Larry Griswold

Who was Larry Griswold?

Laurens V. Griswold, known as "The Diving Fool", was an American gymnast & entertainer who was involved in the early development of the trampoline.

Griswold was a college level gymnast and tumbler while studying physical education at the University of Iowa. While coaching at an acrobatic school in New York, he enjoyed performing in vaudeville shows. However, he decided to return to Iowa to become a teacher and in 1931, he became a gymnastics coach at the University of Iowa where he met George Nissen who was also a skilled gymnast & tumbler.

In 1933, Griswold organized many of the skilled athletes at the university into a circus team, putting on shows. He also developed an act in the swimming pool which involved Griswold clowning and performing tricks on the diving board. This would later be developed into an entertaining routine which he performed professionally for years. In one of his most famous routines he would pretend to be a drunken, uncoordinated man who was constantly staggering off of the diving board and its ladder as he ostensibly got ready for a big dive. Audiences would gasp as he repeatedly "fell" from the board only to seemingly catch himself at the last moment.