Bob Richards

The "Vaulting Vicar" as he was known in his competitive days, the Rev. Robert Eugene "Bob" Richards (born February 20, 1926, Champaign, Ill.) was a versatile athlete who made three Olympic teams in two events. He competed in the 1948, 1952, and 1956 Summer Olympics as a pole vaulter, and also was a decathlete in 1956.

5 Quotes

I won it, at least five million times. Men who were stronger, bigger and faster than I was could have done it, but they never picked up a pole, and never made the feeble effort to pick their legs off the ground and get over the bar.
— Bob Richards

One of the great lessons I've learned in athletics is that you've got to discipline your life. No matter how good you may be, you've got to be willing to cut out of your life those things that keep you from going to the top.
— Bob Richards

Is not that a great principle for all of living? The people who will really accomplish great things in life are those who are willing to discipline their lives, who maintain their health, their vitality, their efficiency through this process of rigorous disciplining of what they take into their bodies and what they do in life. It's a very important thing in terms of championship living.
— Bob Richards

Ingenuity, plus courage, plus work, equals miracles.
— Bob Richards

You are what you think. You are what you go for. You are what you do!
— Bob Richards