Jerry's Story:​

I was what I call a “backyard tumbler”. Other than whatever was taught to me in elementary and junior high gym class, I learned most of what I knew about gymnastics by copying what I saw on tv by trial and error.

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For the last semester of my senior year, I knew I was headed to West Point after graduation. I still am not exactly sure how I received the nomination that's required to become a candidate for admission. I know the West Point gymnastics coach was involved and possibly Major Perry who ran the ROTC program which I was in since 9th grade and had risen to become the battalion commander. By the time I graduated from high school, all that was left in the process of admission was passing the Army physical. It turns out, the most thorough examination I have ever gone through discovered I had a perforated tympanic membrane, which means a hole in my eardrum, which disqualified me.

I had applied to many other schools and had been accepted to some of them but once the West Point opportunity was on the table, I didn't consider a plan B. After being disqualified, I had no Idea what I was going to do and then I randomly crossed paths with a junior high school buddy of mine who mentioned he was thinking of going to Arizona State. I wasn't familiar at all with ASU but the idea of being in warm weather year round appealed to me and so I did what one did in 1982 and went to the main library in downtown Denver and found an ASU catalog. I discovered ASU had an architecture program and in 6th grade, I put architect on my list of things to be. Lo and behold, they also had a gymnastics team. Those 2 things along with the pictures of palm trees on a beautiful campus won me over, and I began the process of getting admitted. I finally received my admittance letter mid-July, a little more than one month before the fall semester began.

The ASU catalog had information about the athletic department and I decided to call the gymnastics coach. Once I got patched through, I nervously took a deep breath and after 3 or 4 rings, Coach answered. I  told him about my mediocre high school gymnastics success and that I had recently been admitted to ASU and I asked if he allowed guys to work-out who were not on the team. His answer changed my life.

My life wasn’t the only one changed. Coach Robinson elevated a lot of guy's lives by simply allowing them to train in his gym. Many, like me, who were not good enough at that time to make the competing team and some who never would be.

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I loved flipping and the idea that I could continue to do it in a college gym with serious gymnasts was monumental. I realized how incredibly lucky I was to be able to enter PE West every weekday and train in the same gym with All Americans and National Champions like Donnie Hinton, Jeff Beasom, and Mark Spallina. The idea that I could someday actually compete alongside them is what motivated me to do everything in my power to make enough money to pay tuition and continue working in the dormitory for room and board.

I created life-long friends and memories that I’ll never forget. I’ve since travelled to places I’ve never imagined and continue living a life that examines what I have in my repertoire of skills and weaves those together with virtuosity and a quest for perfection.

Thank you Don Robinson for answering the phone that July day in 1982. It was no big deal for you to hear your phone ringing and reflexively pick up the receiver and say hello, but for me, it was the opening of another dimension, a portal into a new life full of the kind of adventures and brotherhood a backyard tumbler could only dream of.