The Loss of a Great Man, George Nissen
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WASwinter10 5/22/10 1:33 PM Page 2 NEWSLETTER Winter/Spring 2010 The Loss of a Great Man, A Word From Our President George Nissen; Last week I was at a Acrobat, Inventor, complex about 10 minutes from my home near Seattle Entrepreneur, and Friend which housed recreational trampolines. 20 trampoline The acrobatic beds at floor level lined the world received a terrible right side of the facility loss on April 7, 2010 as with attached angle beds George Nissen, the against the wall. A line of inventor of the “Modern beds down the middle and Trampoline,” passed another twenty beds along away. George was an the opposite wall with angled mats. In another avid member of the part of the facility were rows of trampolines World Acrobatics attached to each other wall to wall with scream- Society and was inducted ing opposite lines of dodge ball players flying as a “Legend” in 2001. around. Another section contained beds solely George was 96 years for the purpose of launching children into a giant young and was very hole filled with cubes of foam rubber. Another active even making a section was for the very youngest babies and so presentation at the last on….! At least two hundred young bodies flying WAS annual conference around with Giggles, screams, laughter and in Las Vegas in 2009. yelling with the ever present watchful adult life- Through his life he was a passionate man always involved in guards…..As I watched and reminisced about my the acrobatic world, whether it was as an acrobat, an inventor, own youthful bouncing and the joy and hours or a developer of acrobatic sports. and hours I spent challenging gravity, my Born in Blairstown, Iowa, George was eventually intro- thoughts turned to the... what would have hap- duced to tumbling, hand balancing, and diving through a jun- pened to this kid from downtown Cincinnati if I ior high school teacher and the local YMCA. He enjoyed it so had not fallen in love with the trampoline..? I much that he continued it at the University of Iowa. He liked decided it would have been something lacking tumbling the best and used to go see vaudeville acts featuring the fun of flying! acrobats and tumblers. He also enjoyed hand balancing. It would be this passion for the acrobatic sports that would lead Of course there is the historical equation…. George to invent many rebound devices, the most popular Trampoline = George Nissen being the modern trampoline. This newsletter edited by Jim Bertz talks of While watching a Ringling Brothers circus in his home- George Nissen and how his dedication and hard town of Cedar Rapids Iowa, George was fascinated by the tra- work has given the world so much enjoyment. peze performers could fall or dismount to the net and then use the spring to continue doing acrobatic tricks one after another. This gave him the interest to try to invent an apparatus that allowed continuous rebounding. While still in college at the World Acrobatics Society1 http://www.worldacro.com/ WASwinter10 5/22/10 1:33 PM Page 3 NEWSLETTER Winter/Spring 2010 University of Iowa George worked together with Larry Navy. Following his military service, George was on the road Griswold and Mike Howard to build a rebound device that he first at Randolph field in Texas and then at a navy base in would later name trampoline from the Spanish word Pensacola, Florida demonstrating and having the cadets learn “Trampolin” for springboard. He just added simple skills on the trampoline. Because of an “e” at the end. this, the trampoline became part of training for Navy Pilots. George decided to go after Developing and Marketing the his dreams of growing the fledgling business Trampoline and planting seeds for starting trampoline After George developed a prototype of his competitions just like those of gymnastics trampoline the question was, “who would and diving…and hopefully to make the tram- need it?” One of the first places he took it poline an Olympic event. was a YMCA camp in Central City, Iowa. A Trampoline Grows Around the college buddy of his was a leader there and World the trampoline was an immediate hit with the It was a dream of George's to eventually kids who would skip their swimming time in have trampoline competitions as they did in order to get on the trampoline. Even though gymnastics and diving, and hopefully make it he realized that kids loved it, the trampoline an Olympic event. In order to do so, he first would take much work and travel before it took his trampoline to Universities to try and would become a household name. make it an event in gymnastics. Many of the college coaches George hit the road throughout the Midwest taking his knew George and of his trampoline