How High Is a High Jump?

Ever since the Greeks, athletes have been trying to see how far and high they can jump. Inch by inch, specialists raised the record mark until, last June, a towering (6 ft. 8 in.) Texan named Walt Davis rolled himself across a bar 6 ft. 11 1/2 in. high. Last week the official high-jumping world rocked to word that a relatively little (5 ft. 9 in.) Texan at the University of Illinois, using a new technique, had cleared 7 ft. The trouble with the news, from the standpoint of the orthodox: 1) instead of using the conventional running take-off from one foot, Jumper Dick Browning takes off from both feet; 2) instead of rolling over the bar on his side, he goes over in a backward somersault. To make matters worse, Browning is not a trackman at all, but a member of the Illinois tumbling squad.

Browning's knack was discovered by accident. He was practicing flips and somersaults under the admiring eye of Illinois Gymnastics Coach Charley Pond recently when both coach and pupil were struck with the same idea: Browning was clearing prodigious heights. They set up a standard high-jump crossbar, and Browning cleared 6 ft. 6 in., a good height for any high jumper. A bit later, he tumbled himself over the 7-ft. mark. His technique: a running, springing aerial twist into a backward handspring, which supplies momentum for a final backward double somersault up & over the bar. Some sportswriters began calling Browning "the potential track sensation of the century."

But the Illinois track coach, Leo Johnson, took a dim view of the furor. He announced that the whole trick was illegal by track standards for two reasons: 1) "the kid hasn't been able to clear anything yet off one foot," and 2) "It is a violation of the spirit of the rules."

Retorted Gym Coach Pond: "The minute Browning can get off the ground on one foot and clear the stick somewhat over 6 ft., we'll enter him in a meet." Track Coach Johnson, it was pointed out, has the final say on which Illini athletes enter collegiate track meets. "Well," said Coach Pond, "maybe we could enter him in A.A.U. competition." Growled Coach Johnson, who has refused to take even a peek at Browning: "It's a hoax."

Hoax or not, Gymnast Browning, who is the National A.A.U. tumbling champion, was busy practicing tumbling jumps off one foot last week. Said he: "I'm determined to show them it can be done."

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