Hitchhikes to meet
Vaulter ignores obstacles
By DAVE GOSSER
Kansan Sports Writer
For Jan Johnson, East Chicago Heights junior, an incredible and amusing history highlights the climb to the college vaulting top. Many athletes started by hitting rocks with splintered sticks in vacant lots while others ran barefoot through the hills and wheatfields of the countryside. Jan's story began leaping over bales of hay with a pitchfork.
It isn't surprising when the NCAA pole vault champion says he hitch-hiked 100 miles to the
AAU track and field meet last weekend at Bakersfield. He was lucky to even make it out of his hometown.
"I tried to leave Chicago by 1 p.m. last Friday," recalls Jan, "but when I got to the airport there wasn't any plane ticket for me at the window. I called some friends and decided to let it go for a while. I went to an "all comers" meet that night and ran a 9.7 100 (yard dash).
"Later that evening my Chicago Track Club coach called. He'd heard about the trouble and told me there was a flight leaving at 10 that evening. I took it, and arrived at the Los Angeles airport around midnight California time.
"I have some friends in L.A. and I went to their house and slept a couple of hours. I felt bad about it though, they had been married only a week. I felt like I was imposing. I got up around 2
July 3
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a. m. and hitch-hiked to Bakersfield."
Bakersfield is nearly one hundred miles from Los Angeles and 19-year-old Jan was carrying three 16 foot fiberglass poles with with.
"Oh, I wasn't worried about getting a ride. I stood on this big freeway for only 20 minutes. Then two guys in a Dodge van pulled over. I explained my problem and they really understood.
"We wrapped cloth around the poles to keep them from denting the van and we tied them on the hood. Carrying the poles wasn't any problem, but they sure bent the heck out of the hood."
Unfortunately and somewhat surprisingly, Jan fell below his NCAA performance of the week before in the AAU meet in Bakersfield. His best vault was 16-6, almost a foot less than his NCAA record-setting height. Jan offered an explanation.
"I was getting so much bend in the pole I was sagging. I came up underneath the bar, instead of on top of it," he said. "Instead of the pole bending and propelling me forward, it would bend and leave me hanging in the air."
Jan's track biography began about 8 years ago in upstate Illinois. Born in East Chicago Heights, Jan moved with his family to a 30-acre site outside of Chicago when he was in the sixth grade.
For lack of something to do, Jan started vaulting over hay bales with pitchforks. A pitchfork doesn't bend like a fiberglass pole, and Jan frequently came under the hay bales, instead of over them. Clearing the bales gave the "thrill of victory," but to fall short of the top bale resulted in the "agony of defeat"—usually a wrenched back.
Jan organized meets with East Chicago Heights and a town called Dyre, Indiana.
One night the pitchfork slipped out from under him and he gashed his left leg. It took 17 stitches to
close the wound.
"I would go around at 8 a.m. Saturday morning and round up my friends," he said. "We produced five state champions among us."
What goals has Jan Johnson set for himself?
"I don't set any goals," Jan said. "I vault just for fun and because I like to win. If an individual is willing to work hard, the sky is the limit."
"I'll tell you, the day of the 18' pole vaulter is very near, and when one goes over, there are about five others who will be right behind. Nineteen feet is something to shoot for."
Jan hopes to make a European track tour this summer with other NCAA event winners. The tour stops for meets in England, Sweden and Italy.
Jan Johnson's performance at the NCAA will forever dot the record books. Being a champion is something no one can take away from you.
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