21 Facts About Bob Richards

Robert Eugene Richards was an American athlete, minister, and politician.

Bob Richards made three US Olympic Teams in two events: the 1948,1952, and 1956 Summer Olympics as a pole vaulter and as a decathlete in 1956.

Bob Richards won gold medals in pole vault in both 1952 and 1956, becoming the first male two-time champion in the event in Olympic history.

Bob Richards ran for President of the United States in 1984 on the Populist Party ticket.

Bob Richards later became involved in promoting physical fitness and continued to vault in his later years.

Bob Richards was the first athlete to appear on the front of Wheaties cereal boxes in 1958, and was the first Wheaties spokesman, setting up the Wheaties Sports Federation, which encouraged participation in Olympic sports.

Bob Richards was the only male two-time Olympic gold medal winner in the pole vault, until Armando Duplantis of Sweden matched that same feat.

Bob Richards won a bronze medal in the pole vault at the 1948 summer games.

Russian Yelena Isinbayeva is the only other pole vaulter besides Bob Richards to have won three Olympic medals in the pole vault, which she completed in 2012.

Bob Richards placed 13th in the decathlon at the 1956 Olympics.

Bob Richards was elected to the US Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983 and the United States National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1975.

Bob Richards was one of the first regular participants in the origins of what now has become Masters athletics.

Bob Richards was ordained in 1946 as a minister in the Church of the Brethren.

Bob Richards and running mate Maureen Salaman earned 66,324 votes.

Bob Richards met his first wife, Mary Leah Cline, at Bethany Biblical Seminary in 1946.

Bob Richards met his second wife, Vonda Joan "Joni" Beaird, a singer and actress who played Kookie's girlfriend on 77 Sunset Strip, when she auditioned for a role in a film Bob Richards was producing.

The family home was on Bob Richards beloved Crossbar Ranch in Santo, Texas.

Bob Richards died on February 26,2023, six days after his 97th birthday.

Bob Richards was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln by the Governor of Illinois in 2000 in the area of Sports.

Valvano cites hearing Bob Richards speak when he was a teen and the motivational messages he implored.

Bob Richards was inducted into the National Fitness Hall of Fame in 2009 and was inducted into the Texas Track and Field Coaches Association Hall of Fame.