Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS — Bob Richards, a two-time Olympic pole vault gold medalist who also became an ordained minister, died Sunday. He was 97.
USA Track and Field confirmed his death. His son, Brandon, wrote in a social media post that his father “passed in his sleep peacefully surrounded by loved ones.”
Richards competed at the 1948, ’52 and ’56 Olympics in the pole vault. He won a bronze medal in his first Olympic go-around, followed by back-to-back gold medals. The versatile athlete known as the “Vaulting Vicar” also competed in the Olympic decathlon in 1956.
From Champaign, Illinois, Richards went on to become a six-time NCAA champion at the University of Illinois. The school said in a release he held the ranking as the No. 1 pole vaulter for eight consecutive years.
He was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983 after a career that included winning at the Millrose Games 11 straight times.
Richards was the first athlete to appear on a Wheaties cereal box.
According to the New York Times, “Capitalizing on his fame, Richards became director of the Wheaties Sports Federation, founded in 1958 after President Dwight D. Eisenhower called for a national physical fitness campaign. Richards became the face and voice of the cereal known as the ‘Breakfast of Champions.’
“His image was on Wheaties boxes from 1958 to 1970, and from 1958 to 1972 he was a ubiquitous presence on television and radio and made numerous national tours, speaking to school and community groups, presenting awards at athletic banquets and generating torrents of publicity.”
Richards had a colorful post-athletics career.
According to the Times, “Richards portrayed himself in a television biography, ‘Leap to Heaven’ (1957); hosted a weekly children’s television program in Los Angeles; reported for NBC, CBS and ABC on the Olympic Games in Rome, Innsbruck, Tokyo and Montreal; and delivered some 12,000 motivational speeches to corporate sales forces, high school students and community organizations.
“He also ran for president on the far-right Populist Party ticket in 1984, espousing a platform that called for abolishing personal income taxes, cutting the federal budget in half, repudiating the national debt, deporting illegal immigrants and denying the right to vote to anyone on welfare for more than a year. He tallied about 66,000 votes out of 92.6 million as President Ronald Reagan and the Republicans trounced Walter Mondale, the former Democratic vice president and senator from Minnesota.”
His sons followed in his pole-vaulting footsteps. In his Facebook post, Brandon Richards said his father began reading the Bible and preaching as a way to overcome his stuttering. He became a pastor who went all around to give lectures, leading to a career as a motivational speaking.
Wrote Brandon Richards of his dad: “We lost a national treasure.” He added that his father “always motivated us kids the same way to be the best we could be. He was the greatest dad I could ever ask for and I will miss him dearly.”
The New York Times contributed to this story.