Bruce Jenner

Bruce Jenner is originally from Mount Kisco, New York. He attended Newtown High School in Newtown, Connecticut, after spending a year at Sleepy Hollow High School in Sleepy Hollow, New York. Jenner earned a football scholarship and attended Graceland College (now Graceland University) in Iowa, but a knee injury forced him to stop playing football and he switched to the decathlon. He was mentored by Graceland's track coach L. D. Weldon, who was the first to recognize Jenner's potential and encouraged him to pursue the decathlon. Jenner debuted in the decathlon at the Drake Relays in 1970, placing fifth. Jenner placed third in the decathlon at the 1972 U.S. Olympic trials and finished in tenth place at the 1972 Munich games. His success prompted him to devote himself to an intense training regimen, while also selling insurance outside training hours. He acknowledged that he was supported and subsidized by his then wife, Chrystie Crownover, who worked as an airline stewardess. In the era before professionalism was allowed in athletics, this kind of training was unheard of. During that period he spent eight hours a day at the San Jose City College track. Centered around Bert Bonnano, the coach at SJCC, San Jose at the time was a hotbed for training aspiring Olympic athletes, including Jenner, along with Millard Hampton, Andre Phillips, John Powell, Mac Wilkins, Al Feuerbach and others. In 1974 and 1976, Jenner was the American champion in the event. At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, he won the gold medal in the Decathlon, setting the world record of 8,618 points. The world record was broken by just 4 points by Daley Thompson in 1980. In 1985, the IAAF Decathlon scoring table was changed, so Jenner's winning score has been reevaluated against that table and reported as 8634 for comparative purposes. As of 2011, Jenner is #25 on the world all-time list and the #9 American. As a result of winning the Olympic decathlon, Jenner was a national hero. He was the 1976 recipient of the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States. Jenner was also the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year in 1976. He was inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame, the Connecticut Sports Hall of Fame in 1994 and the United States National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1980. In the 1970s, Olympic athletes were considered amateur and were absolutely not allowed to seek or accept payment for their position as a sports celebrity. In 1972, three major Olympic titles (basketball, 100 meters and decathlon), were won by Soviet athletes during the Cold War. Winning 'back' the decathlon title made Jenner an American hero. After his Olympic success, Jenner set out to cash in on his celebrity (requiring him to give up any future Olympic appearances). He left his vaulting poles in the stadium, having no intention of ever using them again. Quickly after the Games, Jenner appeared on the front of Wheaties brand breakfast cereal as a "Wheaties champion". Of several hundred athletes who have been so featured, Jenner is one of seven Wheaties "spokesmen". He was invited to the White House to meet with President Gerald R. Ford, who autographed a political cartoon that featured the pair. In the 1980s, Jenner raced in the IMSA sports car series, driving cars like a Chevrolet Monza, BMW M1 March GTX, Porsche 935 and Ford Mustang in the GTO Class. He raced for Ford and was a factory driver. It was a big challenge for a man who already experienced victory many times. His partner was Scott Pruett, on a go-cart track, and Scott was like 13 times National Champion -- he even won World Championships in Karting. We became good friends and I told him I wanted to help him get started. He was like 23 at the time, and I told Ford I wanted to get Pruett in the car with me. This was 1985 and finally I got him in the car with me, and he drove 10 laps and put it on the pole. His first victory came in the 1986 12 Hours of Sebring, finishing fourth overall and wining the GTO class driving a Ford Mustang with co-driver (and "real" race driver) Scott Pruett. That year also saw him finishing second in the championship to teammate Pruett.

Bruce Jenner was very popular as a GTO driver.