Rutherford won the Bahamas its first World Championship medal with a bronze in the 1987 IAAF World Indoor Championships. He was the US Indoor Track and Field champion in the triple jump in 1991 and still currently holds the triple jump record for the University of Houston. He followed that with winning a silver medal at the 1992 World Cup in Havana, Cuba. His personal best was 17.41 metres, a Bahamian record that has later been beaten by Leevan Sands. Rutherford is considered the Olympic pioneer in the Bahamas because he was the first to win medals at the Olympic and World Championship levels. He is considered the Father of Track and Field in the Bahamas.
He started the Frank Rutherford Foundation, a Houston, Texas-based programme to assist young Bahamian sportspeople in gaining academic qualifications through college much like Rutherford. The Foundation's goal is to help the students attain a college scholarship. Two former students of the program are Devard and Devaughn Darling, cousins of Rutherford who both received football scholarships from Florida State University. Others include Jeremy Barr, a power forward who attends the University of Nebraska on a basketball scholarship, and Ian Symmonette, a left tackle who attends the University of Miami on football scholarship. More than 60 Bahamian young people have been helped by Rutherford and his foundation and all of them have graduated from college.
