBER and Dan West (now with GILL/OTE Oregon) sold their equipment to a company in Wyoming and then to a company in UTAh then a company in Mexico. ESSX bought a lot of the parts to help construct its current System. However you can only see the teal/blue paint on the butt flex machine everything else has been reconstructed to new. To see the equipment go to www.essxsport.com/photos
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rainbowgirl28
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Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Sat Mar 22, 2003 11:43 pm


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Russ
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more history and some ideas about a "history project&qu

Unread postby Russ » Mon Mar 24, 2003 9:06 pm

The research librarian at my school found a gem: "An Historical Study of the Pole Vault", a 1959 masters degree thesis (Phys.Ed. Dept.) at the College of Pacific, written by Ray Frederick Kring (157 pages with footnotes and appedices).

Kring himself was an accomplished vaulter.

Does anyone know his current whereabouts?

I'm thinking about trying to enlist the help of others to put together a good illustrated history of the vault.

Perhaps it is the kind of project that folks at Gill, UCS, Essex, etc. might be willing to help fund? Maybe I could get the 2004 Reno Summit to host a meeting or roundtable to discuss the idea and plan and gather information?

I've written 4 books and over 20 articles, so I could at least serve as a general editor or something.

Anybody have any thoughts on this topic? [/quote]
Russ



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rainbowgirl28
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Location: A Temperate Island
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Re: more history and some ideas about a "history projec

Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Mon Mar 24, 2003 9:40 pm

Russ wrote:I'm thinking about trying to enlist the help of others to put together a good illustrated history of the vault.


I think that would be wonderful! :idea:


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