Earl Young contacted me today to inform me of the passing of Dave Clark, his friend and former Olympic teammate and roommate. I talked to Dave briefly and published this following paragraph. Our sympathies go out to Dave's family in the Dallas area and to Earl.
No other information is available at this date. February 12, 2018 George Brose
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| Dave Clark |
Dave Clark was the number three vaulter behind Bragg and Morriss on the US team. He jumped for North Texas State University. His personal best was 15' 3". At Rome he tied for 18th place at 4.20 meters 13' 9". I talked to Dave this morning about Rome and why he didn't hit his normal height which would have been good for a medal at 15'3". During the event he had made the opening height when a sudden storm struck the event. When the storm ceased he took a warm up jump on a runway that was parallel to the actual vaulting runway. Part way through that jump he bailed out and instead of dropping into the pit, he was projected horizontally through the pit and slid across the grass and hit the concrete curbing of the track injuring his shoulder. That pretty much ended his day. He said he made friends with one of the Russian vaulters, Petrinka, but the KGB lads quashed their contacting each other in Rome. Another interesting story includes the Russian who broke his ankle warming up. When their poles were being inspected before the competition, Dave noticed that the Russian had put more layers of tape on his pole than were allowed and he called him on it. The officials made him take the tape off and re-wrap it. The Russian was infuriated about this and was raising a lot of hell with everybody. Ufortunately for him his day was over quickly when he broke his ankle landing in the vault box. Dave came home, got his masters , and was a teacher for 38 years in the Dallas area. He still participates at clinics, and he has run five marathons.
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