and were very receptive trampoline with him and displaying it at shows that he did. to idea. George also approached the Amateur Athletic Union He had a company in Indiana make about four of them, and (AAU) in hopes of starting competitions through their sanc- one by one he would sell them at tion. In 1947 the AAU held its these shows. At the same time he first national trampoline compe- continued to improve on his tition for men, and added invention making it more user- women's competition in 1961. In friendly. He worked on its size 1948 the NCAA also began and made it able to fold for ease trampoline competitions includ- in moving and storing. Finally he ing it as part of the NCAA gym- had a model that was easy to nastics program. travel with and was at a size that George loved performing was safe to complete acrobatic and during the early 1950's con- skills. tinued to travel the U.S., Canada At that time George's dad said and Europe as part of an enter- “well you sold these, now you taining trampoline act. Joined by have pretty much saturated the George's wife Annie, a former market, so when are you going to high-wire artist from Holland, get a real job!?” But George did their young daughter Dagmar not give up easily on his rebound and family friend Frank LaDue, invention. He continued to mar- the team performed in front of ket his trampoline to the YMCA, audiences at sporting good schools, and anyone else who would allow him to demon- shows and state fairs. strate it. It slowly grew by word of mouth from one place to George's next dream was to develop international competi- another until it was becoming a viable name. tions. In order to do this he had to take his trampoline show on In 1941 George and Larry Griswold started the Griswold- the road to do many more demonstrations in other countries. Nissen Trampoline and Tumbling Kurt Baechler of Switzerland joined Frank Company in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. LaDue, George, Annie and Dagmar to help promote the sport of trampoline throughout WWII and Trampoline in the Europe. In order to get trampoline accepted Navy in Europe, George had to first set up manu- At the beginning of WWII, George was facturing as it was too expensive for still promoting his trampoline at school European countries to buy a trampoline shows. Many of the teachers who saw the from the USA. He found Ted Blake, a demonstrations were going into the service physical education teacher in Brentwood, and spread news of the trampoline possibil- England that had shown a lot of interest, ities for training. George himself joined the and had once tried to buy a trampoline from World Acrobatics Society 2 http://www.worldacro.com/ WASwinter10 5/22/10 1:33 PM Page 4 NEWSLETTER Winter/Spring 2010 him months before. Ted turned out to be a very capable per- sium products. He created innovations for gymnastics equip- son and with his business and physical educa- ment including free-standing equipment, new tion background was an ideal candidate for the matting systems, including the “roll-fold” free development of the manufacturing facility in exercise mat and the first synthetic surfaces Brentwood, England. As director of this facili- used for Pommel Horse, Vault and Balance ty he oversaw both the manufacturing and Beam. Two of his favorite inventions were: marketing of trampolines throughout Europe, Spaceball - a game played on a trampoline and made numerous contacts with other indi- with a ball, and Health-Bounce®Light - a per- viduals thereby helping to develop the sport in sonal fitness jogger targeted at the aging baby other parts of the world. In 1964 the boomer. International Trampoline Federation (FIT) was formed and the first Trampoline World Husband and Father Championships were held in the Royal Albert In all his busy time promoting his inven- Hall in London England. tions and sport George also found time to be a Back in the USA, George was interested in family man. At a Shrine Circus in Kansas City a better youth program to get the young chil- George met the love of his life and future wife dren involved in the sport. In 1971 under Annie from the Netherlands. They were married George's direction, the United States in 1951, and had two daughters; the eldest Trampoline and Tumbling Association (USTA) Dagmar and the youngest Dian. Annie and was started. The organization incorporated the Dagmar supported George's dream by per- older and still popular sport of tumbling with the now popular forming in the family trampoline act for 10-years. Dian was sport of trampoline allowing for sanctioned age-group compe- able to take advantage of the opportunity for women to compete titions and clinics for athletes and on trampoline, and went on to become coaches.