Bob Richards

Bob Richards (born February 20, 1926, Champaign, Illinois, U.S.—died February 26, 2023, Waco, Texas) was an American athlete, the first pole-vaulter to win two Olympic gold medals. Sportswriters called him “the Vaulting Vicar” because he was an ordained minister. Richards was interested in athletics from boyhood, participating in diving and tumbling before taking up the pole vault in junior high school. He was also a football quarterback in high school. After a difficult adolescence and...