Jack Miles

The Florida State University Gymnastics Dynasty

The 1955 NAAU All-Around Champion

Jack Miles was a native Philadelphian who along with his older brother Bob grew up working out with the Turner influence in the late forties trying to emulate on the gymnastics of the stoic Bob Stout, a 1952 Olympian from Philadelphia and one of the first gymnast to perform a full twisting back somersault in the Olympic games. Having natural drawing ability, Jack would often think up and draw new moves to be performed on the flying rings during his Germantown High School classes where Jack had been voted the Best Athlete. Leopold Zwarg, a nationally known Turner instructor had established a strong gymnastics training program in the Germantown area.

Jack’s best friend and Florida State University’s (FSU) 1952 NCAA ring champion, Jack Sharp recommended that Jack attend FSU. Miles was instrumental in contributing to FSU’s national championship endeavors. He also began to excel in the all-around event. In 1954 he technically made the US team to the World Gymnastics Championships scheduled for Rome, Italy only to be told by Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) administrators that the US gymnasts were not good enough to go and compete. However, there was no stopping Miles in 1955 when Jack won the NAAU All-Around Championship and was number one on the U.S. gold medal team to the 1955 Pan American Games team in Mexico City. In 1956 he made the Olympic training squad but failed to make the competing squad. He did not go to Melbourne, Australia for the Olympic games.Jack went from being National Champion in 1955 to not making the team in 1956. FSU’s coach Dr. Hartley Price was not available to help Jack prepare for the Olympic trials in California due to his departure to India on a Fulbright Scholarship. Additionally, the Kate Montgomery Gymnasium in Tallahassee was not available for training during summer college vacation period.

Jack, However, received invaluable coaching from a fellow FSU gymnast team member Miroslav “Marek” Ceska. Marek was attending FSU arriving from the Czechoslovakian National team. Marek was in the U.S. by chance circumstances. He had a strong academic background in chemical engineering. An eye doctor from Jacksonville, Florida recognized Marek’s academic abilities. He provided financial support and sponsorship so that Marek could further his education in the US and attend FSU in Tallahassee. Upon his return to Europe, Marek coached the Swedish National team for a number of years.. Marek’s father was a Czechoslovakian patriot who fought against Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia. The amazing story of Marek’s escape from German forces and his father’s recovery from a gunshot wound at a Czech hospital is a story to be told.

Academically, Jack received a degree in business and then took credits in education while he coached and taught for Price during Dr. Hartley Price’s Fulbright Scholarship leave to India. After amassing a Masters degree plus and a Doctorate almost, Jack tired of the FSU situation and gave into an itch to go to Manhattan New York and try acting. Gaining bit parts as a stunt man, stand in and double for the likes of Frank Sinatra, Tony Randall, Jaime Farr, Andy Williams, Ray Bolger and William Shatner; Jack followed the production crew South to North Miami to the Ivan Tours Studios on NE125th. Street. When it was all said and done Jack had acted in small parts in Gentle Ben, Flipper, Car 54 Where Are You, and The Defenders as well as several movies like Lady in Cement and Tony Roma. Demonstrating his drawing ability, Jack worked as a Draftsman, Illustrator for the Florida Road Department, Statistician and Promoter for the Florida State Milk Commission, and Spokesperson for the Florida State Tourist Department.

Jack was commuting to the Tours Studio in Miami from Ft. Lauderdale. He moved from acting and drawing taking a job as Supervisor of Special Events and as a Department Director for the city of Ft. Lauderdale Parks And Recreation. He eventually became the Superintendent of Recreation where he was a favorite among his employees. In addition, Jack ran a very successful gymnastics program at the Holiday Park Recreation Center in the beautiful and large Holiday Park. My Miami Dade gymnasts and Jack’s Ft Lauderdale gymnasts would often visit each other for workouts and perform in exhibitions together.

Holiday Park became the home to the United States Gymnastics Federation (USGF) Eastern Gymnastics Clinic established in the early seventies with Miles as the clinic director. The clinic was normally conducted the last week of the year. The USGF had already established the Western Gymnastics Clinic in Tucson a few years earlier to compete with the AAU National Gymnastic Clinic in Sarasota. At Holiday Park at this time you could’ find Chris Everett, the great U.S. tennis player, getting coached by her father Jim Everett hitting balls just across the street from the gym on the park’s tennis courts.

Miles was one of the founders of the the Florida Gymnastics Association and he provided the state gymnastic community with a humorous and heart felt newsletter for ten years. He was a mentor to Ron Galimore, the 1980 Olympian and a Men’s Program Director for USA Gymnastics, and he was a positive influence with a multitude of young gymnasts from the surrounding Ft. Lauderdale area and the state of Florida.

Miles favorite event in gymnastics was the horizontal bar even though he won several ring titles and vaulting in the NCAA Championships when vaulting was not an event in the gymnastic all-around. Jack was NAAU flying ring champion and was able to transcend from flying rings to still rings on a high level. In those days the ring championship changed from swinging rings to still rings on a yearly basis. Jack invented and performed the “whippet” on the flying rings. Yes, Jack drew had drawn up the whippet on a piece of paper during Germantown High School classes in Philadelphia when he was a student.

Jack Miles was one of the great talents and personalities in sport of gymnastics!

By Bruce A. Davis, Professor Emeritus Miami Dade College revised 2024