John Uelses

After his tour with the Marines, Uelses received a scholarship to La Salle University in Philadelphia. He was a member of the Explorer track team. He won the NCAA pole vault championship in 1964 with an American Indoor Record of 16 4 1/2 ", as well as three IC4A championships and two MAC championships. He was an NCAA All American. Uelses also played soccer at La Salle.

After retiring, Uelses and his wife returned to California to be close to their family. He continued his love of track and vaulting by serving as vaulting coach in high schools until 2008.

Uelses, one of the first vaulters to jump on a fiberglass pole, made this new style of vaulting the standard for future vaulters. His historic jump at the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden made headlines around the world and landed him on the February 26, 1962 cover of Sports Illustrated. The article inside headlined "He Could Do It on Bamboo." Some purists complained that the fiberglass pole was an acrobatic circus stunt, and called the pole a gimmick. Sports Illustrated decided to put poles to the test using fiberglass, steel, bamboo and aluminum. They concluded that fiberglass and bamboo were the most efficient pole materials, but that athletic concentration, speed, skill and style were what made the records.

At the time of his first record-breaking jumps, Uelses was a corporal in the U.S. Marines stationed in Quantico, Virginia. He was also a member of the U.S. track team, traveling and competing all over world. He vaulted and won medals in Brussels, Russia, Poland, Finland, Japan, Germany, and England. In 1961 he won the World Military Outdoor Championship in Brussels. He was part of the USA vs USSR cold war matches. His first place win in 1963 in Moscow, despite an injury, was particularly satisfying to him. He also was selected to participate in a goodwill exhibition tour of Africa sponsored by the State Department.

John H. Uelses (born Hans Joachim Feigenbaum on July 14, 1937) is a retired American pole vaulter. He made history by becoming the first man to vault over 16 feet – on February 2, 1962, at the Millrose Games in New York's Madison Square Garden, before a sold-out crowd, Uelses soared over the bar at 16' 1/4", making headlines around the world.