V 9 N. 9 Don Bragg, R.I.P.

from the Philadelphia Enquirer

Don Bragg passed away on February 17, 2019 at the age of 83.  Born and raised in Carney Point Township in New Jersey, just across the river from Wilmington, Delaware,  Don Bragg was a world class vaulter from a very young age, 18 when he ranked sixth in the world.  He attended Villanova University and was the second Olympic Gold Medallist to represent the Wildcats after Ron Delaney of Ireland won the 1500 meters in 1956.  Bragg took home the gold in Rome in 1960.  His post victory Tarzan yells earned him the nickname 'Tarzan' and in interviews in those days he often talked about one of his career goals being to play the role of Tarzan in the movies.   A film was actually made but never released.   This would have made him the third Olympic champion to play that role after Glenn Morris the 1936 Decathlon Champion and Johnny Weismuller the 1924 and 28 gold medallist in three  swimming events and a bronze in waterpolo.   It would be an incredible event if someone with movie connections could find and release that film, even to a limited showing.  

Don Bragg also had the highest vault ever on a metal pole 
15' 9 1/4 ".    

Don Bragg   AP Photo

Don Bragg was involved in a multitude of events and had a public friendship with Cassius Clay later Muhammed Ali that developed in Rome during the Olympics where they both were champions.  He was AD at Stockton State College in New Jersey.  He ran a children's camp in New Jersey for years before moving on to California where he spent his last years.

Video  Rome 1960      Don Bragg 4.70 (15' 5") , Ron Morris 4.60 (15' 1  1/8")and  Eeles Landstram (FIN) 4.55
Rome Polevault  B&W

Rome Official Film in Color see PV at 1hr 31 min.

Note.   Finishing 4th in the PV that year was the Puerto Rican left hander, Rolando Cruz, also of the Villanova Wildcats, making it a rare 1, 4 finish for a US college.  Ron Morris had competed for USC in his college days.   The third place finisher Eeles Landstram had competed for the U. of Michigan. 

To describe that Rome competition we have to go back in our vaults and dig out Roy Mason's account of that day as derived from the pages of Track and Field News.

POLE VAULT
"An apology is necessary here. The trials were held Monday, the fifth day of the games, and your overworked reporter missed them. Chief among the causalities were Melbourne silver medalist George Roubanis of Greece and UCLA and the US’s Dave Clark who injured himself warming up and could do only 13-9. 

Dave Clark

Now this is not to say it was a day without drama. Twelve were to qualify for Wednesday’s final. Ron Morris, who had finished a close second to Don Bragg in the US trials, was in trouble. With the bar at 4.40 meters (14-1 1/4), Morris misses three times and is apparently out. Fortunately for him, many others have the same problem. Only ten clear this height, so two more make it on fewer misses. Morris is one. Roubanis, with the same height, is not."

"Now let’s fast forward to today. After nearly all the vaulters pass the opening heights (the first was 12-5), the competition begins in earnest at 14-1 1/4. At 14-5 1/4 world record holder Don Bragg misses his first attempt. He appears nervous. Apparently the vaulters weren’t on the clock, as Hal Bateman writes that Bragg was at the top of the runway for over five minutes before making a successful second attempt, thus producing a chorus of whistles (the equivalent of booing in the US) from the heavily European crowd. He wouldn’t miss again for awhile."

Ron Morris

"With the bar at 14-11, the field had been pared to seven and Puerto Rico’s Rolando Cruz is the leader by virtue of an unsullied performance. This height eliminates three more vaulters and now only Bragg, Morris, Cruz and Finland’s Eeles Landstrom remain. The next height, 15-1 1/8 (4.60), drops Cruz and Landstrom with the Finn getting the bronze medal on misses."

"Reminiscent of the US trials, all we have left are Morris and Bragg with Bragg leading on misses. The US vaulters agree to raise the bar to 4.70 (15-5) instead of the planned 4.65. Bragg is up first. He puts the pressure on Morris by clearing on his first attempt. Now the USC grad will have to not only clear this height, but the next to win. After two bad misses, he comes close, but a miss is a miss and the gold medal goes to Tarzan as he watches."

"With the competition decided, Bragg has the bar raised to 4.82 (15-9 3/4) in an effort to break his own world record. He has two close misses and, with darkness and cold settling in, he crushes the bar on his third attempt. The competition is over after six hours and 46 minutes. The Americans have gone 1-2."


Below is the IAAF press release commemorating Don Bragg

The IAAF is deeply saddened to hear that 1960 Olympic pole vault champion Don Bragg died on Saturday (16) at the age of 83.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Bragg was still a teenager when he established himself among the world’s elite. He vaulted 4.42m indoors in 1954 at the age of 18, ending the year as the sixth-best vaulter in the world.

One of the last leading pole vaulters to use a metal pole, Bragg would often perform better indoors than outdoors. He set a world indoor record of 4.81m in 1959, adding two centimetres to the long-standing record that had been set 16 years earlier by pole vault legend Cornelius Warmerdam.

That mark remained the best of Bragg’s career, but he went on to set an outdoor world record of 4.80m to win the 1960 US Trials, making him the favourite for the Olympic Games in Rome later that year.

He lived up to expectations in the Italian capital and at the end of a competition that lasted seven hours, Bragg won gold with an Olympic record of 4.70m.

Standing 1.90m (6ft 3in) tall, Bragg earned the nickname ‘Tarzan’ and he would often celebrate his victories with a Tarzan yell from the podium.

Long before the discipline became a standard event for women, Bragg’s younger sister Diane learned how to vault and in 1952 cleared 2.59m, which stood as an unofficial world best for 17 years.

He is survived by his wife Theresa and four children.


George,  Out of loyalty to our mutual friend J.D. Martin I have to take issue with the claim that Don Bragg had the highest vault ever on a metal pole.    The legend, as told in Norman, Oklahoma, was that J.D. broke Don Bragg’s world record of 15’9 1/4” using a metal pole at a dual meet in Norman.  The way I heard the story was that it was a really windy day (you  may recall a few of those in Norman).  They raised the bar to 15’ 9 3/4’’  but the wind kept blowing the bar off the standards.  Finally, to solve the wind problem, they turned  one (not both) of the standards around backwards, so the wind could not blow it off.  J.D. cleared the bar cleanly,  breaking Don Bragg's world record in what was and still is the highest vault ever for a metal pole.  But they refused to recognize it as a world record because one of the standards had been turned around.

I am copying J.D with this email.  If you want to check this out you can contact him directly.  He is still very much alive (or was when I saw him in Edmond last October) and can confirm this story. 

By the way, no disrespect to Don Bragg. As I am sure J.D. would confirm, just surviving the fall from a 15-foot vault in the pits they had in those days was no mean accomplishment.


J.D.   can you confirm this story below from Walt Mizell?  I had forgotten about it.   Were you the biggest (height/ weight) to ever clear 15' on metal?

Also those films of Ron Morris at Rome, was he using a fiberglass pole.  There was some flex in it in the video, but not a lot.  George

J.D.'s reply:

"George this is true.  Also In 1961 Don and I competed in my first decathlon  and maybe his.  We both broke the world record in the decathlon vault jumping 15' 1  1/2.    Re Ron Morris.  he used the same aluminum alloy pole we used but I think he changed to a fiberglass later in his career ."