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He reached very high notes photo by Jim Craven By Don Hunt Music has always been George Mattos� greatest passion. He grew up playing the clarinet and saxophone and taught music for 34 years in Northern California. And he�s still going strong at age 70, playing in three bands in the Rogue Valley. Not many of Mattos� friends in the music world know it � he doesn�t toot his horn much outside of the bands � but for most of the 1950s, he was also one of the world�s top pole vaulters. In fact, he came within five inches of earning a medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. With the 2000 Olympics just around the corner � they kick off Sept. 15 in Sydney � Mattos can�t help but reflect on his days in the track and field limelight. "Every time the Olympics come around, they get my competitive juices flowing," says Mattos, who lives near Jacksonville with his wife, Lorraine. "I still have a lot of interest in track. I still go to a lot of the meets." Along with the celebrated Bob Richards � the first Olympian to adorn a Wheaties box � and former world record-holder Bob Gutowski, Mattos was part of an American pole vaulting trio that was expected to sweep the top three spots at the 1956 Games. Richards and Gutowski went 1-2, but Mattos was beaten out for the bronze medal by Greece�s George Roubanis, who shocked the other vaulters by showing up with something brand new in the sport � a fiberglass pole. "He (Roubanis) was going to UCLA at that time and a business in that area had just come out with the new pole," says Mattos, who was still using a steel pole. "He practiced on it for three months and set a PR (personal record) by 2 feet. It didn�t seem fair." Richards cleared 14-10� to win the gold medal, Gutowski went 14-9� for the silver and Roubanis 14-8 for the bronze. Mattos, who had gone 14-10� at the U.S. Olympic Trials, managed only 14-3�. "The runway was in terrible shape, and I could never get my steps right," Mattos says. "Of course, it was the same for everyone, but I just couldn�t adapt to it. It was all chewed up.�� Mattos, who finished ninth at the 1952 Games in Helsinki, Finland, failed in his bid for a third straight Olympic berth and retired from the sport a few months after the trials in 1960. By then, he was living in Weed, Calif., where he taught music at Weed High for four years and at College of the Siskiyous for 30 before retiring in 1993. He moved to the Rogue Valley a short time later. "You needed to live near the big meets or you really couldn�t be competitive," says Mattos, whose best vault was 15 feet at the Modesto (Calif.) Relays in 1959. "I loved to vault, but it was time to put the pole in the barn." Mattos grew up on a ranch near Pacific Grove, Calif., a small town 75 miles south of San Francisco. He got his first taste of vaulting when he grabbed a rake and flung himself over his mother�s clothesline. "She never saw me do that," he says with a chuckle, "and good thing." Before long Mattos and some neighbor boys constructed a primitive pit: grass shavings and an old carpet for the landing area, a couple of skinny poles for the supports, a bamboo pole for the crossbar and a pine sapling to vault with. "I think the best I did was 6-foot-6," Mattos says. "Of course, I was only 10 or 11 years old." Mattos became a fine all-around track performer in high school, blossoming into Pacific Grove�s top sprinter, long jumper and discus thrower. But the pole vault was his forte. Using a bamboo pole, he won the California high school state championship in 1947 with a vault of 12-6. That effort caught the eye of then San Jose State coach Bud Winter, who offered Mattos a scholarship on the spot. Mattos never captured an NCAA title, but he was fourth in 1949 and second in 1950 and �51. His best collegiate mark was 14-5. Although Mattos never triumphed at the highest levels of competition, he gained a No. 2 world ranking in 1953. Richards, of course, was No. 1. "I got to know him very well," says Mattos of Richards, a two-time Olympic champion. "We traveled on the same buses and the same planes all over the world. "I beat him maybe a half-dozen times, but he never lost a big meet that I can remember." Mattos marvels at the skyscraping heights achieved by today�s vaulters � Sergei Bubka holds the world record at 20-2. But he also knows that today�s high-tech poles that catapult the competitors skyward as if they were shot out of a cannon have a lot to do with the remarkable marks. And that�s to say nothing of the thick, foam rubber landing areas. In Mattos� day, vaulters landed in either sawdust or sand. At a meet in Holland in 1953, Mattos came down flat on his back and was knocked unconscious. That was the only time he was seriously hurt, though. And, other than a little bursitis in his shoulders and arthritis in his hands, he has suffered no lingering ailments from the sport. He left the sport upright and intact, and in the 40 years since his retirement from vaulting, he has spent much of his free time skiing and playing tennis. That is, when he�s able to tune out his other pastime. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA