how high the moon...
how high the moon...
lewis and hamilton, 1940
So, your opportunity to try out for the Olympics back in '72 was quashed by the only injury of your career? How did that happen?
The Olympic Trials were coming up and I was all set to try out, Mike Hanna, Noblesville (Indiana) High School Girls Pole Vault coach recounted. The Top 3 are taken and I had cleared 17 feet which would have qualified me. A few days before the trials, I was practicing and had a bad vault and landed on what's called the front porch of the landing pit. I caught my right foot on the edge of the pit and a shoe spike caught the mat and turned my ankle around.
HUH? What's up with that?
How ironic. And, that was your only injury in all your pole vaulting days?
Yes, it was, he smiled. I was really very lucky all those years. Even that time, an inch or two either way and I wouldn't have been injured. It took about two years for my foot to be right and fortunately, I don't have any issue with it now.
Did you ever pole vault again after you recovered?
I went over to a friend's house when I was in sixth grade and we were just playing around outside, he recalled. My buddy said, Watch this, and he took a wooden clothes line pole and vaulted over a fence. I wanted to do the same thing, so I did. I was pole vaulting from then on all the way through college and beyond.
Mr. Hanna's entry into a heretofore unknown world was fortuitous.
I did, he said. My friend's dad built us a pole vault facility and we got bamboo poles from a furniture store in town. They had used them to roll up carpets. I put a juice can on the end so the pole wouldn't split.
You went to Pendleton High School in Pendleton, Indiana. Back in the day, that's how it was known.
Yes, it was. Pendleton's last graduating class was 1969 and the school became Pendleton Heights South Madison Community School Corporation when it merged with Markleville, Mike informed me.
By the time you began freshman year, how high were you vaulting?
I reached eight feet, Mike said. When I got to Pendleton, a guy that was four years ahead of me quickly became my hero. His name was Fred Honnold. Fred was a senior at Pendleton and placed fourth in the State Meet and I wanted to be just like him.
As it turned out, you not only surpassed Fred's achievements, but you set state and collegiate records.
My junior year was in 1962 and I managed to finish tied for second place on height, but finished sixth in the State Meet based on misses, he reminisced. I vaulted 12-6 on an aluminum pole.
Just looking at the statistics, your senior year was a whole different level.
Yes, my senior year was my best, he reflected. The athletic director bought me a fiberglass pole and I won State with a height of 14 feet, three and three-quarter inches.
And, up to that time, according to the records, no one in Indiana had ever jumped 14 feet?
That's correct, he said. The state record was 13-6 and a quarter. I did 13'7 up to 13'10 to win state, but I wanted to do 14 feet. So, I told the guy to put the bar at 14 feet and I cleared it on my third attempt.
So, you broke a long-standing record.
A guy by the name of Billy Moore had the Indiana High School State record for 20 years, he said. My dad saw Billy set the record at Tech High School. Then, dad saw me break the record 20 years later at the same place. It was pretty cool for dad to see me break that record. Billy was one of the greatest pole vaulters in Indiana history. The other one was Dave Volz from Bloomington and I.U. I'm in there somewhere.
I think that's called, Open College Doors Sesame!
It was amazing and it did have quite an effect, Mike exclaimed. I could have gone almost anywhere in the country, but I chose Indiana State and I went there because of their coach, Bob Meyne.
What was so special about Coach Meyne?
Coach came to where I was practicing three times in two weeks, he related. I had accepted an offer from Ball State, but the coach there didn't follow up much after I signed.
So, Coach Meyne was persistent?
Absolutely, Mike stated. He knew Indiana State was going to be great for years to come and we were. We won the Indiana Collegiate Meet in 1965. We beat every university in Indiana and won the State Team Championship.
Did you consider any of the scholarship offers from any other school?
Not really, but, before I signed, I had two questions for Coach Meyne. I asked him if he would keep me in poles, Mike contemplated, and I asked him if he would send me to the big meets if I was good enough. He also told me I would graduate and I did.
Keep you in poles? Did they break often?
When they first came out, they did break a lot, Mike answered. I broke about 10 of them. As they improved, as I improved and as coaching improved, they broke a lot less often.
What about the travel part. Could we have found Mike Hanna at the big meets?
Coach was true to his word, he said with a touch of melancholy. He sent me from New York to California and everywhere in between. The best I ever did was 17 feet. Coach Meyne died in '72 from a heart attack.
So, you graduated from Indiana State and went out to make a living as a teacher.
Yes, I left ISU in '67 and got my first teaching position. It was at a K-8 in the Hamilton Heights School Corporation. I was there five years before I went on for my Master's, he said.
You didn't stay in the teaching ranks very long.
No, I went ahead and got my principal's license and was in administration for almost 29 years, he agreed.
After college did you still compete?
Yes, I did, Mike declared. I was on the 1969 U.S. Track Team that went to Japan to compete against five other countries in the Pan Pacific Games. In 1970 and '71, I went to Canada to compete in the National Indoor Track Meet and won the pole vaulting event both years.
Do you remember what your thoughts were after the terrorist attach in Munich since you didn't get to even try out for those summer Olympics of '72? Had you been successful at that tryout, your life could've been totally different.
(During the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, a group of Palestinian terrorists stormed the Olympic Village apartment of the Israeli athletes, killing two and taking nine others hostage. The terrorists were part of a group known as Black September. In an ensuing shootout at the Munich airport, the nine Israeli hostages were killed along with five terrorists and one West German policeman. Olympic competition was suspended for 24 hours to hold memorial services for the slain athletes) history.com
Great question. If I had qualified for the team, I would have been there, he relived. I knew some of the guys on the team and I had a friend on the airplane that was hijacked after the attack.
What about today. You are a retired administrator, but you are back to teaching in your role as a coach.
Five years ago, I got a call from one of the girls coaches at Noblesville High, he said. He asked me if I would like to coach the girl pole vaulters the next year. I interviewed and they hired me.
Those Encore Performances can be pretty rewarding.
I've loved coaching these kids, he responded. This past year, I had one of my girls pole vault 12 feet in our State Meet and she placed sixth. Three years ago, she had never pole vaulted, we started at zero. She now attends Purdue University. It's one of the most rewarding things I've ever done.
Coming soon: meet a woman who traveled the world for B & W; meet more POS, and; what's your dream? Captain Kirk fulfilled his!
Next summer will mark the 50th anniversary of the tragic events in the summer of '72 in Munich, West Germany. FIFTY YEARS.
HUH? What's up with that?
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