Simrin Singh is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News. When Richards finally triumphed with an Olympic record of 14 feet 11 inches, a defeated Soviet rival, Viktor Knyazev, clasped him in a bear hug. He graduated from high school in 1943, and in 1944 he enrolled at the Brethren-affiliated Bridgewater College in Virginia. He was an inspiration to the late Jim Valvano, who coached N.C. State to the 1983 national basketball title ten years . The essential thing in life is not in the conquering, but in the fight. Richards himself never vaulted more than 15 feet 6 inches. Long before modern athletes began . Bob Richards. Be a model, not a critic. He graduated from high school in 1943, and in 1944 he enrolled at the Brethren-affiliated Bridgewater College in Virginia. He was 97. Here's my list of the top 10 motivational speakers in the world. Even Richards son Brandon, as a teenager using a fiberglass pole in 1985, vaulted 18 feet 2 inches, which was then a national record for a high schooler and stood for 14 years. Russian athletes were participating for the first time since the Czarist days before the 1917 Russian Revolution, and Helsinki was alive with tensions as the United States rolled to 76 medals (40 gold) to the Soviet Unions 71 (22 gold). 2. American - Athlete Born: February 20, 1926. Facebook . Until 2012, he had lived on a ranch in Santo, Texas, which he named the Crossbar Ranch after the obstacles that he famously vaulted over, and which was involved in numerous commercial activities, including oil and gas exploration and horse and cattle grazing. The Suez crisis and the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian revolution led some nations to withdraw in protest. Clearly, she didnt take the advice packed into its title: Wake Up With Purpose! After a year at Bethany Biblical Seminary in Chicago, he taught at Illinois and then joined the faculty of the Brethren-affiliated La Verne College, now the University of La Verne, in California, and was pastor of a Brethren church in Long Beach until his busy athletic schedule forced him to resign. After a year at Bethany Biblical Seminary in Chicago, he taught at Illinois and then joined the faculty of the Brethren-affiliated La Verne College, now the University of La Verne, in California, and was pastor of a Brethren church in Long Beach until his busy athletic schedule forced him to resign. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Bob Richards, a two-time Olympic pole vault gold medalist who also became an ordained minister, died Sunday. That distinction, as Richards acknowledged, belonged to Cornelius Warmerdam, a Californian who used bamboo poles to set world records of about 15 feet 8 inches in the early 1940s. Richards has delivered over 12,000 speeches spanning the past 50 years, and he has spoken to more than seven million high school students. Improve yourself, find your inspiration, share with friends, This website or its third-party tools use cookies, which are necessary to its functioning and required to achieve the purposes illustrated in the cookie policy. He also competed as a decathlete in 1956, in which he placed 13th. She died in 2019. 3. He continued participating in track and field events as he aged, joining the World Masters Games in quadrennial competitions popular with retired professional athletes and former Olympic competitors. His son Paul confirmed the death. Packed with options that allow you to completely customize your website to your needs. Robert Eugene Richards was born on Feb. 20, 1926, in Champaign, Ill., the third of five children of Leslie and Margaret (Palfrey) Richards. Richards was interested in athletics from boyhood, participating in diving and tumbling before . He is the founder and CEO of Gardner Rich LLC. But from 1947 to 1957, he dominated national and international competitions by clearing 15 feet more than 125 times. Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Paul Snelgrove, Dr. Hendrik Poinar, Michael Archer, Bart Knols and Bruno Maisonnier. That mark (pending official ratification) surpassed his own previous five world records, all over 20 feet and all set since 2020. Until 2012, he had lived on a ranch in Santo, Texas, which he named the Crossbar Ranch and which was involved in numerous commercial activities, including oil and gas exploration and horse and cattle grazing. Sportswriters called him "the Vaulting Vicar" because he was an ordained minister. Follow AzQuotes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. He was one of a kind.". The pole-vault competition lasted more than four hours. Its pretty amazing., Basketball scores for Aurora, Elgin, Naperville and Lake County, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. One day, well get out of all this flag-waving and nationalism. That distinction, as Richards acknowledged, belonged to Cornelius Warmerdam, a Californian who used bamboo poles to set world records of about 15 feet 8 inches in the early 1940s. You don't win until you conquer the little flaws. Santos Tries a New Tack in Washington: He Introduces a Bill. Although he broke Olympic records and Russian hearts, and although he became one of Americas most lionized and familiar celebrities a motivational speaker and Wheaties pitchman who personified wholesome values and once ran for president of the United States on a third-party ticket Richards, even at the peak of his athletic power, was not the greatest American pole-vaulter of all time. Bob Richards, an ordained minister who became the first athlete to appear on the front of a Wheaties box after he won two Olympic gold medals in the pole vault during the 1950s, an accomplishment he parlayed into a successful career as a motivational speaker, died Feb. 26 at his home in Waco, Texas. One day, well get out of all this flag-waving and nationalism. He was 97. The family that plays and prays together stays together, Richards intoned on countless occasions. The pole-vault competition lasted more than four hours. championships in indoor and outdoor vaulting competitions, and United States decathlon championships in 1951, 1954 and 1955. Below are some of our recent celebrity athlete bookings: Lee Trevino for Security Contractor