Olympic Medalist Jan Johnson Hasn't Forgotten His Chicago Heights Roots

Jan Johnson’s introduction to the pole vault was not exactly conventional.

Johnson, a 1968 Bloom High School graduate, grew up in Chicago Heights along Steger Road where his family had a farm.

“I got started in pole vaulting with a pitchfork jumping over hay bales,” Johnson said. “That’s the honest truth. We’d go out to milk the cows and then we’d be dragging hay bales. Probably my earliest memory of jumping over hay bales was when I was about 8 or 9.”

The Johnson house became a popular hangout spot through Jan’s high school days when he was standout member of the tradition-rich track and field program at Bloom.

“We had a big pond and kind of made a track in the yard by the way we mowed,” Johnson said. “We had a pole vault in the back yard and in the barn. A lot of kids on my high school track team would come to our place and we had races and stuff like that.

“I’ve done a lot in pole vaulting through the years, but my favorite memories are hanging out with my buddies in the back yard growing up and doing track at Bloom. I really mean it. Those were the most fun times of my life.”

Johnson was able to clear 10 feet in the pole vault as a freshman at Bloom, but he started winning varsity meets as a sophomore when he could clear 13 feet.

He finished third at the Illinois High School Association state meet in the pole vault in 1967 before winning the state championship in 1968 by clearing a meet-record 15 feet, ¾ inches.

He was the first state champion in the pole vault in program history—a feat that still holds a special place in his heart. He would later go on to win a bronze medal at the 1972 Olympics Games in Munich, Germany.

“That was a huge day for me,” the 60-year-old Johnson said of the high school title. “Bloom has always had a great track tradition, so it meant a lot to me. I was about a foot better than anybody else going into the state meet and was the prohibitive favorite, but I was nervous going in. Winning state was more important to me than my bronze medal in the Olympics.”

While Johnson, who now lives on the Central Coast of California in San Luis Obispo, captured a state title in high school, it was in college where he really started to hone his skills in the event.

Johnson held the world indoor record (17-7) while competing for the University of Kansas as a freshman. He then transferred to the University of Alabama, where he became a three-time NCAA champion and owns the school pole vault record (18-0 ½).

World Class

The same year he graduated from Alabama, Johnson qualified for the Games of the XX Olympiad in Munich, Germany, by placing third at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Johnson, a former world record-holder in the pole vault, placed third in Munich by clearing 17-5 to earn the bronze medal. He finished behind East Germany’s Wolfgang Nordwig (18-0 ½) and United States teammate Bob Seagren (17-7).

“I wanted to medal,” Johnson said of his goal. “I jumped 18 before and 18-4 in practice. I didn’t jump as high as I thought I would or that I could. It would’ve been better to be a gold medalist, but I was happy with what I did. I was nervous, but the most nervous moment was when I came back from the Olympics and had to make a speech at halftime of the Alabama-Duke football game in front of nearly 80,000 people in the opening game of the season. That was nerve-wracking.”

Johnson cherished being part of an event that featured so many of the top athletes in the world.

U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz set a world record, since beaten by Michael Phelps, when he won seven gold medals in a single Olympics. The U.S. men’s basketball team lost to Russia in what USA Basketball calls “the most controversial game in international basketball history.”

“It’s always a big scene in the Olympic village,” said Johnson, who was inducted into the National Pole Vault Hall of Fame in 2003. “It’s a gathering of people all over the world and that part was really cool. That was one of the best parts about the Olympics.”

Controversy and terror

Johnson’s Olympic experience, however, was scarred by two events.

International Olympic Committee officials, trying to slow the rising trend of heights with fiberglass poles, banned the Cata-Pole, the American’s latest model.

Johnson was forced to adjust on the fly.

“It was totally unfair to us and had no basis,” Johnson said. “That’s politics. I borrowed (U.S. decathlete) Bruce Jenner’s pole and had to shorten my run. I was very lucky to get a medal. I would’ve liked to have won—no question about it—but that’s the way it goes.”

