Date: Fri 23-Aug-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KIMH

Quick Words:

Bruce-Jenner-Hall

Full Text:

Hall of Fame - Bruce Jenner

Bruce Jenner - at one time known as the world's greatest athlete - went to

Newtown High School for slightly less than one full year, but in that time

made an impact quite unlike any athlete ever has.

Jenner won the decathlon gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal,

Canada, and that's where some might say his life really began - at that

singular moment in the center of the world's attention - but eight years

before he was making such an impact at Newtown High that he was named Most

Valuable Player in football, basketball, and track.

All in one year.

Former track coach Roger Streeter once said, "We've had some very good ones,

but he was the best overall. He was very well built and he would listen and

try to perfect himself - that's the biggest thing."

Mr and Mrs William Jenner moved their family from Tarrytown, New York, to

Sandy Hook near the close of 1966. Bruce Jenner entered Newtown High School in

the fall of 1966 and played basketball in the winter and ran track in the

fall, but did not play football until the fall of 1967.

"He worked awfully hard," Bob Sveda remembered. "It took me about a minute to

realize he was way beyond what we could do for him in P.E. He used to walk

around the gym on his hands. He would do things on the parallel bars and stuff

that were just beyond me. I couldn't even figure out what do to help him if he

got in trouble."

Jenner scored 273 points for the basketball team during the 1966-67 season and

then added 308 during the 1967-68 season and his 581 points placed in the top

10 overall in school history . . . a spot he held until just last year. Also,

he was an All-Western Connecticut Conference selection both seasons.

In football, he was so gifted that head coach Pete Kohut didn't quite know

what to do with him for that one season in 1967.

"He could play all the positions," coach Kohut has said. "We tried to decide

where to play him each game."

His track career, of course, was legendary even considering the great pains

the athletic department went to prepare the grounds (what is now the Newtown

Middle School) for competition.

"We had no facilities," Sveda recalled. "Poor Roger Streeter used to have to

go out there with a chalk machine and estimate where 440 yards were and make

some kind of an oval that these kids could run around. I remember we had to

cut down a branch of a tree because of the pole vault . . . because if we

didn't Bruce would have got caught up in the tree."

Jenner didn't get caught up when he broke Newtown High School records in every

event he performed and in his senior year in 1968 - when he was named to the

CIAC All-State team and won a state championship in the pole vault - he set

marks in the triple jump (44 feet, 7 inches) and pole vault (13 feet, 3

inches) that have stood for 28 years.

"I wish I could have used him in 12 events," coach Streeter said back in 1976.

"He could have done it and won all 12 events. If you invented a new sport, he

would excel in it. He was just that kind of athlete. No matter what sport you

put him in, he was good."

When Jenner left Newtown High, he had his sights set on the Olympics.

And in 1972, after spending four years at Graceland College in Iowa, he

finished 10th in the decathlon at the Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany . . .

a feat made more remarkable because of a serious knee injury he suffered

playing football at Graceland just three years before.

Four years later, he was ready.

"I've had a good winter of training and I'm healthy," Jenner told a newspaper

in May of 1976. "I feel that I need a tremendous month of May to really get

into top shape, then I can rest in June and be ready for the trials."

At the 1976 Olympics, Jenner earned the decathlon gold - and became known as

the World's Greatest Athlete - by scoring 8,618 points, nearly 200 points

better than the former record of 8,454 set by Nikolai Avilov of Russia in

1972.

Even though Jenner was living in San Jose, California, at the time and his

parents had moved from Sandy Hook to Canton, supporters and former friends of

Bruce and his family began a movement shortly after the Olympics were over to

honor Jenner and his accomplishment.

The biggest honor - and the one still standing - is Bruce Jenner Stadium next

to the high school. The official dedication was September 25, 1976, and

featured appearances not only by Jenner but also by former Olympian Bob

Mathias.

From the time he graduated from Newtown High to the dedicated of the football

stadium, Bruce Jenner made many visits back to his former home town, visiting

local grammar schools and being the guest of honor at dinners held by local

civic clubs.

Newtown has seen a number of great athletes, but none have ever become quite

as renowned as Bruce Jenner.

Even today - 20 years after that infamous gold medal in Montreal - his name is

synonymous with track and field and Wheaties.