William Noe Graber (January 21, 1911 – March 8, 1996) was an American

pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the Myc ...

er. He broke the pole vault

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

in 1932 and competed at the

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

and

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

Olympics, placing fourth and fifth, respectively.

Athletic career

Graber studied at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

(USC), where he was coached by

Dean Cromwell Dean Bartlett Cromwell (September 20, 1879 – August 3, 1962), nicknamed "Maker of Champions", was an American athletic coach in multiple sports, principally at the University of Southern California (USC). He was the head coach of the USC trac ...

. As a

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. In ...

in 1931 Graber won the pole vault at the

IC4A IC4A Championships (Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America) is an annual men's competition held at different colleges every year. Association was established in 1875, the competition (started in 1876) served as the top level col ...

championships and tied for first at the

NCAA championships The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

, helping the

USC Trojans The USC Trojans are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ' ...

to team titles in both meets. At the IC4A meet in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

men's pole vault was the last event and Graber's meeting record of 14 ft in (4.28 m) secured the Trojans a narrow victory over

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. Graber was only the fifth athlete in the world to jump 14 feet or more in a competition, and the only one to do so that year. Graber's NCAA jump of 13 ft in (4.22 m) was also a meeting record; the Trojans won that team title by a much more comfortable margin, scoring a record points and beating

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

by 46 points. Graber repeated as IC4A champion 1932, although this time he only tied for first. He was unable to defend his NCAA title as the Trojans didn't compete in that meet. The American team for the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

was selected at the Olympic Trials in

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was estab ...

, with the top three qualifying. Both Graber and Stanford's Bill Miller cleared 14 ft in (4.31 m), a fraction of an inch better than Lee Barnes's

of 14 ft in (4.30 m). Graber then cleared 14 ft in (4.37 m) to obliterate the record; he said afterwards "it was the first time this year that I have been able to follow one good vault with another." The record established Graber as the leading favorite for the Olympics, but he underperformed and only jumped 13 ft in (4.15 m), placing fourth behind Miller,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Shuhei Nishida was a Japanese Olympic athlete who competed mainly in the pole vault.George Jefferson George Jefferson is a fictional character played by Sherman Hemsley on the American television sitcoms ''All in the Family'' (1973–1975, 1978) and its spin-off ''The Jeffersons'' (1975–1985), in which he serves as the program's protagonist. ...

. Graber won his third IC4A title in 1933 in a five-way tie for first place. He also tied for first place at the NCAA meet, jumping 13 ft in (4.24 m) to break his own meeting record. In 1934 he was national champion indoors and tied for the title outdoors. He almost broke his own world record in April 1935 at Santa Barbara, clearing a bar supposedly at 14 ft in (4.41 m), but it was subsequently found that the take-off point had been two inches (5 cm) higher than the point of measurement and the record could not be ratified. Entering the

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

year of 1936, Graber was considered a leading candidate for his second Olympic Games. At the Olympic Trials at

Randalls Island Randalls Island (sometimes called Randall's Island) and Wards Island are conjoined islands, collectively called Randalls and Wards Islands, in New York County, New York City,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

he cleared 14 ft 3 in (4.34 m), tying for first place with

Bill Sefton William Healy Sefton (January 21, 1915 – May 2, 1982) was an American pole vaulter. Sefton broke the pole vault world record several times in 1937 and placed fourth in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Athletic career Early career Sefton was a g ...

and

Earle Meadows Earle Elmer Meadows (June 29, 1913 – November 11, 1992) was an American pole vaulter who won a gold medal at the 1936 Olympics. His winning vault is featured in Leni Riefenstahl's film '' Olympia''. Meadows had a long rivalry with Bill Sefton, ...

. Meadows and Sefton both being USC

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-lev ...

s, it was the first time in the history of the Trials that one university had claimed the top three.

George Varoff George Dimitri Varoff (March 25, 1914 – January 10, 2002) was an American pole vaulter. Early life Varoff was born in Hawaii to Ukrainian immigrants and grew up in San Francisco, where he competed for Balboa High School. After high school, h ...

, who had been the favorite after breaking the world record the previous week, only cleared 14 ft (4.26 m) and didn't qualify for the team. Graber was again a leading Olympic favorite, but again he failed to medal; at the

he only managed 13 ft in (4.15 m) and placed 5th.

References

External links

Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Graber, Bill 1911 births 1996 deaths Athletes (track and field) at the 1932 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1936 Summer Olympics People from Ontario, California Olympic track and field athletes of the United States American male pole vaulters USC Trojans men's track and field athletes