She was the Big Sky’s Conference’s first female NCAA Indoor Track and Field Champion.
Paula John, who competed for Weber State from 1984 to 1989, captured the high jump at the 1989 NCAA Indoor Championship, and that’s one reason she ranks eighth on the league’s list of the “25 Greatest Female Athletes.’’
“Oh my gosh,” said John. “It is just kind of unbelievable to me. It is very humbling and I am just really grateful for the experience I had in the Big Sky.”
"What a pleasure it was for me to have watched Paula develop into a national champion high jumper,” said Weber State head women’s track and field coach Jim Blaisdell. “The high jump was very competitive in the Big Sky at that time and it was a thrill to watch Paula get stronger, more competitive and climax with an indoor championship at Indianapolis. Paula was the beginning of many outstanding high jumpers that came through Weber State under the tutelage of Coach Dan Walker."
John came to Weber State in the fall of 1984 out of Burley, Idaho. She wasn’t highly recruited in part because she competed in the shadows of Lisa Bernhagen, who was the Idaho high jump record-holder. Both John and Bernhagen were from the same district in Idaho.
Weber State recruited John, and at least one reason she came was the Wildcats’ purple school color.
“When we walked into the locker room it had beautiful purple carpet,’’ she said. “And purple was my favorite color. The other reason was because they had a spot on the show choir.”
Not only was John a standout on the track, but also shined on the stage during her time at Weber State.
“Paula John was one of the most unique individuals with a most unique story who I have had the pleasure to coach,” said Weber State’s head men’s track and field coach Dan Walker. “She was a poor runner, an athlete with few athletic skills, a person better suited for singing and acting. Yet, she became a national champion in the high jump.”
It wasn’t all glitz and glamour for John early in her collegiate career. During her sophomore season, the married John became pregnant. She gave up sports, but not for long. Three weeks after she had her first child, the coaches at Weber gave her a call. They wanted to get her back on scholarship, back in shape, and back competing.
“What Paula could do was to stick with it,” said Walker. “After she got married and eventually had a child, I worked hard to convince her to come back to school, complete her degree, and she might as well high jump so we could help pay for the tuition. She did come back, became a relentless worker in the weight room, and continued to improve her high-jumping skills.”
“It took years, I couldn’t do anything, it was horrible,” said John about the road to returning to an elite athlete. “I couldn’t even run 30 yards on the football field. I was out of shape. I lost 15 to 20 pounds in the pregnancy. It was terrible. They (the coaches) just kept pushing me and kept working with me and were so patient and kept me on the wavier for my tuition.”
After she got back in shape, she finished fourth in the high jump at the 1987 Big Sky indoor and outdoor championship. In 1988, John finished second to Idaho State’s Amber Welty in the high jump at the outdoor championship. As a senior in 1989, she again finished second to Welty at the conference championship.
Coach Dan Walker was unable to attend the 1989 indoor championship. “I relied heavily on him and I was having a rough time getting my jumps in,” said John. “Finally Coach Blaisdell noticed one thing that I was doing. He said, ‘hey fix this,’ and I was able to get in that second-place jump. For me it wasn’t that big of a deal to get second place because I had never really won a big meet. That was pretty common for me.”
But she won on the biggest stage of her career, capturing the high jump championship in her only NCAA Championship appearance in Indianapolis, Ind. She won with a modest jump of 6-feet.
“I think the bigger shock was to win the nationals because there were several girls that had jumped much higher than I had,” said John.
She competed against her old high-school rival Bernhagen, who won the 1987 high jump championship at Stanford, as well as the 1988 winner Angie Bradburn of Texas. Welty, who beat John at the Big Sky Championship, was also in the field.
“She never won a conference championship,” said Walker. “Yet, at the indoor NCAA meet in Indianapolis in 1989, she beat a field that included two previous national champions, and two others who would become national champions. This was also the final meet of her career, since her eligibility had been spent.”
The best jump of the meet was 6-feet. Usually at the national meet that mark wouldn’t have won a national championship. But that season it did. John won because she didn’t have any misses prior to reaching the 6-foot mark.. Bernhagen finished second, and Bradburn was third. Welty finished eighth.
It marked just the second time that 6-feet won the NCAA Championship.
John said she remembers standing on the award podium to receive her medal, when Bernhagen turned to her.
“She said, ‘I just feel bad for the sport because it was won at such a low height,’ “ John recalled. “I’m sure she did feel that way because she could jump 6-4 and 6-5, but on that night she could only jump 6-feet’
John is now a school psychologist in Idaho Falls, Idaho, for School District 91. She is assigned to middle school and high school students. But she has worked with all ages for the past 11 years. John has five children and two grandchildren.
