Born February 12, 1937, Inglewood, Calif. Died January 5, 2004.

On June 29, 1956, Charles Dumas sent a shock through the track and field world when he became the first man to high jump seven feet. His clearance of seven feet and a half inch at the Olympic Trials had broken another of man's barriers. Later that year, he won the Olympic high jump title at Melbourne and in 1960 was sixth in the Rome Olympics. In between, he captured the 1959 Pan American Games high jump gold medal. From 1955 to 1959, Dumas won or shared five-straight national high jump titles, being ranked first in the world twice in that span. In the period 1955 through 1960, he was listed either first or second in the U.S. Rankings. Also an excellent hurdler (he ran 14.1 in 1958), Dumas starred at both Compton Junior College and the University of Southern California. He was still a nationally-ranked competitor as late as 1964 when he was rated sixth in the nation while representing the Southern California Striders. He later became a teacher.