LeRoy Samse was a graduate of Indiana, where he competed in track & field and gymnastics, mostly tumbling and the horizontal bar, and took the silver medal in the 1904 Olympic pole vault after a jump-off with his teammate from the Chicago AA, Louis Wilkins. Samse’s career best came in 1906 when he set a world record of 12-4⅞ (3.78) to win the Western AAU title. He was also AAU Champion that year after a jump-off with H. L. Moore of the New York AC. He had numerous offers from circuses to perform as an acrobat but rejected them all. He taught high school, briefly coached at Indiana University, but he and his wife later moved to the Los Angeles area, where he taught and also dabbled in vaudeville. Samse’s achievements are made more remarkable by the fact that he lost the use of one eye in a childhood accident.
Personal Best: PV - 3.78 (1906).
United States