If at first ...

In true Texas style, senior Jeff Jackson has climbed back on the horse that threw him - again and again.

Dartmouth's best-ever pole-vaulter, a top sprinter, and a former four-sport athlete from McKinney, Tex., Jackson has fought back from a series of injuries that threatened to keep him out of the athletic saddle for good.

He began pole-vaulting in the sixth grade. During the next four years, he broke his right ankle, his right foot, and his left ankle twice; all four were pole-vaulting injuries. "It was getting to be a bad habit in the spring," said Jackson. "At home I had a special beanbag chair that I slept in to keep my leg elevated. I had my own crutches - the works."

After undergoing reconstructive surgery on his right ankle, he was warned by doctors to give up all sports that require lateral movement. Johnson ignored the advice and continued to participate in football as a quarterback, in baseball and basketball, and in track at legendary Texas football powerhouse, Piano High School. "Dr. Neil Small, who worked the 1984 Olympics, told me to give up all those sports," said the senior tri-captain of men's track at Dartmouth. "He told me that if I didn't I would get tendonitis in my legs. He was right. If I play basketball or baseball, I'll get tendonitis. Heck, I get swelling in my feet just from running the curves in track."

Jackson learned about athletic injuries from his father, Frank Jackson, a receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins for seven years. His father's career, including an all-pro year with the Chiefs in 1965, ended with a broken back.

While his father made his mark in football, Jackson is making his in track. He is the fastest man on Dartmouth's campus and the Green's top pole-vaulter. He raised the school pole-vault record to 16'4" this year at the Heptagonal Championship, jumping nine inches higher than any other Dartmouth indoor vaulter. He is now intent on shattering the outdoor record of 16'½" held by Dean Lodmell '81. "I don't want to nip it - I want to break it by a lot," said Jackson.

But setting track records is not all that consumes Jackson. "I'm doing a senior fellowship," the psychology major said. "The College gave me a sum of money, an office in Baker, and my final term free to write poetry and short stories. Last year I won the Lockwood Prize for short stories. I like to write about Texas. The landscapes there really shape the personality of the people. I've been writing short stories forever - longer than I can remember."

But despite his interest in writing, Jackson confesses that his real love is rock-climbing. "In the eighth grade, a friend and I went to the store and bought some rope. We found a metal loop and rigged our own rappelling gear. We took it and rappelled down train trestles. I guess we're pretty lucky that we survived. Rock-climbing is really athletic work," he continued. "It takes a certain amount of strength, balance, agility, and endurance. I enjoy free-climbing. That's without hanging onto the metal supports. We have them around just for protection, but I've still taken some nasty spills."

Next year, Jackson would like to return to Texas and train in the pole vault with former world record-holder Billy Olsen at Southern Methodist University. He wants to take the year off from work and spend his time putting together a book of short stories about Texas.

"It would be my idea of heaven," Jackson said, "a year of just writing, rock-climbing, and pole-vaulting."