That pole controversy certainly wasn’t the darkest moment of those Games.

The 1972 Olympics was the scene of the Munich massacre in which Israeli Olympic team members were taken hostage, and 11 athletes and coaches were murdered by the Islamic terrorist group Black September.

“I don’t care to think much about that part of the (experience),” Johnson said. “The Olympic village looked down over the Israeli compound. They came into the Munich village about seven hours after the pole vault was over. I got out of town and hung out with my parents. You have guys shooting machine guns at unarmed people. It was scary. That’s the world we live in.”

Those two events partially played a role in Johnson not wanting to pursue another run at Olympic gold.

“Neither inspired me to continue as an elite athlete,” said Johnson, who won gold at the 1971 Pan Am Games. “The truth is the wind went out of my sail a little bit after the Olympics. I didn’t care for the world-class part of it all. I did it because it was fun. When it stopped being fun, I didn’t want to pole vault anymore.”

Family Ties

Johnson is not the only member of his family to thrive in athletics.

His brother, Tim, who is five years younger, jumped 16-7 in high school and set a national high school indoor record before enjoying a successful career at Southern Illinois University.

Johnson’s daughter, Chelsea, emerged as a world-class pole vaulter as well. She was a talented soccer player in high school, drawing lots of college interest, and also was a successful volleyball player and hurdler in track.

Chelsea Johnson was a two-time NCAA outdoor champion and one-time indoor champ in the pole vault for UCLA. She competed for the U.S. in the women’s pole vault at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin and won the silver medal. She finished fourth at the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2004, just missing a spot on the Olympic team.

“She was a great athlete before getting into pole vaulting,” said Johnson, who coaches his daughter. “She didn’t start pole vaulting until she was a senior in high school. She immediately got really good in it and it was great to see. I like coaching my kid, but it makes me a little more nervous than it should. No father and daughter in history have done what we did (both earning medals in world competition). She’s unbelievable.”

Jan Johnson’s son, Chase, is also a talented pole vaulter, having cleared 16-0 at one point, but his passion lies in surfing, where he is a world-class athlete.

Johnson’s wife, Jani, is an elite distance runner and was the head coach of the men’s and women’s cross country and track teams at Cuesta College (Calif.).

Jan Johnson never pressured his children to follow in his footsteps.

“They always enjoyed what they were doing,” said Johnson, who also enjoys surfing a couple times a week. “I wanted them to do what they wanted to do. It’s just Parenting 101.”

Pole Vaulting in His Blood

Johnson has always remained heavily involved in the pole vault.

He is the director of Sky Jumpers Vertical Sports Club, which is designed to develop pole vaulting skills in athletes of all ages. He also runs several camps around the country, including one at Maine South High School in Park Ridge, teaching basic and advanced techniques of pole vaulting.

Johnson is also the chairman of the National Pole Vault Safety Committee and is considered one of the nation’s top experts in pole vault safety. He is the co-director of the National Pole Vault Coaches certification program.

Johnson was a fulltime substitute teacher at the time of the Olympics. After the Games, he pursued his master’s degree at Southern Illinois in 1974.

“I’m glad I did that,” Johnson said. “It gave me credibility in my career in pole vault safety and teaching the sport. That was a good steppingstone.”

Home Sweet Home

Johnson moved to the West Coast in 1977, but he still comes back to visit his old stomping grounds in Chicago Heights to see his mother three or four times a year.

He was recently in town to celebrate his 60th birthday with many of his high school teammates and friends.

Johnson believes his time at Bloom High School paved the way for his future success and helped him acclimate to competing in a different country.

“Bloom was such an integrated, working-class school,” he said. “I love Chicago Heights. I have so many friends from there. The most important lesson I learned at Bloom was how to understand other races and cultures. Bloom was a great school for that.

“Bloom had a great indoor place to compete and was one of the first suburban schools to have an indoor track. George Hamilton was the pole vault coach at Bloom, and he’s simply an icon. I was lucky to have a great place to practice and a great coach to work with. I’d go to classes, but all I could think about was getting to practice.”