The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1942-02-09
reg. U. S. Pat. OFF,
BY JACK GUENTHER

UNITED Press Staff Correspondent
New York, Feb. 9 --(UP)- The
daring young man on the flying
trapeze was quite a remarkable fell
low and my admiration of Carl
baldi, the Human Cannonball, al
ways has been intense. But today
I'm putting the two of them be-
hind me. I've finally realized that
they are just a couple Of bush
league pikers.
At long last, rye seen Cornelius
Warmerdam.
Warmerdam doesn't swing from
a trapeze and he isn't shot from a
gun, but he floats through the air
with a skill and an ease that makes
everyone who has gone before him
look like a gold-plated sucker.
Technically, he is pole vaulter.
Actually, he is part bird, part pur-
suit ship, part high diver - and
wholly a creature OF another world.
Quite Show
/ saw Warmerdam for the first
time at the Millrose games. He was
stamping his heel prints on the cell
ing and catapulting his string bean
body to new world indoor record
of Is feet, hree-eighths of an inch.
He put on a truly incredible show,
the best I've witnessed since the
night Man Mountain Dean threw
himself with his own leg lock.
The experts say vaulting is a pas
time requiring complete precision,
synchronization and concentration.
Yet, this man Warmerdam teed off
in Madison Square Garden with a
strange set of poles while guns
banged, runners hammered around
the track and every camera fiend
in Greater New York popped flash
bulbs. Warmerdam never even
blinked.
He cleared 10 feet, then IA feet.
The bar was lifted to a new indoor
record of IA feet, eight inches. He
stepped the distance, hustled down
the runway and went over the top
like ice DiMaggio home run. Then
the standard was raised to a frac-
ton over Is feet, mark no other
man had reached before. Corn
made it on the first try, just like
that--pff.
In doing this, he proved once
again he is farther ahead of the
times than Buck Rogers rocket
ship. The vault was the l4th-one
was an exhibition-on which he has
topped the 15-foot mark, ceiling
considered unattainable two years
ago. How he does it don't know,
even after talking to him, but take
it from he his work is no fluke.
Warmerdam is the most spectacu-
lar individual in track and field to-
day, and he has been working to-
ward his goal for Is years, or since
he was II. He could only vault
eight feet then, but before he left
Piedmont, Calf, high, he had done
IL feet and by the time he was
graduated from Fresno State col
lege he had reached IA feet, seven
and five-eighths inches.
His best mark is Is feet, five and
three-fourths inches, and it was the
fulfillment of lifetime dream.
Corny for years swung the shot to
develop his arm, competed in dashes
to increase his speed and l1urdled
to acquire the knack of conquering
obstacles All the while he vaulted
necessarily. Strangely, he never
bettered IA feet, six inches while
practicing.
May Go Higher
He needed the thrill OF competi-
ton to put him where he is today
some six inches above the next best
vaulter in all world history. He
weighs 1913 pounds, he stands six
feet high, he eats no special food
and follows no special training diet,
yet he will tell you flatly that he
hasn't approached his peak and will
go on trying.
He says that without braggadocio,
because he is shy boy and not one
given to loose talk. If he had
reached his peak, he explains rea-
sonably, he would quit vaulting and
concentrate on teaching and coach
ing. Which makes sense any way
you regard it. But that is the
Warmerdam philosophy in an egg
shell; don't waste time talking-go
do it.
A nice boy this Warmerdam. He
is the sort of boy you would find
on the basketball team at Notre
Dame, Southern California or Long
Island-thin, supple and graceful in
his movements. Only one thing
about him made me curiou, and it
probably has made you curious too.
That is, how does it feel when he
knows he must fall Is feet, or about
two stories.
That's easy, he says. He just
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