Dwight Stones

Vocation

Notable

Traits

Family

American athlete and sports commentator. Winner of the Bronze Medal at the 1972 Olympics, he was the former world record holder for the high jump event in 1973. A self-appointed crusader for the rights of amateur athletes, his mission was to change the rules governing amateur sports so that track and field athletes can earn a decent living. Raised in Glendale, CA, Stones and his two younger siblings were raised by a single mom who worked two jobs to support her family after she and her husband divorced, when Dwight was five. A committed baseball player in childhood, Stones saw a US-Soviet high jump meet on TV in 1963. "The next day I started to high jump." Eight years later, 17 year old Stones set a national high school record. "A lot of people decided my head was out of proportion to my feat. My classmates didn't understand what I had done. They just understood football." Entering UCLA on scholarship, he left after his freshman year. "The football players got the $12 an hour jobs for watching Pauley Pavilion to make sure it wasn't stolen. I got to be a groundskeeper running around with a nail on the end of a stick, picking up garbage." After switching to Long Beach State for a year and a half, he closed the books on college forever. By 1975, he set a world indoor record five times. The following year the 6'5" athlete set two more indoor and one outdoor records. Known for his brazen manner and verbal attacks on judges, contestants and authority in general, Stones became a sports commentator for track and field events in 1977. He lives with his wife Linda and son Jason in Irvine, CA. Link to Wikipedia biography