John Uelses is a retired American pole vaulter and Corporal in the United States Marine Corps who graduated from La Salle University in Philadelphia in 1965. He was the first person to ever pole vault 16' he held the world record in the pole vault for a short time with his personal best of 4.89 m. Uelses being one of the first vaulters to jump on a fiberglass pole, made this new style of vaulting pole the standard with his 16' jump. He was also featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated on Feb 26 1962. As a member of the Explorer track team, won the NCAA pole vault championship in 1964, 3 IC4A championships and 2 MAC championships in the event. Also played soccer for La Salle. 

July 14th, 1937 in Berlin  /  Died:   Dec 15th, 2022 - aged 85