Joe Dial Vaulted To NCAA History

Celebrating A Century of NCAA Track & Field Championships

Joe Dial Vaulted To NCAA History

May 31, 1985

Joe Dial of Oklahoma State was eagerly looking forward to the 1985 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

“Austin is one of my favorite places to jump – like Manhattan is now,” Dial told Don Steffens for Track & Field News in mid-May.

Manhattan – as in Manhattan, Kansas, site of the Big Eight Championships, where Dial had just become the first collegian to clear 19 feet (5.79m). But Dial wasn’t even done, continuing that day to scale an American record of 5.83m (19-1½).

In Austin, Dial was predictably the favorite, but the field turned out to be the deepest yet in meet history and Dial actually needed to better the meet record twice to seal up the victory in his final collegiate competition.

Baylor’s Todd Cooper and Fresno State’s Doug Fraley followed Dial over the first meet-record height of 5.56m (18-2¾) – a notch higher than the MR that Dial had helped set in previous years (along with two other vaulters). Only Dial could negotiate the next height of 5.64m (18-6) for the win.

A total of seven vaulters cleared 18 feet or better to smash the meet’s previous best collection of three set in 1983. An NCAA meet would not have more over that barrier until 1991 saw eight over 18.

Dial’s achievements in the pole vault began as a high schooler in Marlow, Oklahoma. In 1981 he famously became the first prep to clear 18 feet.

As a post-collegian, Dial would set an indoor world best – 5.91m (19-4¾) in 1986. The last of his eight outdoor American records – 5.96m (19-6½) in 1987 – would last seven years, the longest duration for a pole vault AR since the nearly 15 years of Dutch Warmerdam’s last record in 1942.

After retiring from competition in 1992, Dial became a full-time coach – and since 1994, has led the programs at Oral Roberts. One of his pupils – Jack Whitt in 2012 – won the NCAA pole vault title.

posted: October 18, 2020
1921-2021
The NCAA's First Championships

The NCAA and collegiate track & field will mark a momentous milestone in the spring of 2021 -- the 100th anniversary of the NCAA Championships and with that, the NCAA Track & Field Championships. In June 1921, the University of Chicago hosted the first track & field championships in NCAA history.

This point can’t be emphasized enough: Not only was the event the first for NCAA track & field, but the first championships for any sport under the sponsorship of the NCAA.

To celebrate, over each of the next 365 days, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) will celebrate moments, student-athletes, and coaches that have made a century’s worth of championships special. From humble beginnings to important historical milestones to the modern-day, collegiate track & field has evolved with the American society.

The 2021 edition of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships begin with preliminary round action on May 27-29 in Jacksonville, Fla., and College Station, Texas. The championships final site and culmination of the celebration is slated for June 9-12, 2021 at the newly rebuilt Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

Memorable Moments
NCAA 100 On Spring Break

With the plethora of collegiate track & field and cross country slated to take place over the first-half of March, our daily posts highlighting the best from a century of NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships will take a “spring break” from March 1-15.

Greene Came Up Clutch In 1989 Long Jump
June 2, 1989

One of Joe Greene’s best days of long jumping started off dismally. It would end with a victory in one of the most memorable competitions in the near 100-year history of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

Cal’s Williams Set World Record In 1936
June 20, 1936

Archie Williams set a world record in the 400 of 46.1 in the heats of the 1936 NCAA Outdoor T&F Championships. Williams then won the NCAA title by just 0.1 seconds!