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22ND ANNUAL ALBANY SPORTS HALL OF FAME INDUCTION: David McIntyre
McIntyre vaulted over foes

• As a three-sport athlete at Albany High and track star at West Point, David McIntyre earned his induction into the Albany Sports Hall of Fame.

Paul Dehner Jr.

ALBANY — David McIntyre credits the birth of his storied athletic career to bamboo poles.

Grass. Shoots. Spherical. Bamboo.

His achievements span from captain of the track and basketball team and a quarterback for a near-undefeated football team at Albany High, to a record-breaking pole vaulter for the United States Naval Academy.

He was eventually inducted into the Navy Sports Hall of Fame and on Monday will add membership in the Albany Sports Hall of Fame to his scroll of honors.

But it began with bamboo, a creek and a kid with nothing better to do.

McIntyre didn’t know what pole vaulting was as a third grader when he picked up a bamboo pole his friends cut down from a neighbors yard to build bridges across a creek near his house.

“The poles were huge,” he said.

Instinctually, he held it perpendicular, plopped it into the water and used it to catapult himself to the other side.

“From that, we started going from two feet, three feet, four feet,” he said. “We were doing it for fun. I’d add a foot almost every year.”

By the time McIntyre arrived at his first track meet at Thomasville as an eighth grader, he observed a familiar sight.

“I saw them pole vaulting and said, ‘Hey, we’ve been doing that for years,’ ” he said. “Ikept it up as my own little thing.”

It turned into a very big thing.

He won the Georgia high school AAU state pole vaulting title in 1952 with a vault of 11 feet, 11 inches. During his senior season, he was the leading point scorer for the Indians, posting numbers in five separate events.

He also played quarterback as Albany nearly went undefeated in the regular season that year, sharing the backfield with fellow Albany Hall of Famer, running back Robert “Goo Goo” Heidt.

In a year he broke his nose after taking a hit in the pre-facemask era, he led the team to a perfect season before losing to Moultrie then in a 14-13 heartbreaker against Jordan in the playoffs.

McIntyre threw a jump pass for the go-ahead score in the final minutes, but the lead wouldn’t hold.

“It was one of those you will never forget the rest of your life,” he said.

After a brief stint at Georgia Military College, McIntyre earned the distinction as captain of the 1957 track team and went on to break the Navy’s oldest track record when he pole vaulted 13-feet.

His accolades continued as he won the Indoor Heptagonal Track meet, the largest collegiate indoor meet in the country at the time.

For the next 20 years, McIntyre would move to the coaching ranks in the Marines, sandwiched around two stints in Vietnam.

“I thoroughly loved it,” he said of coaching college athletics.

Over the past few selection meetings his name has been mentioned for induction into the Albany Hall of Fame.

According to Albany Hall of Fame President B.B. Rhodes, “He was just was a well-rounded athlete. He’s an extremely good person, he has contributed to his community everywhere he has been. He was one that eventually was going to go in because of athletic achievements. He’s just a fine gentleman.”

Currently residing in Fairfax, Va., McIntyre expressed excitement and honor in accepting the induction during Monday’s ceremonies at the Civic Center.

He says he returns for reunions every five years, but feels an extra pride in returning to accept his second Sports Hall of Fame induction.

And to think it all began with a yard full of bamboo poles.

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