MEDFORD—Dick Fosbury, an NCAA high jump champion, an Olympic Gold Medalist, and inventor of the “Fosbury Flop,” has been selected to the National High School Hall of Fame.
Fosbury attended Medford High School, and as a sophomore in 1963, changed the art of high jumping forever.
Fosbury became the first to jump over the bar with an arched back and reverse approach, an upside-down technique that’s still the standard today and called the “Fosbury Flop.”
He added over a foot to his high jumping mark between his sophomore and senior years of high school and placed second at the state meet in 1965.
Fosbury continued to perfect his “flop” at Oregon State, and in 1968, won both an NCAA high jump championship and a gold medal at the Mexico City Olympic Games. His jump of 7 feet, 4 ¼ inches broke the Olympic and American records.
He, along with Dorothy Gaters, Tom Osborne, Nicole Powell and Carrie Tollefson, will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sunday, July 1 in Chicago.
The press conference and induction ceremony will be streamed live, free of charge, by the NFHS Network.
