Frank Garfield Rutherford, Jr.

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(born November 23, 1964) is a retired

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

er from the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

. He competed in three

Olympic Games 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 ...

, and won a bronze medal in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, becoming the first Bahamian Track and Field Olympic medalist. He now runs a program which prepares young Bahamian students to play college

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. He was a four-time participant at the

World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...

. He attended the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

, where he received

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degrees in

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

and

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

. He became the first Bahamian to win more than three

NCAA 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 ...

triple jump championships. Rutherford won the Bahamas its first World Championship medal with a bronze in the

1987 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 1st IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held in Indianapolis, United States from March 6 to March 8, 1987. The championship had previously been known as the World Indoor Games, which were held once before changing the name. Being ...

. He was the US Indoor Track and Field champion in the triple jump in 1991 and still currently holds the triple jump record for the University of Houston. He followed that with winning a silver medal at the 1992 World Cup in Havana, Cuba. His personal best was 17.41 metres, a Bahamian record that has later been beaten by

Leevan Sands Leevan Sands (born August 16, 1981 Nassau) is a Bahamian triple jumper. His personal best jump is 17.59 metres, achieved in 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. This is the current Bahamian record and won a bronze medal. He also won bronze medals ...

. Rutherford is considered the Olympic pioneer in the Bahamas because he was the first to win medals at the Olympic and World Championship levels. He is considered the Father of Track and Field in the Bahamas. He started the Frank Rutherford Foundation, a

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

-based programme to assist young Bahamian sportspeople in gaining academic qualifications through college.much like Rutherford. The Foundation's goal is to help the students attain a college scholarship. Two former students of the program are Devard and

Devaughn Darling Devard Loran Darling (born April 16, 1982) is a former Bahamian-American wide receiver of American football. After playing college football at Florida State University and Washington State, he was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the third rou ...

, cousins of Rutherford who both received football scholarships from

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

. Others include Jeremy Barr, a

power forward The power forward (PF), also known as the four, is one of the five traditional Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. Traditionally, power forwards have played a role similar to center (basketball), centers. When on Of ...

who attends the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

on a basketball scholarship, and Ian Symmonette, a

left tackle Tackle is a playing position in gridiron football. Historically, in the one-platoon system prevalent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a tackle played on both offense and defense. In the modern system of specialized units, o ...

who attends the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

on football scholarship. More than 60 Bahamian young people have been helped by Rutherford and his foundation and all of them have graduated from college. His wife, Milessa Rutherford, runs the family businesses and, along with his mother, administrates the Frank Rutherford Foundation. In the

2003 New Year Honours The 2003 New Year's Honours List is one of the annual New Year Honours, a part of the British monarch's honours system, where 1 January is marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of ot ...

, Rutherford was appointed a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) for service to sport. He is the cousin of fellow Bahamian track athlete

Dennis Darling Dennis Darling (born 6 May 1975 in Nassau, Bahamas) is a Bahamian athlete who specializes in the 400 metres. He is currently track and field Assistant Coach at Texas Christian University. Darling competed in 400 metres at the 199 ...

(husband to

Tonique Williams-Darling Tonique Williams-Darling ( Williams; born January 17, 1976, Nassau, Bahamas) is a Bahamian sprint athlete. She won the gold medal in the 400 meters at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. College She attended ...

).Frank Rutherford
. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2015-01-18.

International competitions

References

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rutherford, Frank 1964 births Living people Bahamian male triple jumpers Olympic athletes of the Bahamas Olympic bronze medalists for the Bahamas Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Pan American Games bronze medalists for the Bahamas Pan American Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 1987 Pan American Games World Athletics Championships athletes for the Bahamas Houston Cougars men's track and field athletes Members of the Order of the British Empire Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) World Athletics Indoor Championships medalists Medalists at the 1987 Pan American Games Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in athletics