Ray Bussard?

[BillVol]

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ ... /index.htm

I am certain this isn't true, but someone posted on a UT board that former Vol swim coach Ray Bussard, who was a PVer in college at the same time as Bob Richards, "qualified for the Olympic team." But "an injury prevented him from going." Surely this isn't true. Maybe he qualified for the Trials? I doubt even that.

Anyhow, this article is a good read. Bussard had a solid track background and applied it to Tennessee swimming. He would have his guys put the shot to improve wrist strength and explosiveness. Who knows if this translated into swimming?

http://www.ishof.org/honorees/99/99bussard.html

[Double R Bar]

I don't believe he competed in the Olympic Trials pole vault. Never heard of him as a top American vaulter.

[tandfman]

Neither the article you linked, nor anything else I could find with a few minutes of Googling, said that he was even a pole vaulter. He did, however, win the National All-Around title in 1952, a year before Richards won it.

[BillVol]

Neither the article you linked, nor anything else I could find with a few minutes of Googling, said that he was even a pole vaulter. He did, however, win the National All-Around title in 1952, a year before Richards won it.

tanfman, on page 2 of the SI article it says this: "A graduate of Bridgewater (Va.) College, where he had been the No. 2 pole vaulter behind Bob Richards..."

[Double R Bar]

Bob went to the University of Illinois.

[BillVol]

Bob went to the University of Illinois.

OK, that's right. This thing could have been written more clearly. Perhaps it is saying that they were both in college at the same time, and Bob was the nation's #1 vaulter and Ray #2. If so, that is impressive even if he didn't make the Oly team or trials.

[tandfman]

Perhaps it is saying that they were both in college at the same time, and Bob was the nation's #1 vaulter and Ray #2. If so, that is impressive

Yes, indeed, but it's just not so. He was never the nation's #2 pole vaulter.

[gh]

Richards was Illinois class of '47, Bussard Bridgewater of '54.... not likely their collegiate paths ever crossed.

Remember this thread regards small-school vaulting from the '50s?

http://mb.trackandfieldnews.com/discuss ... ridgewater

Mason-Dixon Conference won at 12-6 in ’52.

[BillVol]

I think the British article that gh linked on the front page about sports journalism applies here. You just can't always believe what you read. People see it in print and accept it as fact.

What I appreciate about T&FN is that they rarely are in error, despite all the numbers and information they have to juggle.

I don't think I've ever made a post here that wasn't corrected or tweaked, another reason I enjoy posting here, believe it or not. One of these days, I'm going to get one right. Maybe a post reading "Jesse Owens was fast" would go unchallenged!

[BillVol]

http://www.bridgewater.edu/Athletics/Re ... e/BussardR

No mention of any vaulting in his HOF bio from Bridgewater.

[dukehjsteve]

What has always disturbed me about newspaper articles, sports and otherwise, is that I all-so-frequently find errors in articles about the one subject I know so well... namely Track & Field. So I have to assume that articles on all other subjects are equally error-filled.

[paulthefan]

Re: Ray Bussard?

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1084630/index.htm

I am certain this isn't true, but someone posted on a UT board that former Vol swim coach Ray Bussard, who was a PVer in college at the same time as Bob Richards, "qualified for the Olympic team." But "an injury prevented him from going." Surely this isn't true. Maybe he qualified for the Trials? I doubt even that.http://www.ishof.org/honorees/99/99bussard.html

moral of the story: Always trust BillVol's instincts when it comes to things touching and tangential on Tennessee's Vols.

[BillVol]

Just covering my ass, Paul.

[bambam1729]

Maybe a post reading "Jesse Owens was fast" would go unchallenged!

Maybe not. Texas would probably have something to say.

[dj]

Bob Richards vaulted for Bridgewater College in 1944 and 1945 and for Illinois in 1946 and '47.

Bussard was born August 12, 1928, in Hot Springs, Virginia, so it seems very unlikely that he could have been a contemporary at Bridgewater in the spring of 1945.