Franklin Jacobs (born December 31, 1957 ) is a former
high jump
The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...
er from 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 ...
. His personal best of was a
world indoor record
World records in Sport of athletics, athletics are ratified by World Athletics. Athletics records comprise the best performances in the sports of track and field, road running and racewalking.
Records are kept for athletics at the Summer Olympi ...
in 1978, and at above Jacobs' own height of , it remains the record for height differential, now held jointly with
Stefan Holm
Stefan Christian Holm (born 25 May 1976) is a retired Swedish high jumper. He won an Olympic Games, Olympic gold medal, a silver medal, silver in the World Championships in Athletics, World Championships, and one silver and one bronze medal in ...
.
Biography
Jacobs was one of ten children of Jannie Jacobs, living in a shack in
Mullins, South Carolina
Mullins is a city in Marion County, South Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 4,663.
Incorporated on March 4, 1872, Mullins was named after Col. William S. Mullins, who served as a representative for Marion C ...
. His parents separated when he was young. The impoverished family moved to
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. His first love was
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 he played for Paterson East-side High. He only started high jumping in his senior year, after the end of the basketball season. He cleared that year. His natural talent overcame his lack of technique: he called his style the "Jacobs Slop", as opposed to the Fosbury Flop; but later renamed it the "Slope", from the trajectory of his launch.
Jacobs barely graduated high school and got no
athletic scholarship
An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university or a private high school awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport. Athletic scholarships are common in the United Stat ...
, but enrolled at
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Fairleigh Dickinson University is a private university with its main campuses in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Founded in 1942, Fairleigh Dickinson University currently offers more than 100 degree programs to its students. In addition to its tw ...
in
Teaneck, New Jersey
Teaneck () is a Township (New Jersey), township in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a bedroom community in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States census, 2010 U.S. census, th ...
with a federal grant. He cleared in his freshman year. In March 1977 he tore cartilage in his right leg playing basketball, but competed for over a year without surgery. He established a rivalry with
Dwight Stones
Dwight Edwin Stones (born December 6, 1953) is an American television commentator and a two-time Olympic bronze medalist and former three-time world record holder in the men's high jump. During his 16-year career, he won 19 national championshi ...
over the next two years, with media emphasizing the contrast between Jacobs, a short inner-city
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, and Stones, a tall blond
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
n. Stones antagonized Jacobs by criticizing his unorthodox jumping style. Jacobs beat Stones at the 1978
Millrose Games The Millrose Games is an annual indoor athletics meet (track and field) held each February in New York City. They started taking place at the Armory in Washington Heights in 2012, after having taken place in Madison Square Garden from 1914 to 2011 ...
in
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...
, at which he set a world indoor record of . He waived his right to try for an even higher record, saying he "didn't feel nervous enough". The next day,
Vladimir Yashchenko
Vladimir Ilyich Yashchenko (russian: Владимир Ильич Ященко) or Volodymyr Yashchenko ( uk, Володимир Ященко) (12 January 1959 – 30 November 1999) was a Ukrainian member of the Soviet national team and former w ...
broke the record in Milan. In July, at a highly publicized international between the U.S. and the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, Jacobs lost to Yashchenko on countback. In August, Jacobs won the
Tanqueray
Tanqueray is an English brand of gin produced by Diageo plc. It originated in London. In 2016 it displaced Beefeater as the number one global seller. While it does not command a sizable market share in its native market, its largest market i ...
Award for outstanding amateur athlete; by then he had won 27 collegiate events.
Jacobs anticipated gaining lucrative endorsements from the 1980 Olympics, but the U.S. boycott of the Games precluded this. He was extremely disappointed and wanted to skip the U.S. "Olympic Trials"; he attended by request of his college, but failed his opening height. He gave up the high jump and did not return to college. A planned return to competition in 1982 did not happen. In 1991, he commented, "I was upset and my dreams were shattered. I probably could have come back in 1984, but I was a naive kid. It was like the floor fell in."
He subsequently had various jobs around Paterson, working for a construction company 1986–91. He married Naomi Livingston c.1990 and had a daughter Shannon in 1992. Around 1995, they moved to
Gilbert, Arizona
Gilbert is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, located southeast of Phoenix within the city's metropolitan area. Incorporated on July 6, 1920, Gilbert was once known as the "Hay Shipping Capital of the World". It is the fifth-larg ...
. In 1998 he was working for an electrical installation company. That year, he attended a Millrose Games tribute to stars of memorable previous meets.