Matt Gordy
American pole vaulter (1909-1989)
Matthew Bell Gordy (December 26, 1909 – August 18, 1989) was an American pole vaulter. In 1933 Gordy shared first place at both the NCAA championships and the national championships and helped Louisiana State University win the NCAA team title.
Early life
Gordy grew up in the small city of Abbeville, Louisiana. As Abbeville was home to a bamboo grove, local athletes had easy access to bamboo poles that would otherwise have been expensive, and pole vaulting became popular as a result. In high school, Gordy also competed in high jump, long jump and triple jump, but LSU head coach Bernie Moore felt the pole vault would be his best event.
Career
Entering the 1933 NCAA championships, neither the LSU Tigers or Gordy individually were considered favorites. However, LSU's stars Glenn "Slats" Hardin and Jack Torrance scored a combined three wins and a third place, and with only the pole vault left, LSU had a slim lead over coach Dean Cromwell's University of Southern California. In the pole vault, USC fielded Bill Graber, who was a 1932 Olympian and held the outdoor world record of 14 ft 4+3⁄8 in (4.37 m), while Gordy came in with a personal best of only 13 ft 4+1⁄4 in (4.07 m). If Graber won, Gordy had to score six points (the score for third place, or a three-way tie for second) for LSU to tie with USC, and more than six points for LSU to win outright.
Four jumpers, including both Graber and Gordy, cleared 13 ft 6 in (4.11 m); for Gordy, this was already a personal best.
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This entry incorporates text from “Matt Gordy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.