High standards

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By Don Doxsie | Thursday, April 17, 2008 11:35 PM CDT | () comments

Bud Smith practices high jumping at Clinton’s Iten Field in 1979. Smith began high jumping barefoot because Mount Carroll High School’s track was grass, and he didn’t have money for track shoes. Buy this Photo

You have to wonder what Wilt Chamberlain thought on that day back in 1957. Here he was, one of the most incredible athletes in the world — the 7-foot star of the University of Kansas basketball team that finished as national runner-up and the star of the Kansas track team. He was in his best event (the high jump) in the biggest invitational of the year (the Kansas Relays) on his home track.

And this unimposing guy from a place called Clinton, Iowa, was showing him up.

Floyd “Bud’’ Smith remembers the moment fondly. It’s the day he beat Wilt the Stilt by 3 full inches and etched his name in the Kansas Relays record book.

The memories will come drifting back even stronger today when Smith and his son, Tim, attend this year’s Kansas Relays and hand out the awards to this year’s high jump winners.

“I felt great about being able to outjump the great Wilt Chamberlain,’’ said Smith, 72, who lives in Clinton. “My intention when I went down there was to beat everybody there. I didn’t care if their name was Wilt Chamberlain or what.’’

Barefoot success

It was one of the high points of a track and field career that began back on his parents’ farm near Mount Carroll, Ill. Smith spent much of his adolescence shooing chickens out of the barnyard so he had room to dive into a homemade high jump pit.

He had gone over to Savanna and picked up a bunch of sawdust. He usually used a bamboo fishing pole as a crossbar, occasionally switching to a 2x4 when he wanted to work on his trail leg kick.

When Smith began high jumping at Mount Carroll High School, the school did not have track shoes, and his parents didn’t have any money to buy him a pair. So he high jumped in his bare feet. He tied for the Illinois state title that way in 1953. It’s one of only two state track championships in the history of the now-defunct school, and the other was 102 years ago.

“The school had a grass track. We didn’t even have cinders, so I just decided to totally jump barefoot,’’ Smith said. “It gave me a good feel on the takeoff. When you take off, you want that lead leg to be as light as possible, and there’s nothing lighter than a bare foot.’’

When he began jumping at Northern Illinois State Teachers College (now Northern Illinois University), the wooden take-off boards they used at the college level bruised his feet. So he began using a shoe on his left foot only. He continued high jumping well into his 60s and never once did it with a shoe on his right foot.

His stay at Northern Illinois didn’t last long. In his first meet, he set a national record for college freshmen — 6-foot-8 5/8 — but college wasn’t for him.

“I was born and raised on a farm,’’ he said. “I didn’t have the mindset that I was going to go to college. I really wasn’t prepared to go to school.’’

He momentarily thought about transferring to Western Illinois, which would have afforded him a chance to train in South Africa the following summer. Plenty of other schools wanted him to transfer, too.

“But I chickened out,’’ he said. “I thought it was more important to get married. So, I got married and raised a family instead.’’

Life after college

He went to work for Clinton Corn Processing — now ADM Corn Sweeteners — and after 12 years switched over to work in a polyethylene plant in Clinton. He stayed there until retiring in 1997.

But he didn’t stop jumping. He got in touch with Ted Haydon, the coach of the University of Chicago Track Club, and began competing for one of the premier amateur track clubs in the country.

Among his teammates were Ted Wheeler, who later became the head track coach at Iowa, and two men who represented the U.S. in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia — sprinter Ira Murchison and miler Phil Coleman.

Smith also took a shot at the Olympics in ’56. The townspeople of Clinton and Mount Carroll took up collections to pay his way to the AAU meet in Bakersfield, Calif., but Smith didn’t place in the top six and never got to the Olympic trials.

The gold medal ended up being won by fellow American Charles Dumas, who became the first man to top 7 feet and who went 6-11¼ in Melbourne.

Smith matched that height only a few months later at a meet in Rockne Stadium in Chicago — the best jump in the world in 1957 — and topped 7 feet although he didn’t get credit for it. The take-off area at Rockne was uneven and the jump was measured from the highest point. Haydon measured it at the spot where Smith actually took off and found the height was 7-0½ from that spot. That would have tied Dumas’ world record.

It was only a few weeks later that Smith went to Kansas and topped Chamberlain. The two men had tied in the event the year before, but this time Smith jumped 6-9 to Wilt’s 6-6. His record stood for 18 years.

Still competing

Smith never did anything that spectacular again, but he continued to compete as the years passed.

“I always told my wife that if I ever got down to 6 feet, I’d quit,’’ he said. “But then they developed the masters programs for jumpers over 40. I was going to be jumping against guys my own age so I kept on competing. Then they developed the seniors program for athletes over 50, so I kept going.’’

As recently as 1993, at the age of 58, Smith set a record for his age group by clearing 5-2 at the Nike Illinois Relays.

Two years ago, plagued by arthritis, he had both hips replaced. He still goes to the Senior Olympics at Augustana College every year, but now he just does the shot put.

His jumping has taken him all over the world. He has competed in Senior Olympics in Italy, Great Britain and Puerto Rico. He went to Russia three times to help get seniors programs started there.

“It would never have happened if not for athletics,’’ he said. “I feel very fortunate, very blessed for the opportunity I’ve had. God was good to me. He gave me the talent.’’

Another highlight will be this weekend when he returns to the scene of one of his triumphs.

Tim Smith wrote to Kansas last year to get some sort of certification of his father’s record. Officials there went a step further, extending an invitation for Bud to come back. They also sent him eight minutes of videotape from the 1957 high jump competition that Smith treasures.

“I’m excited about going back down there,’’ he said. “I’m really hoping they have some kind of museum or hall of fame that I can walk through. I’m sure there will be things in there about Wilt Chamberlain and Al Oerter and people like that.’’

And maybe — just maybe — there will be something about a guy from Clinton who out-jumped them all one day in 1957.

Don Doxsie can be contacted at (563) 383-2280 or ddoxsie@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.