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Once it was called the straddle and it was the technique high jumpers used to clear the cross bar, up and over feet first.
   
Along came Dick Fosbury of Oregon State with a revolutionary style that he utilized to win a gold medal for the U.S. in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. He went head first and writers called his method "the Fosbury Flop."
   
When Franklin Jacobs began to set marks with still another variation, he also went up head first, and because there was nothing stylish or formful about it, it was described as the "Jacobs slop."
   
Franklin didn't think that was particularly dignified and offered a variation, "the Jacobs' slope."
   "
That's what it is, a slope, anyway," he said. "It is similar to the flop but when I go over the bar, I have an extra arch to my back, it is like a dolphin kick."

At Sports Illustrated, they reviewed his style and referred to the little fellow as a "mite over the bar."
   
And at United Press International, veteran Fred Down looked over Franklin's achievements in the air and decided to call him "The Human Helicopter."

7 ft 7 1/4 in—Jan. 27, 1978
Millrose games, Madison Square Garden, N.Y.
7 ft 6 in—Jan. 6, 1978
CYO Meet, University of Maryland, College Park
7 ft 5 1/4 in—June 10, 1977
National AAU Championships, Los Angeles
7 ft 5 in—June 3, 1977
NCAA Championships, Eugene Oregon
7 ft 2 3/4 in—Apr. 30, 1977
New Jersey College Championships, Rider College, Lawrenceville
7 ft 1 in—March 3, 1977 
IC4A Championships, Princeton
7 ft—Jan. 28, 1977
College Track Conference Championships, Princeton.
6 ft. 10 in—Dec. 15, 1976
New Jersey College Championships, Princeton.
6 ft 8 in—Dec. 4, 1976
Dual meet, Fairleigh-Dickinson vs. Army at West Point, N.Y.
6 ft - Apr. 1, 1976—First time cleared 6
feet East Paterson High School, East Paterson, New Jersey
(note—Jacobs did not complete as high jumper in high school)


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