It’s a Good Life

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Photograph of Katie Sandwina posing from a German publication.

An Unexpected Image…Sandwina at 17

In December of 1973, I took a workout at the Texas Athletic Club in Austin, Texas, and tested myself for the first time in the deadlift. I was inspired to see what I could lift that day by watching a young woman deadlifting at the gym who had entered a local powerlifting meet as a...

August 5, 2020September 10, 2020

Lessons from The Arnold Strongman Classic

On Monday, March 2, 2020, I met my graduate course, The History of the Sport Industry in America, at the Stark Center to talk about a series of readings they’d been assigned that dealt with the business of strength.  They were asked to read an article Ben Pollack and I wrote about 1950s gym-chain magnate...

March 24, 2020November 22, 2022
The Reading Room featuring a large wooden table; four of the Battle Cast statues, on loan from the Blanton Museum of Art, are also visible.

It’s a Good Life

“It’s a Good Life…” Celebrating the Stark Center’s 10th Anniversary A blog by Stark Center Director, Jan Todd I first heard the expression, “It’s a good life if you don’t weaken,” from my husband Terry Todd, who’d learned it from his grandmother, Agnes Todd, who no doubt had also heard it from her parents. As...

January 15, 2020August 30, 2024
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