On the Rise After the Fall : Victory at UCLA Heralds Tully’s Latest Comeback

Listening to Mike Tully talk of his medical problems in the past few months was like listening to Red Cross radio transmissions from a disaster scene. A severe groin injury last summer eventually led to surgery in January, and the pole vaulter made it known that 1986 was not going to be a memorable year for him.

“The muscle itself is not weak,” Tully said a few weeks before Saturday’s Pepsi Invitational meet at UCLA. “In fact, it’s very strong. The pain I feel right now is from the incision. You want to push it as far as you can without regressing. The key to rehabilitation is not to hurt it to the point where you feel pain the next day.”

Tully probably won’t feel much pain today. But the rest of the pole vaulters who competed in the UCLA meet probably will. Their pain was caused by spending the afternoon straining their necks as they watched Tully soar over the bar.

Tully, the meet record-holder with a vault of 18-10 in 1985, moved the mark to 18-11 1/2 Saturday, easily winning the competition. Second was Earl Bell at 18-8, followed by Doug Fraley at 18-4.

After he had won the event, Tully made three attempts at 19-2. He missed badly on his first and third jumps, but came within a thigh hair of making it on his second jump, lightly brushing the bar on his way over it.

He said the groin injury didn’t bother him a bit, but that he would have made 19-2 if he wasn’t bothered by muscle cramps in his calves.

“The cramps started on my second jump, and I just couldn’t get rid of them,” he said. “I didn’t have enough strength for that final thrust on takeoff because the muscles kept cramping up.

“It’s like having a flat tire on the freeways. You just can’t get up to 55 miles an hour.”

Despite the cramps, it was a fine performance by Tully, who had only three vaulting workouts in the past 10 months and said before the meet he would feel fortunate if he did not impale himself on the fiberglass pole.

His negative pre-meet talk was, he admitted Saturday, a bit misleading.

“I knew I would do well today and I pretty much knew I would win,” he said. “But I don’t come out and say that stuff before the meet. That’s not my style.

“I had some great workouts and am probably in the best shape of my life. I spent 10 months getting stronger and resting, not having to travel, just staying home and working out.”

Tully, the 1984 Olympic silver medalist, pulled his groin muscle at a meet in West Germany last summer and compounded the injury by vaulting in three more meets soon after.

By the time he returned to the United States and sought the advice of Dr. Glenn Almquist, it was almost too late.

Almquist, an Orange County-based surgeon who specializes in track athletes’ injuries, said the damage was the worst he had ever seen. He operated on Tully in early January.

“With an injury of that type, I surgically remove the scar tissue surrounding the muscle,” Almquist said. “In Mike’s case, the scar tissue was so extensive that the muscle underneath it kind of sprung up once the scar tissue was removed.”

Almquist said he hoped that the Encino resident would be jumping competitively by the middle of the summer.

But Tully, who missed the 1980 Moscow Olympics because of the American boycott, proved Saturday that he is far ahead of his doctor’s schedule. He said that he, world record-holder Sergei Bubka of the Soviet Union and Pierre Quinon of France, the 1984 Olympic gold medalist, are at the head of the vaulting class.

“I feel I’m in the top three in the world right now,” he said. “It’s Bubka and Quinon and me. Anyone will tell you that. I’m sure those two would tell you that.”

But Tully admitted he has a lot of work ahead if he wants to challenge Bubka’s world record of 19-8. He said he has set no goals for this season, but instead is looking far down the road.

“I’m using 1986 as a base-building year for the 1987 and 1988 seasons,” he said. “I’m basically following the same program I had leading up to the Olympic Games in 1984.”

That program included an 18-month leave from competition after then-President Jimmy Carter ordered the U.S. team to boycott the 1980 Moscow Games. Tully said he was deeply hurt by being forced out of the Olympics, but also said the boycott was probably the best thing that could have happened to his athletic career.

“The break allowed me to rest, both physically and mentally,” he said. “When I came back I had a renewed sense of determination and concentration, which was very important leading up to the Olympics.”

Tully plans on competing in Europe this summer and is pointing toward four major meets in the next three seasons: The 1987 Athletics Congress meet, the 1987 World Championships in Rome, the 1988 Olympic Trials and the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. The TAC meet is the qualifying meet for the World Championships.

