On to 17 Feet

When he turns out in uniform of the day for his regular chores, Corporal John Uelses (pronounced Yule-cess), U.S.M.C., is a run-of-the-regiment marine. When he strips to his skivvies and turns out for a track meet, the dark, handsome, Berlinborn pole vaulter is the pride of the corps. Last month in Washington, he hoisted himself 15 ft. 10 1/4 in. and broke Don Bragg's world indoor record. Fortnight ago in Manhattan, he became the first pole vaulter in history to clear 16 ft. (TIME, Feb. 9). Last week Uelses issued an open challenge: "I'll compete anywhere, anytime, against anyone. All I want is an invitation."

Lively Zip Gun. Pole Vaulter Uelses, 24, was a virtual unknown--he had never cleared 15 ft.--when he showed up for last year's big winter meets. This year he is being courted by colleges (he gets out of the Marines next month), pursued by promoters, haunted by autograph hounds. His fan mail"runs to 300 letters a week. When he holds a press conference, his commanding general personally issues the invitations. But Uelses is a controversial champion. "I'm antagonistic as hell,'' snorted ex-Record Holder Bragg last week. "Uelses isn't a great vaulter. All he did was perfect a gimmick." Bragg's complaint: Uelses uses a feather-light (5 Ibs.) flexible fiber-glass pole that--says Bragg --acts like a slingshot, catapulting the vaulter to heights he could not otherwise reach. (Countered Uelses: "Let Bragg do the talking. I'll do the vaulting.") An official of the International Amateur Athletic Federation darkly hinted that world records set with fiber-glass poles might be disallowed. Sportswriters compared vaulting's "lively pole" to baseball's "lively ball." Asked Columnist Arthur Daley of the New York' Times: "Is it cricket?" The World-Telegram and Sun's Joe Williams had an ambiguous answer: "The fiber-glass pole is as legitimate as a zip gun in a rumble."

Fact is that tastes in vaulting poles are as changeable as Paris fashions: rules permit them to be made of anything at all, and, at one time or another, vaulters have experimented with ash, hickory, bamboo. steel and aluminum as well as fiber glass. Bob Mathias used a fiber-glass pole to win the Olympic decathlon back in 1952; Greek Pole Vaulter George Roubanis used one when he took a bronze medal at Melbourne in 1956. But the fiber-glass pole is no guarantee of success: all but a handful of the U.S.'s top 20 vaulters now use it, and only Uelses has managed 16 ft. Even complainer Bragg tried a fiber-glass pole; unable to master it, he went back to aluminum. Says Oldtimer Cornelius War-merdam, 46, whose indoor record of 15 ft. 8 1/2 in. (set in 1943 with a heavily taped bamboo pole) stood for 16 years: "Some vaulters get as much bend out of steel poles as they do with fiberglass. The only difference is timing."

OuHhinking the Bar. So far this season, Uelses' timing has been flawless. "It was a dream vault," recalls the University of Maryland's vaulting coach, George Butler, who watched Uelses smash Bragg's record in Washington. "The only perfect leap I ever saw. I'm sure he would have made it if the bar was at 16 ft. 4 in.--with a metal pole or any other kind." Rangy (6 ft. 1 in., 172 Ibs.) and well-knit, Uelses runs the 100-yd. dash in 9.7 sec., needs only an abbreviated, 104-ft. approach (standard: 130-140 ft.) to reach top speed. He gets so much lift that he needs only a cut-down, 14-ft. 11-in. pole to propel his body across a 16-ft.-high bar. Aloft he is unusually graceful, clearing the crossbar with his feet tucked closely together, stomach sucked in, arms flung high over his head. Uelses never rests between vaults. He paces back and forth, stares up at the crossbar, tidies up the runway with a broom. "Mental attitude is the main thing," he says. "You can't let the bar beat you; you have to visualize yourself going over. It's a mental fight you have to win."

Son of a German soldier named Feigenbaum who was killed during World War II, Uelses came to the U.S. in 1949, moved in with a great-aunt in Miami and took his aunt's name. In high school he ran hurdles, vaulted and played football, won a track scholarship to the University of Alabama. Unhappy at Alabama ("Bear Bryant had just come, and all they thought about was football"), he quit in his sophomore year and joined the Marines. Assigned to Marine Corps Schools in Quantico, Va., Uelses began training in earnest, determined to break the elusive 16-ft. barrier. He worked each day with weights to strengthen his arm, shoulder and back muscles; each night he drove 50 miles to practice vaulting in the University of Maryland's indoor pit. "I never really had a coach," he says. "I just picked up little technical things by watching other vaulters. I tried everything. What felt good and natural, I kept." By last summer Uelses' dedication began to pay off: he cleared 15 ft. 4 3/4 in. in the U.S.Russian meet in Moscow. Last week, with 16 ft. safely behind him, John Uelses already had set himself a new goal: 17 ft. "For three years," he said, "I've been building the foundation. Now I'm living in the house."

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