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These days, the only jumping Stuart Ransom does is hopping around his Olive Branch factory making sure orders for electrical control panels are filled.
But flash back some 20-plus years, and Ransom was a high-flying world-class trampoliner.
Stuart Ransom, who will be inducted into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame this summer, keeps his many medals in the attic of his Southaven home.
Before trampolining was an Olympic sport, Stuart Ransom was named in the Guinness World Records for winning the most U.S. National Championships for men. Today, his job as president of Control Products Inc. keeps him jumping.
In fact, he won 12 national titles. The record landed him a spot in Guinness World Records for winning the most U.S. National Championships for Men.
Come June 22, Ransom will be inducted into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame for his trampoline accomplishments.
<center><p><a href="http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/mar/29/a-higher-spring/" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>
Yolanda Jones
(662) 996-1474
<a href="http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/" target="_blank"> usa-gymnastics.org </a>
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"I had been disjointed from my comrades in the trampoline world for 25 years, and to know that they nominated me for the Hall of Fame is an honor," he said.
Ransom competed in four World Trampoline Championships for the United States, winning the double mini title in 1978 and the synchronized trampoline crown with Mark Calderon in 1982.
He also won four AAU national titles from 1975-78 and eight USAF national titles from 1979-82.
At 49, Ransom, is modest about his days as a trampoline champion.
He keeps his medals -- and there are several of them -- in a box in the attic of his Southaven home.
He said he was surprised by being honored, but it shouldn't come as a surprise.
Before he started school, at the age of 4, Ransom, who grew up in Memphis, was a skilled athlete on the trampoline.
His father, David Ransom, was his first coach after he brought the family a trampoline to their Whitehaven home.
From there, Ransom and his older sister, Renee, who became a world trampoline champion at 13 in 1970, trained at Jim Yongue's gym in Memphis. The gym is long closed.
After competing and winning junior trampoline titles, Ransom won a scholarship to the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana) in Lafayette.
There, with help from his coach, Jeff Hennessy, Ransom took the sport of trampoline to a new level.
"He was a mechanical genius," said Hennessy, 78, from his home in Broussard, La. "He would tell me, 'Coach, I am going to do so and so' and he would do it. That guy was amazing."
Hennessy said Ransom pioneered a lot of firsts in the world of trampolining.
"He was the first person to do a triple backward somersault on the trampoline and also a 21/2 twist front somersault," Hennessy said, describing skills that are still competitive by today's standards. "Until then, nobody did those those things. This type of trampolining is not what you do in your backyard, and Stuart could do anything."
Hennessy was the U.S. trampoline team coach from 1964 to 1980. His athletes, including Ransom, dominated the sport by being awarded 26 world championship medals and several national and regional titles and medals.
In 1997, Hennessy, who retired as a coach in 1986, was inducted into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame. Last year, his daughter, Leigh Hennessy, a world-class trampolinist, was also inducted into the Hall of Fame, making them the first father and daughter duo to hold that honor.
"It is an interesting thing to have a coach and two of his athletes in Hall of Fame," Hennessy said. "It is quite something and I am thrilled to death for Stuart."
Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics, the national governing body for gymnastics, said about the 2008 inductees, "The Hall of Fame is a great opportunity for us to recognize the people who have been part of gymnastics' rich history."
Ransom, who graduated from Southwestern with an electrical engineering degree, retired from the sport of trampoline in 1982.
Today, he is president of Control Products Inc., where he runs the business along with his wife of 23 years, Kimberly Ransom.
At 5-feet-9, Ransom is a little stockier than when he was soaring 30 feet in the air when he competed.
"I also had more hair and a mustache," Ransom said as he smiled at a picture of himself competing in the Ennia Gold Cup Championships in Holland in 1981. "
When he competed, the sport of trampoline was not part of the Olympics. It didn't become an Olympic event until it made its debut for both men and women during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
But Ransom has no regrets.
"I love the sport of trampolining," he said. "I never wanted to be a gymnast. I am a trampolinist."
He said the sport also allowed him to see the world.
"I've been around the world 20 times," he said.
These days, the closest Ransom comes to the trampoline is watching his only child, 8-year-old Abby, bounce on it.
"She does it just for fun, and I'm letting her discover it for herself," he said. "But if one day she said she wanted to compete, we'll go for it. But that is her decision."
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