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...
Month: October 2020
The Ph.D. Program in Physical Culture and Sport Studies
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...
Barbells and Bios: Health and Strength Magazine, Part IV
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....
Stark Center materials quoted in an article on Dudley Allen Sargent
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...
