Longhorn Network Series Game Changers Features Jan and Terry Todd

UT’s exclusive channel, the Longhorn Network, featured the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports co-directors Dr. Jan and Dr. Terry Todd in its series Game Changers on August 18th. In this documentary, the Todds look back on their careers as world-class weightlifters, discuss physical culture, and introduce viewers to the Stark Center. See the episode excerpt at https://news.utexas.edu/2015/05/31/ut-game-changers-jan-and-terry-todd/ Dr. Jan Todd, Fellow in the Roy J. McLean Fellowship in Sport History, is a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at UT, Todd directs the Ph.D. program in Sport Studies; directs the Sport Management program;...

Texas Exes Publication Alcade Features Stark Center’s “Longhorn Legacy: 100 Years of Football Programs” On-Line Exhibit

Alcade, the official publication of UT alumni organization Texas Exes, featured a project by Dr. Jan Todd, co-director of the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports. In collaboration with the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History and UT Athletics, Dr. Todd has cataloged over 100 football programs going back to UT’s first game against the Dallas Football Club in 1893. Today, football programs are glossy magazines with photographs and player stats and bios. At their inception, Texas football programs were a way to help fans understand the rules of the game and identify the players. Rather than...

Joe Weider

Early this morning Jan and I received a call from the family of Joe Weider that he had just died of natural causes in a local hospital near his home. To say that Joe was a giant in the world of physical culture would be an understatement, and a case could be made that his reach and influence in North America during the 20th century in that broad field exceeded that of any person living or dead. This reach and influence will be the subject of an upcoming special issue of Iron Game History, the journal we began in 1990....

Headshot of Paul Dimeo

A Historian at the Crossroads of History

In early September 2012, Dr. Paul Dimeo, arrived at the Stark Center on the University of Texas campus.  Dimeo, a professor and sport historian from the University of Stirling in Stirling, Scotland, has been visiting UT as a Fulbright Scholar, and he has been using the archives available at the Stark Center and surrounding areas. “I wanted to come [to Texas] specifically because I had already been working with Dr. Hunt…It’s also the kind of information and archives that are available here [at the Stark Center],” said Dimeo.  “It’s probably the best anywhere for what I’m interested in doing.” Dimeo...

Basketball and American Culture: A Special Symposium featuring Bill Bradley

NBA Hall of Fame member and former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley said it best.  “[Basketball] is the gift that never stops giving.  The game is full of great joy and a great memory.  It needs to be celebrated.” As part of the campus-wide celebration, “The Naismith Rules of Basket Ball”, Bradley spoke at the November 29th Basketball and American Culture: A Special Symposium, presented by the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center.  Bradley, who was educated at Princeton, was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, in addition to his storied basketball career which included a 1964 Olympic Gold Medal and two NBA championships...

Stark Institute for Olympic Studies Hosts 1968 U.S. Olympic Team Reunion

On Saturday, October 27th, more than 40 Olympians who represented the United States in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, along with spouses, friends, and family members, arrived in Austin for a special reunion weekend. The reunion was organized by the Stark Center’s Dr. Thomas Hunt, the 1968 US Olympic Team’s reunion coordinator, Tom Lough (1968 Modern Pentathlon) with assistance from Desiree Harguess, and Cindy Slater.   It was a two-day affair and included an extensive program at the Stark Center on Saturday followed by a BBQ lunch. The highlight of the presentation to the Olympians on Saturday was the...

Iron Game Historians

Until a week ago, here at the Stark Center things had been humming at a higher rate than ever during the spring semester, at least as far as the “doing” of History is concerned. I say that in part because David Webster, Scotland’s venerable chronicler of the strength sports, had been here with us since early January–engaged in research on several projects and especially on a book about the history of wrestling, which he’s coauthoring with his friend and fellow Scot Willie Baxter. (This will be just one of the more-than-30 books written by the indefatigable Webster.) But besides David...