Fosbury named to All-Century team
May 31, 2016 | Women's Track & Field
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Former Oregon State All-American/NCAA champion/Olympic gold medalist Dick Fosbury was named to the Pacific-12 Conference's All-Century men's track & field team on Monday.
The inventor of the “Fosbury Flop” style of high jumping as a student at OSU, Fosbury won the gold medal at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics by clearing 7-4.25, an Olympic and American record at that time.
Fosbury was the 1968 and 1969 NCAA champion, and placed second at the 1969 AAU meet. He graduated from OSU in 1972 with a civil engineering degree.
Fosbury revolutionized the high jump by replacing the traditional approach with his backward style, consisting of a curved running approach, a modified scissor jump, and a back layout.
He landed on his lower neck and shoulders, which led to another innovation – the introduction of padded landing mats to replace the traditional sand landing pit.
He is a member of the OSU Sports Hall of Fame, the State of Oregon Sports Hall of Fame, the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, the U.S. Track & Field Hall of Fame, and the World Humanitarian Hall of Fame.
Fosbury retired after a 40-year career in engineering in 2011 and currently lives near Bellevue, Idaho. He is the treasurer of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Association; he formerly served as the organization's vice-president. He founded the Idaho Chapter of Olympians, and is a Past President of the World Olympians Association.
He is also the Honorary Chairman of the Simplot Games, held in Pocatello each February for the past 35 years.
The All-Century team was voted on by a panel of 35 consisting of coaches, former athletes, administrators and members of the media. Judging criteria was based on achievements during collegiate careers.
USC led all schools with 14 team selections, followed by UCLA (13), Oregon (8), Washington State (7), California (3), Stanford (3), Washington (2), Arizona State (1) and OSU (1). Forty-two of the 52 members of the team are Olympians, and represent 10 different decades and nine different countries.
USC's Dean Cromwell earned Coach of the Century honors. Henry Rono of was the Athlete of the Century title.
For more information on the Oregon State cross country/track teams, follow the team by Facebook at Facebook.com/OSUTrackCrossCountry or on Twitter at twitter.com/@beavers_track.
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