Inducted in 1982. Ralph Smith was the first in a long line of San Diego pole vault champions.
He won the National Junior AAU Championship in 1926 with an American record of 13 feet 5 3/4 inches. He won that title twice and tied his brother, Harry, for a third.
The brothers had started vaulting in 1916, marking their progress on a telephone pole.
Ralph’s son, Bobby, won two NCAA titles and is also in the Breitbard Hall of Fame.
An accomplished amateur boxer, matchmaker, referee and administrator, Ralph was San Diego’s resected Director of Athletics and Recreation for twenty-five years from 1946 to 1971, developing programs that were emulated nationally.
