There\u2019s one story that seems to always rise to the surface in conversations with Jim Barker\u2019s fellow alumni, especially his DKA fraternity brothers. There may be a few details that differ in the accounts, but the basic story is always the same. J. Allen Carroll \u201969, M \u201971, fellow DKA and Barker\u2019s roommate for a semester or two in the frat house, tells it this way:
\n\u201cAs a pole vaulter on the track team, Jim had to find time to practice. The pole vault pit was behind the frat house. One morning we looked out and saw Jim asleep in the pit where he had collapsed following a late night practice session.\u201d
\nAccording to others, including Chair of the Board of Trustees David Wilkins (also a fellow DKA), Barker awoke, \u201ccovered in dew, having slept in the pole vaulting pit the entire night. Since the gym was closed at that early hour, Jim struggled to get his pole up the stairs and into the fraternity house, having to finally lay it down in the hall.\u201d
\nBarker\u2019s DKA pledge master, Steve Hutchinson \u201968, says, \u201cWhen Barker was out there on the track by himself pole vaulting, I thought, \u2018He can\u2019t clear 8 feet, much less 18 feet.\u2019 But he did it over and over and over. That was just how dogmatic he was. He would knock the bar down, then would get up and re-set the bar. And do it over and over again. At night, no less!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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