Albert Ralph Spearow (October 3, 1895 – December 17, 1980) was an American pole vaulter. He placed 6th in his speciality at the
1924 Summer Olympics
The 1924 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1924), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIIe olympiade) and also known as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The op ...
Charles Hoff
Charles Hoff (9 May 1902 – 19 February 1985) was a Norwegian athlete, coach, sports journalist, novelist and sports administrator.
As an active athlete he competed in pole vault, long jump, triple jump, sprints and middle distance running ...
LaGrange
Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi LagrangiaGeorgia, but became an athlete in Oregon, competing first for
Multnomah AC
The Multnomah Athletic Club is a private social and athletic club in Portland, Oregon, United States.
Located in the Goose Hollow neighborhood, it was originally founded in 1891 as the Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club. It has expanded to fill ...
and then the Oregon Ducks. Spearow was a versatile jumper, excelling not only in the pole vault but also the long jump and the
high jump
The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...
. While at the University of Oregon, he was also the regular pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Cottage Grove; after graduating, he left that post to become an insurance agent.
Spearow placed 4th in the pole vault at the 1919 national ( AAU) championship meet and became one of the first jumpers to clear in 1920. In 1922 he placed 2nd at the AAU championships, losing only in a jump-off to Edward Knourek.
Spearow's best year was 1924, when he first broke the intercollegiate record with a jump of and then qualified for the US
Olympic team
A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games ...
. At the
Olympic Trials
Olympic or Olympics may refer to
Sports
Competitions
* Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896
** Summer Olympic Games
** Winter Olympic Games
* Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...
Lee Barnes
Lee Stratford Barnes (July 16, 1906 – December 28, 1970) was an American athlete from Utah who competed in the men's pole vault. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and died in Oxnard, California.
Barnes attended the University of Southern Ca ...
,
James Brooker
James Kent Brooker (August 12, 1902 - September 25, 1973) was an Americans, American Athletics (sport), athlete who competed in the men's pole vault. He competed in Athletics at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris and won bronze medal, bronze, beh ...
and Glenn Graham - cleared to qualify for the Olympics. Of the four, Spearow had the best attempts at , getting over the bar twice but brushing it off on the way down both times. In the absence of Norway's world record holder
Charles Hoff
Charles Hoff (9 May 1902 – 19 February 1985) was a Norwegian athlete, coach, sports journalist, novelist and sports administrator.
As an active athlete he competed in pole vault, long jump, triple jump, sprints and middle distance running ...
, Spearow entered the Olympics as the leading favorite. However, he injured his ankle in training ahead of the competition and only managed a disappointing 6th.
After the Olympics, Spearow embarked on an exhibition and coaching tour in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
with several fellow athletes. Near the end of the tour on November 5, in a meeting in Tokyo, Spearow had the best performances of his career, clearing first and then ; the latter height exceeded Hoff's official world record of 4.21 meters. Spearow's jump has appeared in many listings of world record progressions since but has never received official recognition from the International Association of Athletics Federations.
Why the jump wasn't ratified as a record is unclear, with both contemporary and later sources providing contradictory explanations.
Bill Bowerman
William Jay Bowerman (February 19, 1911 – December 24, 1999) was an American track and field coach and co-founder of Nike, Inc. Over his career, he trained 31 Olympic athletes, 51 All-Americans, 12 American record-holders, 22 NCAA champio ...
claimed the jump was statistically valid but Spearow's lack of an AAU permit to compete prevented ratification. Track and field historian Richard Hymans quotes eyewitness Jonni Myyrä as saying the height Spearow cleared was found to be below the world record on remeasurement; however, Martti Jukola, also citing Myyrä as his source, claimed Spearow failed on his three official attempts and only made the height on an additional exhibition jump. The November 19, 1924 edition of the '' Eugene Guard'' referred to Spearow "unofficially" breaking the record, while the November 21 edition said Spearow "tried for a world's vault record but failed by a scant margin."
Spearow died in
Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...