Services. He also won 17 AAU championships in indoor and outdoor vaulting competitions, and United States decathlon championships in 1951, 1954 and 1955. Soviet athletes won the medals competition, 98 (37 gold) to 74 (32 gold) for the United States. His autobiography, Heart of a Champion, was published in 1959. Wrote Brandon Richards, We lost a national treasure, adding that his father always motivated us kids the same way to be the best we could be. He tallied about 66,000 votes out of 92.6 million as President Ronald Reagan and the Republicans trounced Walter Mondale, the former Democratic vice president and senator from Minnesota. At 20, he had been ordained a minister of the Church of the Brethren, an Anabaptist denomination, and the news media had reflexively called him the Vaulting Vicar and the Pole Vaulting Pastor. ICMI Speakers and Entertainers truly represent the best of the best. The health of our home planet and the survival of our species will only be secured through the use of space resources and the expansion of Earth's economic sphere to the Moon and beyond. After his athletic career, the "Pole Vaulting Pastor" went on to become a sportscaster and motivational speaker, Brandon Richards said. Richards was elected to the United States Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983, and to the United States National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1975. Bob Richards, the only male two-time winner of the Olympic pole vault, who in the 1950s became a hero of American Cold War competition with the Soviet Union and a breakfast-table hero to millions as the first champion on the front of the Wheaties box, died at his home in Waco, Texas. If you want to be the person you ought to be, you've got to welcome competition. These people who want to wave the flag and play the band, thats not the real spirit of the Olympics, he said. }Customer Service. Thats not what the Olympic spirit is all about.. Browse Motivational Speakers in Orlando and contact your favorites. And he was perfect on the Wheaties box: a muscular all-American with a smile that radiated confidence, health and upright living. Bob is an ordained minister and motivational speaker who has given over 3,000 speeches. Although he broke Olympic records and Russian hearts, and although he became one of Americas most lionized and familiar celebrities a motivational speaker and Wheaties pitchman who personified wholesome values and once ran for president of the United States on a third-party ticket Richards, even at the peak of his athletic power, was not the greatest American pole-vaulter of all time. And Richards made history, becoming the onlymale two-time winner of the Olympic pole vault, and with another record: 14 feet 11 inches. Even Richards son Brandon, as a teenager using a fiberglass pole in 1985, vaulted 18 feet 2 inches, which was then a national record for a high schooler and stood for 14 years. Richards competed at the 1948, 52, and 56 Olympics in the pole vault. Richards was elected to the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983 after being inducted into the National Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1975, according to U.S.A. Track and Field. The 1952 Olympic Games were a symbolic watershed in the Cold War. Bob Richards, a two-time Olympic pole vault gold medalist who also became an ordained minister, died Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023. He won 11 championship titles at the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden. In his life after sports, Richards portrayed himself in a television biography, Leap to Heaven (1957); hosted a weekly childrens television program in Los Angeles; reported for NBC, CBS and ABC on the Olympic Games in Rome; Innsbruck, Austria; Tokyo and Montreal; and delivered some 12,000 motivational speeches to corporate sales forces, high school students and community organizations. He received the Sullivan Award in 1951 as the nations best amateur athlete. That marriage ended in divorce. Warmerdam, known as Dutch, might have been an odds-on Olympic favorite, but he never got to compete because the quadrennial Games were suspended in 1940 and 1944 for World War II, when he was serving as a Navy officer. The world record is held by Armand Duplantis, an American-born Swedish athlete known as Mondo, who on Feb. 25 vaulted 20 feet 4-3/4 inches. Soviet athletes won the medals competition, 98 (37 gold) to 74 (32 gold) for the United States. The family that plays and prays together stays together, Richards intoned on countless occasions. He also ran for president on the far-right Populist Party ticket in 1984, espousing a platform that called for abolishing personal income taxes, cutting the federal budget in half, repudiating the national debt, deporting illegal immigrants and denying the right to vote to anyone on welfare for more than a year. Bob Richards, byname of Robert Eugene Richards, (born February 20, 1926, Champaign, Illinois, U.S.died February 26, 2023, Waco, Texas), American athlete, the first pole-vaulter to win two Olympic gold medals. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. He was 97. The Heart of a Champion: Inspiring True Stories of Challenge and Triumph, p.74, Revell, Bob Richards (2009). Bob Richards, a three-time olympian and the first athlete to ever be featured on a Wheaties cereal box, has died, his son said on social media. Richards also earned two gold medals for pole vault in the 1951 and 1955 Pan American Games. Previous speakers in the Series have included former Congressman Chet Edwards, Baylor University President Judge Kenneth Winston Starr, U.S. Astronaut Story Musgrave, and Eric Nadel the voice of the Texas Rangers. The Suez crisis and the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian revolution led some nations to withdraw in protest. Cold War tensions again played out in the 1956 Melbourne Games. Book them through GigSalad and be covered by our 100% awesome guarantee! Jason Garrett for Bynum School. Bob Richards, who resides in Waco, has been an American icon for more than eight decades in the area of track and field. Anyone can read what you share. 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