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.

We will be CLOSED on Thursday, June 19th, in observance of the Juneteenth holiday, and again on Friday, July 4th, in observance of Independence Day. We apologize for any inconveniences these closures may cause. If you need to reach us on either of those days, please email info@starkcenter.org.

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...

A sepia-toned photograph of a white male in early adulthood seated outdoors. He is wearing a white letter sweater with a T on the breast.

The 1914 Football Team Goes Deep

Early in my career at the Stark Center, we developed an exhibit about the 1914 football team, an undefeated, national-championship-winning squad, which was an easy choice of subject given the 100-year anniversary in 2014, the team’s remarkable dominance (they outscored their opponents 358 to 21), and the way the roster had become a veritable “who’s who” in Texas history. Some notable figures include: legendary track coach and founder of the Texas Relays Clyde Littlefield; Louis Jordan, the first Texas officer killed in WWI combat, whose sacrifice was honored in the first dedicated name of this stadium––Texas War Memorial Football Stadium––and,...

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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