Herbert William "Bert" Kerrigan (January 24, 1879 – September 10, 1959) was considered to be the first Olympian from the state of Oregon. He attended both the University of Oregon and Stanford University. Bert Kerrigan competed for the Multnomah Athletic Club in Portland and won the Pacific Northwest high jump championships in 1894 and 1896. His personal best jump of 6-feet, 2 inches equaled the Olympic record for a time.
In 1905, Kerrigan won the AAU national championship with a jump of 6-1 1/2. That's when he earned a spot on the international stage.
In the 1906 Intercalated Games held in Athens, Greece. The IC were intended to take place in between Olympic years in Athens as a celebration of the city's home of the first modern Olympics, which were held in 1896. 1906 ended up being the only year of this competition which was intended to have equal status with the Olympics.
Kerrigan won the bronze medal jointly with Greek athlete Themistoklis Diakidis. Kerrigan had been favored to win but was injured by a wave that hit the ship carrying the U.S. team to Athens. Bert cleared 5-8, good enough for 3rd place. His previous bests would have won that competition, the winning height was only 5-10. He also competed in the pole vault and standing broad jump in Athens. That high jump competition took two days to complete after the event ran long and had to be suspended due to darkness.
Kerrigan later moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where became known for promoting the town of Petaluma as the "Egg Basket of the World".