A great Bradley Hall of Famer Passes...and a puzzle about Track & Field records... plus lots more...

Jack Heintzman, long time Peorian, Peoria HS grad, Naval and WWII vet, Bradley grad and Bradley Hall Of Famer in Track and High Jump..who competed successfully at the WORLD level in his events...
passed away Tuesday......... I knew the family and they were all fine people......

Jack had a large picture and display in the old Fieldhouse lobby that many will recall.....
http://www.legacy.com/pjstar/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=145975109
http://www.gpshof.org/Inductees/heinzman.html

Jack Heintzman was a great high jumper for Bradley...but that got me thinking...about high jump records, and I have noticed something that's puzzling to me.....

Virtually every single event in all of track and field has had the all time records broken over and over and over...
and the current record for almost all events is way better than what people were doing 20-30 years ago....

EXCEPT HIGH JUMP!!! (and triple jump)

Can anyone come up with a logical explanation why high jump records peaked about 20-30 years ago and not only have people not done better...
they really can't even get to where we were 20-30 years ago...


Here's evidence...
check the all time best high jumps in the STATE of ILLINOIS per IHSA...
http://www.ihsa.org/activity/trb/records/atop.htm#0X1500

NOT ONE of the best 15 heights ever jumped has occurred within the past 15 years...
and the vast majority of ALL of the best 50 jumps in IHSA/Illniois high school history are from the 1980's and earlier!

Why is that?? It isn't true for any other events except the jumps (high jump, triple jump, long jump). The best pole vault was in 2010, and all running events have some recent runs in the top 10..

So has gravity gotten stronger?? Do kids just not try as hard on the jumps??

You can also check college and pro records as well, and see that only rarely have the top jumps ever been as good as dozens of the best jumps from the 70's and 80's.
the two oldest NCAA field records are the high jump & triple jump set in the 1980's and not broken since...
http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/tfn/records/records.jsp?listId=5

So.... what gives?



Here's breaking news...next year in 2011, Creighton will be playing against Iowa at a neutral site game...they get Iowa at the big arena in Des Moines...
http://creighton.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1139437



Yet another player gets a transfer waiver....Jay-R Stowbridge - who transferred twice from Nebraska to Jackson State, and now to Dana Altman's Oregon...but if he sits out this year his eligibility will run out...so he pleaded his case and the NCAA gave in for no clear reason except that Oregon is going to be devastated this year with no players....
This call by the NCAA is flat out unprecedented, since this kid chose to transfer TWICE -- it was his own decision both times.
http://www.goducks.com//ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205012392



USC publishes it's new practice policy -- and as part of their softie NCAA penalty -- every single football and basketball practice for the next FOUR YEARS - this in effort to keep agents away! wow, this is serious punishment!! It's a fact that almost all schools already close their practices for privacy, security, and distraction reasons.
http://www.usctrojans.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/101410aab.html



UConn spent the day yesterday grovelling, begging, pleading, and kissing up to the NCAA in hopes of getting off easy as IU and USC have despite all their cheating...
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/14133395



Meanwhile UNC is whistling in the dark hoping the NCAA doesn't turnover too many rocks...
http://acc.blogs.starnewsonline.com/16791/williams-confident-no-unc-hoop-players-involved-in-ncaa-probe/



Our old buddy Larry Eustachy claims again for about the 5th straight season...
"This year is definitely the year!"...even tho his horribly weak schedule the past several years still hasn't helped them go anywhere...
This season Eustachy has another FOUR NAIA teams on the schedule...
including obscure William Carey, Spring Hill, Cal State-Monterey Bay, etc..and a host of other horribly weak D-I teams like McNeese, Alcorn State, South Alabama, Mississippi Valley State, and Savannah State -- a plethora of the historically worst D-I teams ever!!
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/article/20101015/SOUTHERNMISS/101014020

Larry's roster has a few troubled kids as well....
Well-travelled Gary Flowers who graduated from high school in 2004, then spent two more years at two diploma factory prep schools that have been closed down, then a couple more years at juco and then even sat out a year in there...so the kid's almost 25!
Virtually every other player he has is a well travelled prep schooler, juco kid, or D-I transfer (only 2 of his scholarship players came straight from a standard high school).