John Pennel

Pennel was inducted into the USA Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2004.

In the early 1990s, he was diagnosed with stomach and liver cancer and died at age 53.

Pennel and his family appeared on an episode of Family Feud with Richard Dawson that aired on July 6, 1982. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pv_ZD_rA2E

In 1969, Pennel set his fourth and final world record, 17–10¼ (5.44 m). A series of injuries led him to retire from competition in 1970.

In 1967, Pennel was featured as Bachelor Number Three on the popular television show, The Dating Game, episode 67 008, during the second set. Also featured, as Bachelor Number Two, was Burt Reynolds. Pennel was chosen as the favorite by the Bachelorette, who was a gymnast. https://youtu.be/Gcaa0Qw7CmM?t=793

After the Olympics, Hansen vaulted an unratified 17–3¾, and Bob Seagren set the mark at 17–5 two years later. Following Seagren's performance, Pennel reclaimed the record at 17–6 (5.34 m) in 1966, his third ratified world record. Pennel was favored to win an Olympic gold in Mexico City in 1968, but he finished fifth. He cleared 5.40 m on his second attempt, and this would be enough for a medal, but his pole passed under the bar, which was illegal at the time; the rule was abolished next year.

Early in 1963, by which time he is being coached by Bob Groseclose, he cleared sixteen feet in training but was turned down by meeting promoters on the grounds that he wasn't good enough. He travelled to Toronto to prove himself and in his only major indoor meet of the season cleared 4.75 m (15 ft. 7¼") for second place. Outdoors, he started off with 4.80 m (15 ft. 9") and the following week, on March 23, 1963, the man who was not good enough for an indoor meet exceeded the existing world record of 4.94 m with a 4.95 m (16 ft 3") jump at home in Memphis. He did it again the following month with a 4.98 m jump, but neither mark was ratified as a world record. Nineteen-year-old Brian Sternberg had the honor of being the world's first 5.00-metre vaulter in Philadelphia on April 27, 1963. Interviewed afterwards he said, "I don't expect the record to stand a long time", and he was right. Just four days later Pennel surpassed the record with a 5.05 m (16 ft 6¾") leap at Monroe, Louisiana, but, again, his mark was not ratified.

Following those amazing performances, Pennel was asked to appear on the popular television game show, To Tell The Truth. On the September 9, 1963 episode, Pennel scored against the celebrity panel (Tom Poston, Peggy Cass, Earl Wrightson, and Kitty Carlisle), and immediately donated his winnings to the Brian Sternberg Hospital Fund. On February 27, 1966 he appeared on the popular panel show What's My Line? not as an athlete, but rather as a wine salesman, a career he had just taken up. He nearly stumped the panel, but Bennett Cerf guessed his line at the last moment. Sternberg, a University of Washington pole vaulter, was injured during practice in an accident that left him a quadriplegic. In April 1964, Pennel was awarded the 1963 Sullivan Award as the nation's top amateur athlete, and was favored to capture the gold medal at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. Unfortunately, he suffered a back injury six weeks before the Games and finished 11th, with a height of 15–5. American teammate Fred Hansen set an Olympic record with a vault of 16–8¾ and won the gold medal.

In 1959 Pennel went to Northeast Louisiana State College (NLSC) on a track scholarship and continued to improve, clearing 4.32 m (14 ft 2 in) in 1959, and then his big breakthrough came at a meet at Chattanooga on March 19, 1960. Off a dirt runway and using a borrowed aluminium pole he cleared 4.58 m, just a quarter of an inch over fifteen feet and a national record for a college freshman. Unable to reproduce that sort of form outdoors his best for the remainder of the season was 4.39 m (14 ft. 5"). He cleared 4.47 m (14 ft 8 in) in 1961 before switching to the new fiberglass poles and within a very few months began to reap the benefits; on the last day of the year he went over fifteen feet again (4.61 m) in New Orleans and improved to 4.67 m (15 ft. 4") indoors on January 12, 1962, but again failed to repeat his form outdoors that season.

A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Pennel started pole vaulting at his father's farm with an old television aerial. At Coral Gables Senior High School, where he was a member of both the gymnastics and the track and field teams, he cleared 11 feet 3 inches (3.43 m) at the age of 15. Improving steadily under the coaching of Ed Injachock he improved to 3.80 m in 1958 and in 1959 he ranked 8th among American schoolboys with 4.14 m (13 ft 7 in). At one time he also held the Dade County (Florida) record for climbing a 20-foot rope in 4.2 seconds.

John Thomas Pennel (July 25, 1940 – September 26, 1993) was an American pole vaulter, and four-time world record holder.