Western Roll

The Western roll is a high jump technique invented by George Horine of Stanford University.

It is said that George Horine came to invent the Western roll because the high jump pit at Stanford could be approached from only one side. Another, perhaps more plausible, explanation is that the style was invented by the Stanford coach Edward Moulton. However, neither of these stories occurs in a detailed contemporary profile of Horine, which states that Horine arrived at the style himself after many months of experimentation. The style was controversial at first, partly because of rivalry between the US East and West Coasts (hence the label "Western" given to Horine's style). The initial objections, due to the "no diving" rule then in force, were overcome by the development of a Western roll style in which the lead foot precedes the head in crossing the bar. Another Western athlete, Alma Richards of Utah, won the 1912 Olympic high jump using a Western roll with a more frontal, feet-first, approach.

While the "no diving" rule was still in force, the world high jump record was captured by a series of Western roll jumpers: George Horine (1912, 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)), Edward Beeson (1914), Harold Osborn (1924), Walter Marty (1933), and Cornelius Johnson (1936). Johnson's record, (6 ft 9.75 in (2.0765 m)), was equaled on the same day by Dave Albritton, the first world record holder to use what we now call the straddle technique. At first, the straddle was viewed as just a variation of the Western roll, and indeed video of the 1936 Olympics shows Albritton using a conventional Western roll at lower heights. The straddle did not come to dominate the high jump until the mid-1950s, by which time it was recognized as a separate style. Walt Davis was the last Western roll jumper to hold the world record, jumping 6 ft 11.5 in (2.12 m) in 1953.

Only when Charles Dumas used the straddle technique to make the first 7 ft (2.13 m) jump, in 1956, did the Western roll begin to disappear.

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