Coulter was a vaudeville strongman, author, and collector. As his vaudeville days came to a close, he moved into supporting and documenting competitive weightlifting. Along with George Jowett, he helped form the first weightlifting association in the United States (see the Coulter-Jowett Correspondence Finding Aid below), the American Continental Weight Lifting Association (ACWLA) and accumulated...
Terry Todd began collecting books and magazines in the field of physical culture as a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin in the early 1960s. He was encouraged in this effort by his weightlifting coach, Professor Roy J. McLean, who shared Todd’s love for the history of strength training. Professor McLean had accumulated...
Mack Brown served as head coach of the University of Texas Longhorns Football Team from 1998 until 2013. During his career at UT, Brown was named the 2005 NCAA Coach of the Year, the 2008 Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year, and coached the Longhorns to a 2005 national championship win. The materials in the...
The William S. and Susan S. Bushman Golf Collection is the result of Bill Bushman’s lifelong love for the game of golf. This extensive collection of publication started simply enough: during a visit to a tiny used bookstore in Tucson, Arizona, Bill came across a book by Arnold Palmer, which, to his amazement, had been...
Edmund Hoffman was a Dallas businessman and philanthropist who loved the game of golf. So much so that he accumulated a library of materials over 3,000 items strong. Upon his death, his family, wife Adelyn and son Richard donated his large collection to the Stark Center, with the intention of making the collection available to...
Joe Weider is the most successful publisher of weight training/fitness magazines in the 20th century. He began his publishing career in 1940 with Your Physique and went on to launch many other magazines, including Muscle Power, Muscle & Fitness, Flex, Shape, and Men’s Fitness. He also had a successful food supplement business and, with his...
Eliason was a gym owner in the 1930s and 1940s, a writer, a collector, and a lifelong physical culturist and organic gardener who also promoted bodybuilding and weightlifting competitions in the New England area.
Boff, a longtime physical culturist and founder of the Association of Oldetime Barbell and Strongmen, was friends with many people involved in the field, including George F. Jowett and Joe Bonomo. He was also the most well-known winter bather during the middle part of the 20th century.
A Wichita Falls, Texas native, William B. Ward was an avid sports fan and collector of sports memorabilia. Reflected in the contents of this collection is Mr. Ward’s lifelong passion for all sports, but particularly those of Texas and California, the two states in which he lived. The Ward Book Library (searchable via the UT...
