Charley Dumas
Charley Dumas, born Charles Everett Dumas on February 12, 1937, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was an accomplished American high jumper who made significant contributions to the sport during the 1950s. After moving to Los Angeles as a child, he excelled in athletics, particularly high jumping, and became a prominent figure in track and field. His pivotal moment came during the Olympic trials in 1956 when he cleared 7 feet ½ inch, breaking a long-standing barrier in high jump records and qualifying for the Olympics.
At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Dumas triumphed in a thrilling competition, winning the gold medal and setting a new Olympic record. Despite achieving great success, including five consecutive AAU titles and a gold medal at the 1959 Pan-American Games, his athletic career was relatively short-lived. He qualified for the 1960 Rome Olympics but finished sixth, leading to his retirement from competitive jumping shortly thereafter.
Dumas later earned a master's degree and dedicated his life to education, coaching, and inspiring young athletes. He was inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1990. Charley Dumas passed away in 2004, leaving behind a legacy as a pioneering figure in high jumping whose achievements, while perhaps less recognized than some of his contemporaries, continue to inspire.
Charley Dumas
Track and Field
- Born: February 12, 1937
- Birthplace: Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Died: January 5, 2004
- Place of death: Inglewood, California
Sport: Track and field (high jump)
Early Life
Charles Everett Dumas was born on February 12, 1937, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, one of six children. When Charley was four, his father moved the family to Los Angeles, exposing Charley to the sporting advantages of the Southern California climate. As a junior high school student, he competed as a hurdler and jumper, and, when he set the school high-jump record, he began to focus upon that event.
The Road to Excellence
Charley’s decision to concentrate on high jumping turned out to be a good one, as he surprised nearly everyone in his first major meet. As a ninth grader competing in the Los Angeles City High School meet, held at the Los Angeles Coliseum, he tied for second place in the high jump. By 1955, his senior year, he won the California Interscholastic Federation high jump. That same year, he gained national prominence by tying Ernie Shelton for the national Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) title. After high school, Charley enrolled at Compton Junior College, where he was undefeated in his event. He captured the second of five consecutive AAU high-jump titles, and his outstanding performance garnered him an invitation to the U.S. Olympic trials—an invitation that would dramatically affect the world of track and field.
The Emerging Champion
When the 1950’s began, there were four supposedly “unbreakable barriers” in the world of track and field: the four-minute mile, the 60-foot shot put, the 16-foot pole vault, and the 7-foot high jump. However, these records were significant only in the United States, Great Britain, and other nonmetric nations. On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute barrier in the mile. Just two days later, Parry O’Brien put the 16-pound shot more than 60 feet. The 7-foot high jump and the 16-foot pole vault records remained unbroken.
The high-jump record had inched upward slowly with the progressive techniques of the “scissors,” the “Eastern” roll, the “Western” roll, and the straddle, which Charley used. Not until 1976, did the “Fosbury Flop” change high jumping forever. In fact, from 1941 to 1956, the record increased only half an inch. Then, on June 29, 1956, at the Olympic trials in Los Angeles, Charley, who had already won the event and qualified for the Olympic team with a leap of 6 feet 11 3/4 inches, had the bar raised to 7 feet 1/2 inch. On his second attempt he cleared the bar, and one more mythical barrier fell. The New York Times observed that “it was a moment comparable to, if not as dramatic as, the moment the four-minute mile barrier was broken.”
In October, Charley traveled to the Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, with the American team. In one of the most dramatic competitions in high-jumping history, Charley and another nineteen-year-old, Charles “Chilla” Porter, an Australian from Brisbane, dueled into the night, long after the completion of the day’s other events. Porter exceeded his personal best by 3 inches. Both jumpers missed twice at 6 feet 11 1/2 inches. On his third and final attempt, Charley cleared the bar and won the gold medal, setting a new Olympic record in the process. The disappointed but appreciative Australian fans gave him a 3-minute ovation.
Continuing the Story
Those two days in 1956 represented the high point of Charley’s athletic career, although it was to continue with some success for several more years. On his return to Los Angeles, he transferred to the University of Southern California (USC). Although he failed to capture a NCAA title while at USC, he did win the gold medal at the 1959 Pan-American Games and held onto the AAU title for five consecutive years.
In 1960, Charley again qualified for the American Olympic squad, but in Rome, he shared the general disappointment of the American track and field team. He finished sixth after jumping only 6 feet 7/8 inches. Upon receipt of his baccalaureate degree from USC in 1960, he decided to retire from active track and field competition. Four years later, at twenty-seven years old, he staged a comeback and jumped 7 feet 1/2 inch at the Coliseum Relays in Los Angeles. Since his first 7-foot jump eight years earlier, however, a new breed of jumpers, such as American John Thomas and Valery Brumel of the Soviet Union, had raised the bar for serious competition to 7 feet 4 inches. Charley failed to make the 1964 Olympic team and retired for good.
Charley subsequently earned a master’s degree from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and turned his talents to teaching and coaching high school students in Inglewood, California. He and his wife, Gloria, had two children, and Charley continued as an inspirational speaker to young people. He was named to the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1990, and in February of 2000, he joined Bill Toomey, Evelyn Ashford, and Tommie Smith to honor founder Al Franken on the fortieth anniversary of the Los Angeles Indoor Track Meet. Charley died in 2004.
Summary
Of the three great track and field record breakers of the 1950’s, Charley Dumas is perhaps the least known, yet his record lasted longer than Bannister’s and was certainly the equivalent of O’Brien’s. In fact, unlike Bannister, Charley added an Olympic gold medal to his name. His relative anonymity may have to do with the fact that his reign at the top was brief. Whatever the reason, his story remains an inspiring one. For four months in 1956, the sports world belonged to Charley Dumas.
Bibliography
Greenberg, Stan. Whitaker’s Olympic Almanack: An Encyclopaedia of the Olympic Games. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000.
Wallechinsky, David, and Jaime Loucky. The Complete Book of the Olympics: 2008 Edition. London: Aurum Press, 2008.