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 a substantial collection of books, training guides, and other printed matter, all of which he donated to the Todd’s growing collection.
Although Terry Todd began by collecting weight training materials, the scope of the Todd-McLean Library has significantly broadened over the past twenty-five years. The Library also contains materials on a variety of sports—especially golf, boxing, football, baseball—and the outdoor sports of hunting and fishing.
The Todd Library Collection contains approximately 10,000 monographs and over 2000 periodical titles. The collection ranges from easy-to-read children’s books, like Don Tate’s Sandow the Magnificient, to medical tomes like Katch & McArdles’ classic Exercise Physiology. In between are books on early gymnastic exercises, nutrition and diet advice, and, of course, weight training for anybody or personality type. The book collection has been cataloged into the UT Libraries catalog.
