Franklin Jacobs
Franklin Jacobs (born December 31, 1957 ) is a former high jumper from the United States. His personal best of 2.32 meters (7 ft 7 1⁄4 in) was a world indoor record in 1978, and at 59 centimeters (23 in) above Jacobs' own height of 1.73 meters (5 ft 8 in), it remains the record for height differential, now held jointly with Stefan Holm.
Jacobs was one of ten children of Jannie Jacobs, living in a shack in Mullins, South Carolina. His parents separated when he was young. The impoverished family moved to Paterson, New Jersey when he was three and lived with four cousins. His first love was basketball, and he played for Paterson East-side High. He only started high jumping in his senior year, after the end of the basketball season. He cleared 6 feet 8 inches (2.03 m) that year. His natural talent overcame his lack of technique: he called his style the "Jacobs Slop", as opposed to the Fosbury Flop; but later renamed it the "Slope", from the trajectory of his launch.
Jacobs barely graduated high school and got no athletic scholarship, but enrolled at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey with a federal grant. He cleared 7 feet 1 inch (2.16 m) in his freshman year. In March 1977 he tore cartilage in his right leg playing basketball, but competed for over a year without surgery. He established a rivalry with Dwight Stones over the next two years, with media emphasizing the contrast between Jacobs, a short inner-city African American, and Stones, a tall blond Californian. Stones antagonized Jacobs by criticizing his unorthodox jumping style. Jacobs beat Stones at the 1978 Millrose Games in Madison Square Garden, at which he set a world indoor record of 2.32 meters (7 ft 7 1⁄4 in). He waived his right to try for an even higher record, saying he "didn't feel nervous enough". The next day, Vladimir Yashchenko broke the record in Milan. In July, at a highly publicized international between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, Jacobs lost to Yashchenko on countback. In August, Jacobs won the Tanqueray Award for outstanding amateur athlete; by then he had won 27 collegiate events.
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