The Stark Center will close at Noon on Wednesday, December 6th, and reopen at 9 a.m. Thursday, December 7th for Kinesiology & Health Education Christmas Party.

Welcome to the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports.

The Stark Center is a research center housed within the Department of Kinesiology & Health Education.  We are a unique combination of library, archive, and gallery/exhibit space.

An Unexpected Pleasure: Kissing the Ground in Equilibrium—A Search for the Origins of the Pushup

One of the things I enjoy most about the Stark Center are the requests we often get for information about some aspect of the history of physical culture. Most of those requests are handled by our incredible Stark Center staff but every now and then a request will make its way to my inbox and I find myself so intrigued that I end up doing research that wasn’t planned because the question made me curious too. This past Sunday was one of those days. I got an unexpected email from Denis Blinov, whom I’ve never met. “May I ask if you...

You Are Here: The Stark Center’s Redesigned Lobby is an Orientation Point for New Visitors

You Are Here: The Stark Center’s Redesigned Lobby is an Orientation Point for New Visitors

It’s a redundant anecdote, but I’ll tell it again. One of the most common phrases spoken by visitors as they step off the elevators and into The Stark Center is, “Wow! I never knew this place existed.” The utterance distinguishes between two types of Stark Center visitors: 1. The already indoctrinated, or folks who are avid strength/sport fans that already know of our work at the Stark and have ventured here like pilgrims to Mecca, and 2. The unfamiliar, or folks who are visiting based on the recommendation of a friend or colleague, including visitors who truly had no idea...

Browse the Complete Journal Archive

The Stark Center features collections from around the world related to all aspects of physical culture and sports.

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