Robert Eugene Richards (born February 20, 1926) is an American retired athlete, minister, and politician. He made three U.S. Olympic Teams in two events: the

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh ...

, and

1956 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, wh ...

as a

pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the My ...

er and as a

decathlete The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ἄθλος (''áthlos'', or ἄ ...

in 1956. He won gold medals in pole vault in both 1952 and 1956, becoming the only male two-time champion in the event in Olympic history. While still an active athlete, Richards became an ordained minister. He ran for

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...

in 1984 on the Populist Party ticket.

Athletic career

Richards was the second man to pole vault 15 ft (4.57 m). While a student at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Unive ...

, Richards tied for the national collegiate pole vault title and followed that with 20 national

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...

(AAU) titles, including 17 in the pole vault and three in the decathlon.THE REV. BOB RICHARDS POLE VAULT-DECATHLON (Inducted 1975)
USATFUSA Indoor Track & Field Champions. Men's Pole Vault
USATF The first man to clear 15 feet was

Dutch Warmerdam Cornelius "Dutch" Warmerdam (June 22, 1915 – November 13, 2001) was an American pole vaulter who held the world record between 1940 and 1957. He missed the Olympics due to World War II, and retired from senior competitions in 1944, though he co ...

, who set the world record of in 1942, long before Richards came into his prime. While Richards was the dominant vaulter of his time, he never set a world record. Richards later became involved in promoting physical fitness and continued to vault in his later years. He was the first athlete to appear on the front of

Wheaties Wheaties is an American brand of breakfast cereal that is made by General Mills. It is well known for featuring prominent athletes on its packages and has become a cultural icon in the United States. Originally introduced as Washburn's Gold Meda ...

cereal boxes in 1958 (though not the first depicted on all parts of the packaging), and also was the first

spokesman, setting up the Wheaties Sports Federation, which encouraged participation in Olympic sports. Richards had four sons who were also pole vaulters: Brandon, held the national high school record at 18'2" for fourteen years from 1985; Tom won the

CIF California State Meet The CIF California State Meet is the annual championship track and field meet for the California Interscholastic Federation. The meet was started in 1915 for boys and 1974 for girls. Every athlete in every high school in California has a direc ...

in 1988; Bob, Junior was second in the same meet in 1968 and later ranked #7 in the US in 1973. Richards is the only male two-time Olympic gold medal winner in the pole vault (1952 and 1956), thus he is also the only man to successfully defend his Olympic title. He also won a bronze medal in the pole vault in 1948. Russian

Yelena Isinbayeva Yelena Gadzhievna Isinbayeva ( rus, Елена Гаджиевна Исинбаева, p=jɪˈlʲɛnə gɐˈdʐɨjɪvnə ɪsʲɪnˈbajɪvə; born 3 June 1982) is a Russian former pole vaulter. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist (2004 and ...

is the only other pole vaulter besides Richards to have won three Olympic medals, which she completed in 2012. Richards placed 13th in the decathlon at the 1956 Olympics. Richards was elected to the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983 and the United States

National Track and Field Hall of Fame The National Track and Field Hall of Fame is a museum operated by The Armory Foundation in conjunction with USA Track & Field. It is located within the Armory Foundation (the former Fort Washington Avenue Armory) at 216 Fort Washington Avenue, ...

in 1975. As he aged, Richards continued participating in

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

in a variety of events, particularly throwing events. He was one of the first regular participants in the origins of what now has become

Masters athletics Masters athletics is a class of the sport of athletics for athletes of over 35 years of age. The events include track and field, road running and cross country running. Competitors are bracketed into five-year age groups (which promotes fair com ...

. Richards appeared on the panel game show ''

What's My Line? ''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity paneli ...

'' episode #346 January 20, 1957.

Ministry

He was ordained in 1946 as a minister in the

Church of the Brethren The Church of the Brethren is an Anabaptist Christian denomination in the Schwarzenau Brethren (german: link=no, Schwarzenauer Neutäufer "Schwarzenau New Baptists") tradition that was organized in 1708 by Alexander Mack in Schwarzenau, Ger ...

(which led to his being nicknamed the "Vaulting Vicar" or the "Pole Vaulting Parson"). As future tennis player

Billie Jean King Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 major titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. King was a member of the victorious United State ...

's church minister, Richards inspired King. One day, when King was 13 or 14, Richards asked her, "What are you going to do with your life?" She said: "Reverend, I'm going to be the best tennis player in the world." In 1957 the actor

Hal Stalmaster Harry Lapidus Stalmaster (born March 29, 1940) is an American film and television actor. He is perhaps best known for playing the title role in the film Johnny Tremain, based on the 1943 historical novel by Esther Forbes. Stalmaster was born i ...

played Richards as a teenager in an episode of the ABC

anthology series An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a di ...

Cavalcade of America ''Cavalcade of America'' is an anthology drama series that was sponsored by the DuPont Company, although it occasionally presented musicals, such as an adaptation of ''Show Boat'', and condensed biographies of popular composers. It was initially ...

''.

Political career

In the 1984 United States presidential election, Richards ran for

on the far-right, white nationalist Populist Party ticket. He and running mate

Maureen Salaman Maureen Kennedy Salaman (April 4, 1936 – August 17, 2006) was an American author, proponent of alternative medicine, and candidate of the American Independent Party for Vice President of the United States in the 1984 election. Biography ...

earned 66,324 votes.

Awards

Richards was inducted as a Laureate of

The Lincoln Academy of Illinois The Lincoln Academy of Illinois is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to recognizing contributions made by living Illinoisans. Named for Abraham Lincoln, the Academy administers the ''Order of Lincoln'', the highest award given ...

and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State's highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 2000 in the area of Sports. Richards is referenced in the

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

30 for 30 ''30 for 30'' is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes three "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series un ...

'' documentary "Survive and Advance", for the impact he had on former N.C. State coach

Jim Valvano James Thomas Anthony Valvano (March 10, 1946 – April 28, 1993), nicknamed Jimmy V, was an American college basketball player, coach, and broadcaster. Valvano had a successful coaching career with multiple schools, most notably at North Carolin ...

. Valvano cites hearing Richards speak when he was a teen and the

motivational Motivation is the reason for which humans and other animals initiate, continue, or terminate a behavior at a given time. Motivational states are commonly understood as forces acting within the agent that create a disposition to engage in goal-dire ...

messages he implored. Bob was inducted into the National Fitness Hall of Fame in 2009 and was inducted into the Texas Track and Field Coaches Association Hall of Fame - (Class of 2017).Inductees – Name, Category, Year
. TX TF Hall of Fame

References

External links