Because of the groin injury, Tully had been forced to watch Bubka, Quinon and Americans Billy Olson and Joe Dial battle for possession of the world record.

The outdoor record has been broken six times in the past two years and has gone up 6 3/4 inches, while the indoor mark was broken nine times and raised four inches during the past season.

Bubka and Olson each broke the indoor mark four times.

Tully doesn’t foresee either Bubka or Olson dominating the event in 1988. “I don’t think that anyone who is jumping world record heights right now is going to be able to hold it for 1987 or 1988,” he said. “There’s just no way that you can maintain a peak level for that long.”

Tully said the poles the athletes use have as much to do with the assault on the record as the vaulters themselves. Lightweight graphite is used in the tips of the poles. The combination of graphite and fiberglass has produced poles that are stronger and lighter than the old, 100%-fiberglass models.

With the lighter poles, a vaulter can run faster and have more control over the pole, which means more power at takeoff. A vaulter also can set his grip higher on the pole, allowing him to jump higher.

“I can see myself going 20 feet eventually,” Tully said, “but that’s as far as I plan on taking it.”

Tully won the World Cup in 1977 and 1979. He has won the Amateur Athletic Union/The Athletics Congress Championships twice and placed no worse than fourth on four other occasions. He has also qualified for two Olympic teams, winning the ’84 Trials with an American record.

Tully has been world ranked by Track and Field News magazine 8 times in the past 11 years and has been nationally ranked 10 times, including 4 times at the No. 1 spot.

He has set three world marks and six national records during his career. His personal best of 19-1 ties him for eighth on the all-time world performer list.

“I tend to jump in cycles,” Tully said. “I’ve always given myself breaks in training or competition from time to time. That has kept me relatively healthy and mentally fresh. Without a good mental approach in this sport, you’re history. You’ve got to have that drive and desire to succeed or you’re through.”

Unlike most vaulters, Tully has not had a coach since graduating from UCLA with a degree in psychology in 1978. “I think I know what works best for me,” he said.

Bell, the 1984 Olympic bronze medalist and one of Tully’s best friends, said the key to Tully’s consistency in major meets is his preparation.

Said Bell: “Some vaulters are faster than Mike, and some vaulters are stronger than Mike. However, there are very few vaulters who prepare as well for a major competition as he does.”

Tully gives no expression of excitement during a meet but is “hyperactive” off the track, according to Bell.

“He’s one of those guys who can’t sit in front of a television set for more than three or four minutes,” Bell said. “He’s constantly in motion, looking for something to do.”

Tully said he doesn’t expect to retire from competition for at least three more seasons. “Who knows? If I feel like I can continue to vault well and it remains fun, I might even compete through 1992.”

MIKE TULLY’S CAREER

Year Age Team/Club Height WR USR 1975 18 UCLA 17-9 3/4 9 4 1976 19 UCLA 17-10 13 4 1977 20 UCLA 18-4 1/2 2 1 1978 21 UCLA 18-8 3/4* 3 1 1979 22 NYAC 18-3 2 1 1980 23 NYAC 18-0 10 3 1981* 1982 25 NYAC 18-4 1/2 -- 6 1983 26 NYAC 18-0 -- 6 1984 27 NYAC 19-1 4 1 1985 28 NYAC 19- 8 2 1986 29 NYAC 18-11 1/2 n/a n/a

Finishes in major meets . . . 1977: NCAA, 2nd; AAU, 1st; World Cup, 1st

1978: NCAA Indoor, 1st; NCAA Outdoor, 1st; AAU, 2nd Indoor World Records (18-4) and (18-5) Jan. 7, March 11 Outdoor World Record (18-8 3/4) May 19

1979: AAU, 1st; World Cup, 1st

1980: Olympic Trials, tied for 2nd

1982: TAC, tied for 4th

1983: TAC, 3rd; World Championship, no height

1984: Olympic Trials, 1st (19- 3/4 ); Olympics, 2nd 19-1 at Prefontaine Memorial in Eugene, Ore.

1985: TAC, 2nd

1986: Pepsi Invitational, 1st

* Did not compete. LEGEND: * World Record; American Record; NYAC is N.Y. Athletic Club; WR is world ranking; USR is United States ranking

Times staff writer Rich Tosches contributed to this story.