I've just been looking at an indoor pole vault record progression and some
of the data raise two questions for me that may be of general interest:
In what year was the hypocrisy of amateur/professional distinction in track
and field officially abandoned?
In the "shamateur" days, before shoe and clothing contracts, who paid
athletes for world record performances?
Are there any athletics historians on this mailing list with answers?
Here are the data that provoked my interest:
In 1926, Charlie Hoff raised the indoor record 11 times for a total of only
19 centimeters (7 1/2") before being declared a professional.
Between 1966 and 1969, Bob Seagren raised the record 8 times for a total of
20 centimeters (8").
Between 1986 and 1993, Sergey Bubka, Billy Olson, and Rodion Gataulin
raised the record 17 times for a total of 24 centimeters (9 1/2").
Hoff's is a notorious example of inching the record up for under-the-table
payment. Bubka, et. al., were nearly as adept at this as Hoff, but their
professionalism was openly acknowledged and the rewards above-board.
Seagren, though, was competing as an amateur at a time when payments for
the record performances should have had the same consequences as for Hoff.
Please understand that I don't intend any disparagement of Seagren. He's
almost a poster-boy for wholesome participation in our sport. But where did
the money come from, for making "inching up" worthwhile? Meet promoters? I
think I remember that one of the last examples of a "big name" jumper
carefully avoiding professional status was that of Dwight Stones, whose
performance payments were well publicized as going to his club, not to
himself. Was that a usual practice?
Can anyone shed any light on the ways payments were passed in the shamateur
days, or how often athletes ran afoul of the payment rules? Wes Santee is
the only one who comes to mind.
