Hunt-Pierce Academic Complex sign on the wall of the Reading Room.
June 8, 2018February 12, 2020
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Dr. Thomas and Laurie Hunt

Texas Exes Thomas and Laurie Hunt made their initial gifts to the Stark Center to honor the memory of Mrs. Hunt’s father, Dr. Paul “Red” Pierce of Alpine, Texas. Dr. Pierce served as head football coach at Sul Ross University, and then as head football coach, head track coach, and athletic director at Sam Houston State Teachers College in Huntsville, Texas. In 1965, he was named the Knute Rockne Little All-American Coach of the Year and, in 1968, returned to Sul Ross as Professor and Chairman of the Physical Education Department. At Sul Ross, he also coached the women’s volleyball...

Stark Center co-founder Terry Todd, wrestler Andre the Giant, and a man, circa 1970s.
May 8, 2018August 21, 2024
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Texas Standard interviews Terry Todd, director of The Stark Center

HBO has a new documentary, Andre The Giant, which examines the life and career of Andre the Giant. Texas Standard interviewed Terry, who is featured in the new HBO documentary, to discuss Andre. Listen to Terry’s interesting interview about Andre the Giant with Texas Standard at http://www.texasstandard.org/stories/in-a-new-hbo-documentary-friends-remember-andre-the-giants-larger-than-life-career/

Bodybuilder Stanley Rothwell, in a classical pose, from the Stanley Rothwell Collection.
April 18, 2018June 9, 2020
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Lunchtime Lecture with Dr. Broderick Chow on April 25th from 12-1pm

Please join us for a special lunchtime lecture with Dr. Broderick Chow, Senior Lecturer in Theatre at Brunel University London, based on his paper Becoming an Image: The Practiced Life of Stanley Rothwell. Dr. Chow’s research examines performance, art, and physical culture, and in this talk, he will explore physicality, performance, and self-presentation in Rothwell’s archive of photographs from the Stark Center’s collection. Wednesday, April 25th at 12-1 pm in the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center (NEZ 5.700). Free and open to the public.

Terry Todd, Milo Steinborn and Henry Steinborn, when Milo was honored by the NSCA
December 27, 2017September 17, 2020
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The Milo Steinborn Collection

Now that our Christmas present is safely stored in the Stark Center and I’ve caught what’s left of my breath, I thought I should send along a note to explain the present and also shed some light on a recent widely-seen video that’s been causing some comment. I’m referring to the video showing California’s Latvian-born Martins Licis doing a Steinborn Rockover Squat with approximately 500 pounds and then doing another full squat before lowering his body sideways so that the lowered end of the bar “caught” some traction on the platform enabling him to brace himself and straighten up, at...

Betty Weider at the 2011 Opening of the Joe and Betty Weider Museum of Physical Culture; the Wall of Icons panel for fitness star Jack LaLanne is in the background.
June 6, 2016June 9, 2020
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On the First Lady of Fitness, Betty Weider

Although Joe and Ben Weider are both widely recognized for their many contributions to fitness, most Americans know less about Betty Weider’s long involvement with fitness and the important role she played in launching the women’s fitness movement of the 1980s. This recent article does a nice job of highlighting some of her contributions. We are very proud that the Joe and Betty Weider Museum is part of the Stark Center and are very grateful to all the Weider family and the Joe Weider Foundation for their support. We are also delighted to see Betty get some of the credit...

November 6, 2014January 31, 2020
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The Wheels of God

Several weeks ago, when the 2015 version of the Guinness World Records book (GWR) was published it contained a short but significant new blurb stating that, “The greatest weight ever raised by a human being,” according to our 1955 book, “is 4333 lb (1.84 tons) [1965 kg] by the 25-stone [158.7-kg] French-Canadian Louis Cyr (1863-1912) in Chicago in 1896 in a back-lift (weight raised off trestles). Cyr had a 60 ½-in [153.6-cm] chest and 22-in [55.8-cm] biceps.” Today, the fully notarized record stands at 2,422 kg for two cars (plus drivers) on a platform backlifted by Gregg Ernst in Jul...

October 7, 2014February 12, 2020
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Remembering Clyde Littlefield and the 1914 Perfect Season

In the fall of 1914, America had 48 states, Austin had 32,000 residents, and the University of Texas had 2,254 registered students. Theo Bellmont had joined the Athletic Department in 1913 as Director, bringing with him a small bulldog pup later to become known as Pig Bellmont—our unofficial mascot. There were virtually no cars on campus, we’d yet to graduate a Ph.D., and the early rumblings of war in Europe seemed far away from the Forty Acres. Although Austin’s first movie theater—the Crescent—had opened in 1913, student life and entertainment largely revolved around campus activities. At that time—even more than...