From Walt Murphy. Shared with permission (with minor editing). Walt produces an info-rich daily ”This Day in T&F” newsletter. Contact him at waltmurphy44@gmail.com if you’d like to join his distribution list.
1995—In a made-for-TV event, Dan O’Brien scored 7,891 points in a 60-minute decathlon in Pullman, Washington, just missing the “World Record” of 7,897, which was set by Czech Robert Změlík in 1992. Změlík, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist in the traditional decathlon, finished a distant 2nd here (6974), while Chris Huffins finished 3rd (5736).
O’Brien, who set the “real” World Record of 8,891 points in 1992, collected $25,000 for his effort.
Frank Zarnowski, the world’s leading authority on the multi-events, explains the format:
“…2-3 athletes compete concurrently, all competing in each running event at the same time and the starting times for those were pre-scheduled. For the field events the athletes could do them in any order they wanted but had to submit a plan as they moved from event to event so they would not bump into each other….so the field events were done out of order…but come hell or high water they had to be at the 400m start at 20 minutes after and at hurdles 40 minutes after the start”.
I (Walt Murphy) worked on the show, which aired on ESPN (with 2-time Olympic decathlon champion Daley Thompson as one of the announcers) and it was my first (and only) trip to the Washington State campus. I was surprised to see so many international flags flying atop the stadium until I found out they represented the countries of former Cougar T&F athletes!
O’Brien’s marks:
- 100m: 10.68
- Long Jump: 7.28 (23-10 ¾)
- Shot Put: 15.50 (50-10 ¼)
- High Jump: 2.10 (6-10 ¾)
- 400m: 58.68 (Obviously not wanting to expend too much energy in the 400!)
- 110 Hurdles: 14.60
- Javelin: 49.36 (161-11)
- Pole Vault: 5.10 (16-8 ¾)
- Discus: 62.22 (204-1)
- 1500m: 5:23.18
Dan O’Brien is a 3-time World Champion (1991, 1993, 1995), Olympic Champion (1996) and held the world record from 1992 to 1999. There’s a great ESPN 30 For 30 episode on the ”Dan and Dave” hype (and letdown) in 1992. Here is a sample of the TV commercials Reebok aired:
