Education
Jacobs barely graduated high school and got no athletic scholarship, but enrolled at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey with a federal grant.
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Franklin Jacobs
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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. 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 (203 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.
He cleared 7 feet 1 inch (216 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. 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 United States. and the Soviet Union, Jacobs lost to Yashchenko on countback.
Jacobs anticipated gaining lucrative endorsements from the 1980 Olympics, but the United States. boycott of the Games precluded this. He was extremely disappointed and wanted to skip the United States. "Olympic Trials".
He attended by request of his college, but failed his opening height.
He gave up the high jump and did not return to college. A planned return to competition in 1982 did not happen. In 1991, he commented, "I was upset and my dreams were shattered.
I probably could have come back in 1984, but I was a naive kid.
lieutenant was like the floor fell in."
He subsequently had various jobs around Paterson, working for a construction company 1986-1991. Around 1995, they moved to Gilbert, Arizona.
In 1998 he was working for an electrical installation company. That year, he attended a Millrose Games tribute to stars of memorable previous meets.
Officially, 7 ft 5 in.
National Collegiate Athletic Association switched to metric in 1979. Officially, 7 ft 5 in. USATF switched to metric in 2003. a b Officially, 7 ft 41⁄4 in.
USATF switched to metric in 2003.
