Bob Richards, Pole-Vaulting Hero of the Cold War Era, Dies at 97

In 1970, he bicycled 3,300 miles from Los Angeles to New York to promote fitness. And he was perfect on the Wheaties box: a muscular all-American with a smile that radiated confidence, health and upright living. In fact, as a youth Richards, the son of a broken home, had run with a gang of thieves and brawlers, and five of his friends went to prison for robbery. But he escaped the street life into religion and athletics.

In his life after sports, Richards portrayed himself in a television biography, “Leap to Heaven” (1957); hosted a weekly children’s television program in Los Angeles; reported for NBC, CBS and ABC on the Olympic Games in Rome, Innsbruck, Tokyo and Montreal; and delivered some 12,000 motivational speeches to corporate sales forces, high school students and community organizations.

He also ran for president on the far-right Populist Party ticket in 1984, espousing a platform that called for abolishing personal income taxes, cutting the federal budget in half, repudiating the national debt, deporting illegal immigrants and denying the right to vote to anyone on welfare for more than a year. He tallied about 66,000 votes out of 92.6 million as President Ronald Reagan and the Republicans trounced Walter Mondale, the former Democratic vice president and senator from Minnesota.

Richards was elected to the United States Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983, and to the United States National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1975. He continued participating in track and field events as he aged, joining the World Masters Games in quadrennial competitions popular with retired professional athletes and former Olympic competitors.

His autobiography, “Heart of a Champion,” was published in 1959. Until 2012, he had lived on a ranch in Santo, Texas, which he named the Crossbar Ranch and which was involved in numerous commercial activities, including oil and gas exploration and horse and cattle grazing. He retired to a ranch in Waco, where he owned a golf course.

Robert Eugene Richards was born on Feb. 20, 1926, in Champaign, Ill., the third of five children of Leslie and Margaret (Palfrey) Richards. His father was a telephone lineman.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/27/sports/olympics/bob-richards-dead.html