1964 17-year old Gerry Lindgren, a senior at Rogers H.S. (Spokane, WA), stole the show with his front-running battle against Australia's Ron Clarke in the 2-miles at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Clarke won the race in 8:36.9, while Lindgren, who would make the U.S. Olympic team in the 10,000-meters later in the year, ran an amazing 8:40.0 to establish the still-standing U.S. High School record.

1975 Jumping in Oklahoma City at the USTFF (U.S. Track&Field Federation) Championships, Dwight Stones jumped 7-5 1/2 to break his own world record in the high jump by 1/4". It was the most unlikely record of his career, as Dwight explains as only he can.

"I had spent the entire week at (400-meter hurdler) Jim Bolding's place and trained with him and Dennis Schultz but contracted the flu around midweek and was running a very high fever. I had set the world record the previous weekend at the L.A. Times meet but Lou Riggs (The brother of Bobby Riggs of tennis fame)) had mismeasured and I ended up with only a tie(of his own 7-5 1/2). The USTFF meet required a qualifying round on Saturday morning (9:00am) and I was still feeling lousy and extremely weak. The meet director, Carl Cooper, had turned the pit the way I wanted it and all the straddle jumpers were pissed, of course. I was so weak I couldn't generate any speed or momentum on my run-up to use the flop and I was clearly going to have trouble clearing the auto Q of 6' 9". About 5 mins. before they closed warm-up jumps I wandered over to the straddle side and took a couple of pops at 6' 5". By coincidence I was first up on the list of competitors. I had no set run-up when I straddled, I just took a couple walking steps, a couple quicker steps and maybe 3 running steps and scooped my arms hard with my lead leg and tried to let my body position over the bar take care of the rest. I figured I was dead meat if I didn't clear this height on the first jump. I summoned every bit of strength I could muster and sailed over the bar at 6' 9" on my first attempt. I was amazed and delighted that it was over and the straddle jumpers' collective mouths were agape. Either Garry Hill or Jon Hendershott delivered bound versions of the 1972 & 1973 years of T&FN that I had requested as I hadn't yet been a subscriber. I laid in bed that late morning and into the afternoon reading about my "come from nowhere" Olympic year bronze and my later exploits and sometime around 1pm my fever broke. I was also being visited by a female friend from Houston who arrived around noon. I'm sure that helped with the fever breaking somewhat. I certainly felt much better but still weak as a kitten when I started to get ready to go over to the arena for the final that night. I felt I might be able to manage 3 decent flop jumps and maybe if they were high enough I could win the meet. After all, it was a championship and I like to win those. I was warming up and felt better and better as time passed. I was confident that I could clear 7 feet and that that might be all I needed this night. I decided to not even take a practice jump, I didn't feel I could waste one. I would simply be certain that my run-up was on and that I could generate enough speed to jump whatever height it would take to win. I think the bar started at 6' 8" for the final which I found strange considering it took 6' 9" to qualify and I watched as most of the field dropped like flies through 6' 10". There might have been 5 guys remaining when the bar went to 7' and I don't recall where I was in the order. I wasn't first but I also wasn't last. I remember Keith Guinn (Kansas) was still in and he was a flop style jumper and thrilled that the place was set-up to accomodate his approach as well. I was pretty nervous when it was my turn to jump because I didn't start at 7' all that often and I hadn't had a flop jump since the previous weekend. I glided up to the bar and cleared easily on attempt number one and felt I could go higher if I had to.

I soared over 7' 2" on my first attempt and I was amazed at how easily I was jumping even though I felt about 70%. I had won the event and I was thinking that I had another jump in me so why not entertain the crowd. It didn't seem right, despite my illness earlier, to stop and try to explain myself. I had the bar raised to 7' 4" and proceeded to clear it on the first attempt with a slight brush. I was dumbfounded. I guess because I had absolutely no expectation that I was loose and on automatic pilot because I had no sense that I had the strength to clear such a height considering how I had felt that same morning. Again I figured "what the hell?" and had the bar raised and measured at 7' 5 1/2" which would be a new world record. The first two attempts were not memorable and I felt like it had all finally caught up with me. Of course I had had the perfunctory WR bonus discussion with the meet director prior to my attempts at this ridiculous height so something inside me must have felt like there was a possibility.

For attempt number three I don't recall changing anything but I do recall hitting it pretty hard with just about everything from my head to my heels but the bar decided this impossible story wasn't truly complete unless there was a big payoff at the end so it stayed up. I was too ragged out to celebrate very much. I believe I just stood in the pit, watching the crossbar bob up and down with a smile of disbelief on my face. The only thing I can figure is that we all know that when the body is sick it's operating at 100% capacity to heal itself. The immune system has kicked-in in a big way and all the cylinders are hitting at top dead center to get things back to normal by excreting the intruder virus or bacteria. So, even though you feel like crap, you're capable of extraordinary things. You combine that with a "no expectations" attitude and you get performances that no one could possibly predict. I've since seen it happen in all sports. I think I recall an incredible night of shooting from Michael Jordan (60 points?) when he could barely move up and down the court. I'm certain this kind of thing is pretty well documented anecdotally in each sport and I'm sure there are other track and field performers who have had similar circumstances. It's one of my favorite stories from my long ago career."

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