Father-son combo were record setters, champions, Big Ten standouts and top-notch coaches
Lance Fox's usual routine is a one-man show, but in this case, he doesn't mind sharing the stage.
His father Ted was one of pole vaulting's pioneers, back in the days of bamboo poles and piles of sawdust for a pit. Lance, as an athlete and as a coach for son Dane, forged his own historical niche as fiberglass, carbon fiber and proper padding evolved the high-flying field event.
What Lance did in his second act, as an impressionist and comedian, sure is something to laugh about. But what the Foxes accomplished in the pole vault was no joke, which is why Lance and Ted are heading into the Monroe County Sports Hall of Fame, which will hold its annual induction ceremony on Friday, July 25 at the Monroe County Convention Center.
"I was excited," Lance said when he got word. "Kit (Klingelhoffer) called not long before Christmas and I was happy about it. What's so special is that my dad's going in too. I think we're the first father-son combo.
"It's great because Bloomington has had a lot of great pole vaulters."
Ted Fox raises the bar
After winning the 1904 state team title, Bloomington High School had just one state champ over the next 40 years until Ted came along. He went a school record 12-3 to win the 1944 title a year after taking third and just two weeks after D-Day.
He enlisted in the Navy and served for two years as a radio operator on the U.S.S. Curtis, which served as a seaplane tender, flagship, repair and supply ship for destroyers during World War II. It was hit by a kamikaze pilot in June of 1945 off Okinawa, killing 35, but the ship returned safely to the states for repair.
After the war, Ted enrolled at Indiana University and picked up vaulting again, breaking the IU freshman record (12-10) and finishing as high as third in the Big Ten. He had a career best 13-10 at the 1949 Illinois Tech Relays, beating the legendary Bob Richards, a bronze medal winner in pole vault at the 1948 Olympics and gold medal winner in 1952 and '56.
"It was all speed and strength and technique back then," Lance said.
Ted graduated in just three years and took a job teaching and coaching track and cross country at Bedford North Lawrence, his career spanning 30 years. Ted, who passed away in 2004, has a cross country and a track meet at BNL named after him.
Like father, like son (and grandson)
Young Lance was more interested in football but was introduced to pole vault by his dad as a 9-year-old and it clicked.
"When he brought that (pole) home, I thought it was cool," Lance said. "He didn't talk that much about it but when I was junior high and he was coaching, I saw the medals. It was a lot to live up to.
"I was 17 my senior year (of high school), I was young. And the defending state champ was 19. And it took me a while in college to catch up to where my teammates were. But he never pressured me to do it."
Pole vault was in a period of transition at the time to aluminum, then the fiberglass poles that Lance started on. There was also the need for better pits as vaulters figured out how to soar higher. Lance set the Bloomington South school record with a 15-2 in 1976 while working under coach Marshall Goss.
"It was an introduction into bending the pole and learning the fundamentals of that and all the changes that evolved," Lance said.
He had offers from other schools but wanted to compete in the Big Ten and stayed home to compete at IU. He won two Big Ten pole vault crowns (indoor and outdoors in 1979) and the Hoosiers won the Big Ten title three years in a row and missed a fourth by one point the same year he was injured and couldn't compete.
Lance was a grad assistant for IU coach Sam Bell.
"I thought about going into coaching," Lance said. "I was offered the Bloomington South job and turned it down. Tom Alwine got it, then Larry Williams. I knew the dedication that it took."
He was a volunteer coach at Bloomington North from 2003-06, where he coached his son Dane and several other top vaulters. But that was it. As a full-time teacher at Unionville Elementary, it allowed him to delve into his new passion.
Lance Fox stars on a new stage
His senior year, the IU track team went on a spring trip and held an informal 'Gong Show'. Lance, who had been doing impressions for his teammates, won the contest.
He put a routine together while he was in grad school and got his big break winning a campus comedy competition that earned him a chance to open for George Carlin at IU Auditorium.
"I was so nervous," Lance said. "It's the most nervous I've ever been. But once I got that first laugh, everything was OK. It's almost worse than watching your kid pole vault knowing you have no control."
He got his teaching and coaching career started, first at Greensburg before coming back to Bloomington and starting a family and putting his comedy career on hold. He thought about giving college coaching a try and was offered a job at IU, but turned it down. There were financial concerns and he wanted to continue coaching Dane at North.
Soon after, he got back on the stage, entertaining crowds with his comedic and singing impressions. He got to meet several national stars such as Tim Allen.
Rich Little, Rodney Dangerfield, Don Rickles and Carlin were among the artists he enjoyed coming up and impressions just seemed to come naturally to him.
Former IU basketball coach Bob Knight being interviewed by announcer Chuck Marlowe was his clincher for a long time, giving folks his take on the coach's show. Presidents of all political stripes, Jimmy Stewart, Robert DeNiro and others will come up in his Vegas type show.
"My mom was a big movie buff, so that rubbed off on me," Lance said. "I got to the point I was doing John Wayne and others. You have to have an ear for it. When I pick somebody up, I'll do it for other people and I can tell if its pretty on or not. If I'm not quite sure, I'll do it for my wife.
"The singing part, I do Elvis, (John) Mellencamp, Michael Jackson. I put them in different situations."
Lance retired from teaching in 2019 and he's currently considering an offer to do a series of cruises. It's a big leap in a career full of them. The next one is to find the Foxes a fourth-generation vaulter.
"I haven't been to a lot of track meets lately, but I follow it," Lance said. "I'll watch the Olympics and I've got a grandson who's 6.
"He's already hitting home runs in baseball, so maybe it's time to get a pole in his hands."
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Lance and Ted Fox vault into Monroe County Sports Hall of Fame
Category: General Sports
