Sam Hall (diver)

In the fall of 1955, Hall enrolled at the Ohio State University, where he lettered in gymnastics, soccer, track and diving. As a trackman, Hall competed in the pole vault and javelin.[1] During 1959–1960, Hall won two Big-Ten Conference championships, three NCAA championships, and three U.S. Amateur Athletic Union titles.[2]

Hall won a silver medal at the 1959 Pan American Games and 1960 Summer Olympics.[3] After the 1960 Olympics, Hall served with the United States Air Force and competed in athletics for them, eventually retiring due to a knee injury.[1]

From 1964 to 1966, Hall served as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives.[4][5]

Hall later worked as an unpaid "volunteer counterterrorist," as Hall described himself,[6] going to Central America to fight on the side of anti-communist forces as an advisor to the Nicaraguan Contras. He reentered the national spotlight again in late 1986 when he was captured by Sandinista National Liberation Front forces, which announced the capture of a "spy". Hall was freed after less than two months.[7]

When interviewed by journalists regarding his "volunteer counterrorist" activity, Hall sometimes referred to himself by saying, "They call me the Evel Knievel of Dayton" or "Just call me Sammy of the Sinai."[8]