Cover of the book Giovanni Belzoni: Strong Man, Egyptologist, by Colin Clair.
April 8, 2020February 19, 2020
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Barbells & Bios: Giovanni Belzoni, Strong Man Egyptologist

Published by Colin Clair in 1957, Giovanni Belzoni – Strong Man Egyptologist is a dramatized account of one of the nineteenth century’s most fascinating characters. An early strongman by trade who travelled around Britain and Ireland, Belzoni made his fame as exploring Egypt and reporting back to the British press. Based primarily on Belzoni’s own travels accounts, produced in the 1820s, Clair’s short monograph attempts to recreate, oftentimes with a fine sense of exaggeration, the danger, mystique and adventure which dominated Belzoni’s life. At first glance, this small monograph appears an odd creation. Few individuals have heard of Belzoni and dramatizations of...

Bodybuilder Siegmund Klein in formal attire, including a hat and a cane, in a photograph dedicated to wrestler and strongman George F. Jowett, and dated October 14, 1926, from the scrapbooks in the George F. Jowett Collection.
March 30, 2020April 27, 2020
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Sig Klein in Formal Clothing

Sigmund Klein was one of the most fascinating, and indeed, successful physical culturists of the 1920s and 1930s. Operating a gym in New York, the same gym run by his father in law, Professor Atilla, Klein’s unique position in the fitness industry made him the envy of many. Not only was he incredibly strong and athletic, but he was part of physical culture royalty. Given the fact that he ran a gymnasium and was a weight trainer in his own right, many of the images we have of Sig tend to be him in workout clothes. This is what makes...

March 24, 2020November 22, 2022
It's a Good LifeBy
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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 Vic Tanny, several chapters from Dominic Morais’ dissertation about Bob Hoffman’s marketing tactics to promote the York Barbell Company and, finally, a long essay that Terry wrote about The Arnold Strongman Classic (ASC) in an anthology called Philosophical Considerations of Physical Strength that he also...

Trophy including a photograph and a lock of hair, from strongman Mighty Atom (Joseph L. Greenstein), commemorating him as having the world's strongest hair, compliments of Slim the Hammerman.
March 23, 2020April 3, 2020
Collection in FocusBy
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Lock of Hair from The Mighty Atom

In June 1911, shortly after Joe Greenstein arrived in Houston, Texas, he resumed a wrestling career that had been interrupted in his native Poland when rising anti-Semitism drove him to join relatives in America. In 1914, however, a friend shot him between the eyes and set him on a different path. As the story goes, the bullet flattened against his forehead, sparing his life and sparking a lifelong interest in the connection between mental power and strength.  As The Mighty Atom, he performed standard strongman feats of strength, but his signature stunts usually involved his hair, with which he pulled...

March 20, 2020March 10, 2020
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Barbells & Bios: Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book

  As an avid, but unsuccessful golfer, I have a deep appreciation for those skilled in the sport. In a career spanning several decades, Penick was involved with the game at every level. From 1913 to 1923 he caddied at the Austin Country Club.  In 1923 he became the head professional right out of high school.  He remained the pro until retiring in 1971, when his son, Tinsley, took over the position.  From 1971 to 1995, Harvey continued as golf pro emeritus, coaching Ben Crenshaw, Betty Jameson, Tom Kite, Sandra Palmer, Betsy Rawls, Kathy Whitworth and Mickey Wright among others. Recently, and...

Lorenzo Ghiglieri painting of a weightlifter in a tavern, with the face of publisher Joe Weider, from the Weider Art Collection, in the main lobby.
March 16, 2020April 3, 2020
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Weider Beer Hall Painting

In 1989, Joe Weider commissioned Lorenzo Ghiglieri to produce this oil painting based on a famous print depicting a training session at the Hercules Club in Vienna. The original print was made over one hundred years ago. Close observers will see Joe’s likeness painted into one of the beer hoisting onlookers and, on the wall, a portrait of Hans Steyer, the Bavarian Hercules. The painting was received in 2011 as one of eight significant pieces of art donated from Joe and Betty Weider’s private collection related to the history of physical culture. It is now displayed in the Stark Center...

Headshot of Tanya Jones
March 11, 2020April 29, 2020
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Tanya Jones Awarded Research Grant from the British Society of Sport History

PhD candidate Tanya Jones was recently awarded a prestigious research grant from the British Society of Sport History. This grant is for aiding graduate students undertaking original research in the field, and Tanya will use it to travel to Boston, MA. There, she will spend time in the archives of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University researching the life of Richard Lapchick for her dissertation. The now-deceased Lapchick ran the center for almost two decades, and also founded the influential Institute for Sport and Social Justice. In earlier years, Lapchik was an important figure...

Photo of football coach Darrell K. Royal's 2005 National Championship Rose Bowl ring.
March 9, 2020April 29, 2020
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Darrell K Royal 2005 Championship Ring

When Mack Brown was named head football coach at the University of Texas in 1998, he was immediately tasked with returning Longhorn football to a place of national prominence and a culture of winning. Wisely, he sought out the insights and expertise of Darrell Royal, a man who coached the Longhorns for twenty years, won three national championships, and never recorded a losing season. Coach Royal became a close confidant to Coach Brown and was a source of guidance and inspiration to the team. When the Longhorns won the BCS National Championship Game in the 2006 Rose Bowl, they presented...

March 6, 2020February 19, 2020
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Barbells & Bios: The Tom Pevier Scrapbook

Tom Pevier is not an individual familiar to many weightlifters today. Nevertheless, his physical culture interest holds a great importance for scholars of the early twentieth century. An avid weightlifter, wrestler and all-round physical culturist, Pevier went on to referee several of the early British weightlifting competitions in the early twentieth century. Pevier’s scrapbook, a recent addition to the Stark Center, details his career as a weightlifter in Britain, the burgeoning growth of British weightlifting in general and also his start as a referee. Pevier’s own lifting and wrestling career was interesting enough – Pevier won a wrestling medal as...