Donald Rumsfeld captained the Princeton wrestling team and, as a young naval aviator, tried out for the 1956 Olympic team. He hurt his shoulder, so he didn’t make it.
Bill Cosby, as a Navy hospital corpsman, ran track for the Navy and played football for the Marines.
Mathis and Russell both attended high school in the Bay area but Mathis went to George Washington High School in San Francisco. Russell hails from Oakland’s McClymonds High School.
Although both Mathis and Russell achieved greater fame in other endeavors, it’s true they were very good collegiate high jumpers but Mathis competed for Francisco STATE College and Russell for the University of San Francisco.
Russell was the better of the high jumping pair and would’ve been a threat to earn a berth on the 1956 United States Olympic Track & Field team. In May of 1956 – despite a late start to his track season – Russell tied Charlie Dumas for first place at the West Coast Relays with a jump of 6-9¼. Russell barely missed three tries at a world record 7-feet even (Walter Davis held the world record at 6-11½ ).
Russell was ranked as the world’s seventh-best high jumper in 1956 by Track & Field News. Many publications predicted Russell would be the first to clear 7-feet. That honor went to Dumas, who cleared 7-0½ at the 1956 Olympic Trials. Dumas went on to win the Olympic gold medal four months later in Melbourne.
Shortly after his West Coast Relays victory, Russell announced he would forego his hopes of Olympic glory in track & field to concentrate on basketball. He had led USF to consecutive NCAA basketball championships in 1955 and 1956 and a then-record 60 consecutive victories. Russell was already a member of the U.S.A. Olympic basketball team.
Mathis was very good high jumper, too, although probably not quite in Russell’s class. Mathis did better one of Russell’s high jump records – a stadium record at Reno, Nevada.
On May 1, 1954, in a dual meet against the University of Nevada, Russell won the high jump with a leap of 6 feet, 5 inches.
From the Reno Gazette:
“USF also had a double winner in the skyscraping Bill Russell, a 6’9” basketball star at the Jesuit school, who was an easy winner in the high jump at 6’ 5" and the broad jump at 21’ 5".
"Russell drew a large gallery to the high jump pit as he soared to his winning height in the jumping event, beating the rest of the competition which went out at nearly a foot below the winning height.
“USF with a team of [George] Daskarolis, Jack King, Dave McCarville and Russell won the mile relay in 3:35.1.”
The following year – on May 7, 1955 – San Francisco State traveled to Reno for a dual meet with Nevada. Mathis bettered Russell’s stadium record by one-half inch, winning the event with a leap of 6-5½. As far as I could determine that height (6-5½) would remain a personal record (PR) for Mathis, more than four inches short of Russell’s best. However, some might consider Mathis’ performance more impressive since he was more than foot shorter than Russell.
From the Nevada State Journal:
“A little fellow who doesn’t reach five feet eight inches in height yesterday cleared the cross-bar at six feet five and a half inches. The high jump, which featured San Francisco State’s dual track meet 83-43 win over University of Nevada here, was a new record for Mackay Stadium.”
“It was a half-inch above the 6-5 altitude established last year by Bill Russell (the 6’-10” All America basketball ace of University of San Francisco), which height was the previous all-time record in more than a half century at Mackay Stadium.
"The jump, accomplished with the western roll, also broke Mathis’ own San Francisco State school mark by an inch and a half. He leaps with one shoe on, one foot bare. He missed three at 6-6½ “