Now and Then: Ed Langford

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http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... /1152/NEWS

Now and Then: Ed Langford
NCAA champion still flying high in the Navy

By MIKE CARMIN
mcarmin@journalandcourier.com

As a standout in the pole vault at Purdue nearly 30 years ago, Capt. Ed Langford was accustomed to being airborne.

(By John Terhune/Journal & Courier)
Navy Capt. Ed Langford returned to West Lafayette last October for his induction into the Purdue Athletic Hall of Fame.
But nothing prepared Langford for the events of Sept. 11, 2001, while working at the Pentagon.

"The aircraft hit the building and it bounced me off the ceiling," said Langford, who was inducted into the Purdue Intercollegiate Athletic Hall of Fame last fall. "The airplane went underneath me and the explosion blew the floor up underneath me.

"I remember being airborne and seeing the fireball come down the hallway at me. I call it my Superman imitation. I think the sprinkler system saved my life."

The Indianapolis native remembers waking up in the rubble and crawling out a window. Langford suffered lung damage, minor burns and chemical burns in his eyes.

Langford is currently the Director of Aviation Safety Programs at the Naval Safety Center in Norfolk, Va., a job he's held since March 2007. But the events of 9/11 altered his outlook.

"It changed my life. It changed how I looked at things," Langford said. "I spent an awful lot of time on my career in the Navy. My family was very important to me and after that day what became clear, eventually I'm going to retire from the Navy and all I'm going to have left is my family.

"My priorities became much clearer in taking care of my family and things that really mattered."

When Langford graduated from Indianapolis North Central High School and traveled to West Lafayette, competing in the pole vault was important. Langford initially thought he was going to Indiana but a scholarship offer fell through.

That's when then-Purdue coach Dave Rankin called Langford.

"What a raw athlete but he was also a fun kid," said Mike Poehlein, who succeed Rankin as track coach in 1981 and also served as the Boilermakers' cross country coach.

"He had fun with everything he did. He didn't know there were boundaries or limitations, which is great. You didn't have to teach him about a ceiling because he didn't know there was any."

Langford parlayed that attitude into a successful career at Purdue and almost to the Olympics.

He won consecutive Big Ten Conference indoor championships in 1980 and '81, earned All-American status by winning the NCAA indoor championship and still holds the school's outdoor record. Langford was named an alternate for the 1980 Olympics and was training for the 1984 Olympics when he suffered a hamstring injury in 1983.

Hockey was Langford's first sport of choice until reaching the seventh grade.

"A friend of mine I played hockey with was on the junior high track team as a pole vaulter," Langford recalled. "I came out for track and I started in the hurdles and was high jumping.

"I watched his workout and compared that to my workout and he was having a lot more fun than I was having."

Before joining the Navy, Langford held a wide variety of jobs. He worked as an insurance salesman, a bartender, a jeweler and even held a position for Florida's Governor in Physical Fitness and Sports.

"I was going all over the place when I talked to coach Rankin," Langford said. "I didn't have any direction."

Rankin suggested a military career. At first, Langford wanted to join the Marine Corps but opted for the Navy. Poehlein isn't surprised Langford has enjoyed a successful career.

"The same ingredients it took to be a jet pilot is the same for a pole vaulter," Poehlein said. "A big chunk of what they're doing is based on faith and trust and it's upside down. With most athletes, when you get them upside down they can't perform."

Langford has been flying in the Navy for 22 years. He's flown seven different types of aircraft and been deployed overseas on six tours, including to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

But without the advice of Rankin, who died in 2006, Langford doesn't think he would be in his current position.

"I wouldn't be where I'm at if it wasn't for his influence, not only as a pole vaulter but as a coach, a mentor and a friend," Langford said. "He taught me more than just the athletic side of the house. I wouldn't be in the military if it wasn't for him. He suggested that I go into the service. I owe a lot to him."

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Langford actually holds the facility record at Rankin Track at 5.45m. Randy Miller has the Outdoor record at 5.61m.

Langford's a nice guy and a credit to the Purdue vaulting tradition.