Eric White Joins Club of Black 18-Foot Vaulters : Other Members Are Bob Pullard and Charles Suey, and All 3 Are From USC

When USC pole vaulter Eric White went over the bar at 18 feet 1/2 inch in the recent USC-UCLA dual track meet, there was considerable buzzing in the press box.

White established a meet record with his first 18-foot vault. That was significant. But track and field buffs were more interested in pursuing a trivial statistic--and nothing is too trivial for them.

The question: How many black pole vaulters have cleared 18 feet?

Hasty research revealed that White was the third black vaulter to join the 18-foot club in an event that doesn’t attract many black athletes.

Bob Pullard was the first with a vault of 18-0 1/2 in 1978. Charles Suey followed in 1985 with a vault of 18-2 1/2.

More trivia: Pullard, Suey and White are from the same school--USC. Pullard is left-handed, while Suey and White are right-handed.

Suey made his 18-2 1/2 jump in Juarez, Mexico, where marks aren’t always clearly documented.

In any event, it was determined that White’s vault was the best ever for a black right-hander in domestic competition.

As mentioned, nothing is too trivial for a track and field fanatic. For example, world records are even recorded for days of the week, i.e, the best time in the 100 meters on a Tuesday.

Hank Kraychir, a former Trojan, has the obscure distinction of holding the world record for ambidextrous discus throwing. His combined total was 324-6, 178 feet with his right hand and 146-6 with his left.

So White, a USC senior, is now the answer to a trivia question.

There is no definitive explanation why there aren’t more distinguished black pole vaulters, or even javelin throwers for that matter.

White says it could be that there aren’t many role models for black athletes.

“You don’t play a game of vaulting in the streets while growing up,” he said. “You play football, baseball and basketball. This might have something to do with it.

“Kids have role models for those three sports and in track you have a sprinter like Carl Lewis and hurdlers like Greg Foster and Renaldo Nehemiah. My role model was a decathlete.”

White said that he watched Bruce Jenner compete in the 1976 Olympic Games and got hooked on the decathlon.

“I went down the list of what it takes to be a decathlete. I had done the high jump, the long jump, run the hurdles and the mile and, before I got to the javelin and discus, I came to the pole vault.

“As it was, I fell in love with the pole vault and never looked at the decathlon again.”

White said, though, that some of his friends at Northview High School in Covina couldn’t relate to him as a pole vaulter.

“I didn’t always look that good while warming up and some guys would just point to the long jump pit after watching me,” he said.

Even so, White was the San Gabriel Valley League pole vault winner as a senior in 1982 before enrolling at Mt. San Antonio College.

There he was coached by Dan Ripley, a former world indoor record-holder.

“The most important thing I learned from Dan Ripley was the mental aspect of vaulting,” White said. “Vaulters are always cursed with the wind.

“I’d watch Dan when he got on the runway and whether there was a head, tail or side wind, he was so mentally tough that it didn’t bother him. He also came into the vaulting box like a freight train.”

When White transferred to USC, the best he had done was 15-6. After red-shirting during the 1985 season, he improved to 17-4 1/2 last year and now has moved on to 18 feet. That’s an improvement of 2 1/2 feet in only two years.

“I just credit my improvement to hard word, dedication and doing things I didn’t feel like doing but realizing it was necessary to get them done,” he said.

“I also had the support and love of my mother and my sister. They were excited about what was going on in my life. But above all else I credit everything to Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior, the dedication to go that extra mile.”

White will be moving up in class Saturday when he competes in the Pepsi Invitational at UCLA against such word-class vaulters as Mike Tully, Billy Olson, Earl Bell and France’s Thierry Vigneron.

“Competing against vaulters such as Billy Olson and Mike Tully will be exciting,” White said. “I used to work the pit at the Mt. SAC Relays, catching their poles.”

Since the opening height for Saturday’s meet is 18 feet, White will have to equal his personal best just to stay in the competition. Or, he could be catching poles again.

However, if he can manage to add a few inches to his best vault of 18-0 1/2, he can surpass Suey and be recognized as the world record-holder among black pole vaulters.