History of the Pole Vault

[BobInReno]

I worked at Cat-A-Pole in the late 60's and early seventy's. I knew Herb Jenks and learned a bunch from him. I also knew George Moore and have met Dan Heidorn a few times. When Cat-A-Ploe was in Anaheim I was cunsulting with Dick Moore who was the Engineer there in the 1980's. When Cat-A-Pole (Dura-Fiber) decided to make snow ski's in the early 70's I was envolved with that. Little know fact....Herb Jenks helped me design a Snow Surf Board that is commonly know as a Snowboard today in 1969. Should of followed through on that design but I did not. The ski area's would not let me on the slopes with it so I figured it would never fly...What an idiot I was ! I have pictures of Herb Jenks and Michell Arpin designing skis somewhere and I will try to find them.... BobInReno

[BobInReno]

I read a book back in the 1970's about the history of the pole vault. The pole vault for height was credited with a guy by the name of Guts Muth in the 1700's. I remember his name cause my last name is DeMuth and who could forget a name like Guts? Anybody else ever seen this book?

[BobInReno]

After my last post I found this on the web.................

"The Saxon educator Johann Guts Muths publishes Gymnastics for the Young. Three years later, he follows up with another book called Games. The idea of both books was that every minute of a schoolboy’s day should be filled with purposeful, directed activity. To Guts Muths, games that operated without special equipment or external controls were bad. On the other hand, games that required special equipment, elaborate rules, and all-powerful judges were good. Games that could not be easily quantified were also bad. Quantification, to Guts Muths, included keeping careful score, calculating time in fifths of seconds, measuring distances to fractions of an inch. Finally, competition was encouraged, with the winners receiving prizes and the losers being shamed. In other words, it could be easily argued that Guts Muths invented modern sports such as the high jump and pole vaulting for height. He also details the framework for other field events such as discus and shotput."

[KirkB]

Bob, the reference you recall reading was written by Ray Kring. It was his Master's Degree Thesis, entitled "An Historical Study of the Pole Vault (1959). This work was post-humously included in the "Illustrated History of the Pole Vault" (Jan Johnson, Russ VerSteeg, Ray Kring 2007). You can buy that book on PVP here: http://www.polevaultpower.com/store/.

It's a very good book, covering everything from 2500 B.C. to 2007! There's a couple pages devoted to GutsMuths ... including pics, drawings, and text ... to much to quote.

In GutsMuths' book "Gymnastik furdie Jungend" (1792), he writes about one 5-2 boy clearing a bar 8-0 from the ground, and speculates that some of his students vaulted "well over 9-0". This was "at least 70 years before vaulting became an athletic contest anywhere else in the world"!

Kring calls GutsMuths "The Father of Modern Pole Vaulting". I endorse this book ... buy it!

Kirk

[vaultmd]

Is that the same Kring that owns Tailwind Productions (Heroes)?

[KirkB]

I don't know the ownership of Tailwind Productions, but I think that's his pic on their logo. Ray is no longer with us.

Kirk

[rainbowgirl28]

Aww c'mon guys, you should know I had that info posted here... viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2308

[BobInReno]

OK....I will buy the book....LOL