Like many top-class divers, Don Harper was also an accomplished gymnast, winning the 1955 Pan American Games trampoline championship and earning All-America gymnastics honors that year. He also won the NCAA trampoline championship in 1956 while at Ohio State. As a diver, Harper won AAU titles on the 1 metre springboard indoors in 1959 and 1960, the 3 metre springboard indoors in 1956 and 1958, the 3 metre outdoor title in 1955 and 1959, and on platfor in 1961. He was NCAA champion on the 3 metre springboard in 1956 and both 1- and 3-metre springboards in 1958. Harper also won silver at the 1959 Pan American platform event.
Harper earned undergraduate, masters’, and doctoral degrees from The Ohio State University in physical education, health and physiology. He stayed on staff at Ohio State as a professor of physiology. Harper is a member of The Ohio State Athletic Hall of Fame, the International Swimming Hall of Fame, and the World Acrobatics Society Hall of Fame
United States