I am proud to announce the launch of The Strongman Project a new web outreach of the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center which can now be seen at: www.strongmanproject.com. Our plan is for The Strongman Project to grow and evolve over time as we will be adding new materials regularly to the site. The Strongman Project...
One of the challenges facing historians of physical culture across ages is the issue of biography. Those strongmen and women from the nineteenth and early twentieth-century who did so much to capture our respective attention were, for better or for worse, masters of publicity. It is so often difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction...
Like many of my colleagues, online learning has been something of a mixed experience. Entire courses have been completely redesigned, I’m often left lecturing in my spare bedroom and I live, almost constantly, in fear of my two dogs taking over a lecture owing to their indignation with our mail carrier. Students, I’m well...
Thomas Sean Connery’s breakthrough as an actor came in 1962 when he was cast in the role of James Bond, Agent 007 of the British Secret Intelligence Service, a fictional character adapted for the screen from Ian Fleming’s spy novels. Connery portrayed Bond in seven films, all of which were immensely successful. The worldwide...
One of my favourite treats at the end of the year was the publication of sporting annuals. Based in Ireland, I would eagerly await the sale of soccer, rugby, boxing and wrestling annuals more so than my Christmas presents. Annuals offered an opportunity to reflect on the successes, and failures of the previous year. Much...
Last October we celebrated our tenth anniversary with a special day-long event at the Stark Center for the subscribers of our journal, Iron Game History: The Journal of Physical Culture (now in its 30th year). Many of our subscribers had never been to see the Center and so as we planned the day, we allowed...
Born in Leeds in 1928, Reg Park was one of the most impressive bodybuilders of the mid-twentieth century. For many in the 1940s and ‘50s, the top physique athletes were Park, Steve Reeves and John Grimek. Over the course of his bodybuilding career, Park won the Mr. Britain, Best Developed Athlete in America and Mr....
An article about Dudley Allen Sargent, “Belfast man pioneered physical education, influenced basketball’s creation and field hockey’s U.S. introduction”, published in the Penobscot Bay Pilot quotes some resources at the Stark Center. The article quotes Jason P. Shurley, Jan Todd and Terry Todd’s book Strength Coaching in America: A History of the Innovation That Transformed...
There was a time when Indian club swinging was one of the most fascinating, and even popular, elements of gym culture. Originally brought to Western Europe and the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century, when it was transported from the East India Company, club swinging involved swinging lightweight clubs around the...
