Philip Ransom Conley (August 17, 1934 – March 12, 2014) was an American

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-dev ...

. He competed in the men's javelin throw at the

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 ...

. His wife was

Frances K. Conley Frances "Fran" Krauskopf Conley (born August 12, 1940, in Palo Alto, California) is a professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University. She is the author of ''Walking Out on the Boys'' (1998), the story of her protest of misogyny at the univer ...

, the first official female winner of the

Bay to Breakers Bay to Breakers is an annual footrace in San Francisco, California typically on the third Sunday of May. The phrase "Bay to Breakers" reflects the fact that the race starts at the northeast end of the downtown area a few blocks from The Embar ...

and an acclaimed neurosurgeon. He graduated from

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and earned an MBA from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA ...

Early life

Phil was raised in

Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

, California, and graduated from

Fresno High School Fresno High School is a four-year secondary school located in Fresno, California. Fresno High is the oldest high school in the Fresno metropolitan area and one of the few International Baccalaureate schools. As of 2021, Linda Laettner is the 29th ...

in 1952.Independent Coast Observer, March 28, 2014 In high school Conley, an all-round athlete, lettered in basketball, tennis, football and track, and was runner-up in the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven ...

in tennis singles.

Caltech

Conley (class of 1956) ranks in the top 10 for

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

career scoring average (16.1 ppg) and scoring average for a season (19.6 and 18.4 ppg). He played

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

and

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is p ...

for the football team and was a member of the

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

team. He won all-conference honors both in football and basketball. Only three Caltech undergraduates have qualified for the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

: Glenn Graham (Paris, 1924); Folke Skoog (Los Angeles, 1932), and Conley.

Meredith Gourdine Meredith Charles "Flash" Gourdine (September 26, 1929 – November 20, 1998) was an American athlete, engineer and physicist. His nickname, "Flash" Gourdine, is a reference to comic strip character Flash Gordon. Education Gourdine graduated f ...

(Helsinki, 1952) attended Caltech as a graduate student and earned his doctorate in 1960.

Javelin

In February of his

Freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. A ...

year, Conley asked the Caltech track coach if he could try out for high jump. Because it was raining, coach Bert La Brucherie suggested he try the

javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon, but today predominantly for sport. The javelin is almost always thrown by hand, unlike the sling, bow, and crossbow, which launch projectiles with t ...

instead. Largely self-taught, within weeks Conley had broken the Caltech freshman record with a 176' 9-1/2" throw. From there, Conley's progress was remarkable, setting school records of 199' 2-1/2" as a sophomore, 231' 7" as a junior, and 244' 1" his senior year, 1956. That year, Conley's 239' 11" throw in an NCAA meet made him collegiate javelin champion of the United States. Conlety was voted to the Masters Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2004.National Masters News
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Later life

Conley remained active in athletics through most of his adult life. After finishing his career he served as a volunteer assistant coach at Stanford University, and also competed in masters events. In 2014, shortly after his death, he was inducted into the Caltech Sports Hall of Fame. Besides athletics, Conley worked as a financial consultant specializing in venture capital. His wife, Frances Krauskopf-Conley was a prominent

neurosurgeon Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peri ...

, and the first woman to chair a major academic neurosurgery department in the United States.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Conley, Phil 1934 births 2014 deaths Athletes (track and field) at the 1956 Summer Olympics American male javelin throwers California Institute of Technology alumni Harvard Business School alumni Olympic track and field athletes for the United States Sportspeople from Madera, California Track and field athletes from California Athletes (track and field) at the 1959 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1959 Pan American Games Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States in athletics (track and field) American Masters Athlete that competed in Olympics NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners Caltech Beavers men's track and field athletes