The small school offered a $ 250 football scholarship to an athletic quarterback and water skiing champion from Connecticut named Bruce Jenner ( now Caitlyn Jenner ) . A knee injury in his first season required surgery on January 1 , 1969 . Like he did with Lou Nova , Weldon suggested Jenner might try a different athletic pursuit , this time the decathlon . He began to train Jenner , whose first competition in 1970 was the nearby Drake Relays where he placed fifth . A year later , Jenner was the NAIA Champion . The following year Jenner made the Olympic team by finishing third at the Olympic Trials representing Graceland . At the 1972 Olympics , the first event to start after the Munich massacre was the decathlon . Jenner watched as Mykola Avilov beat Bill Toomey 's world record while he finished in tenth place . But Jenner was encouraged in defeat . After Jenner graduated from Graceland , Weldon took on an emeritus position with the college while Jenner moved to San Jose , California and began an intense training regimen while continuing to correspond with Weldon . By 1974 , Jenner was the USA National Champion . By 1975 he had surpassed Avilov 's world record . Jenner set another record while winning the Olympic trials , though that was muddled in a timing malfunction in other heats . Jenner settled the problem by setting a new world record while winning the gold medal at the 1976 Olympics . Jenner subsequently retired from athletics and went on to become an actor and celebrity
Munich massacre
Munich massacre
L. D. Weldon