September 1, 2013August 21, 2024
In the PressBy
0 0

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...

March 23, 2013January 31, 2020
Don't WeakenBy
0 2

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
December 3, 2012February 12, 2020
News, Blogs & UpdatesBy
0 0

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...

November 30, 2012September 17, 2024
News, Blogs & UpdatesBy
0 0

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...

November 2, 2012June 9, 2020
News, Blogs & UpdatesBy
0 0

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...

May 16, 2012March 23, 2020
Don't WeakenBy
0 0

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...

February 13, 2012February 12, 2020
Don't WeakenBy
0 0

Another Weider Gift

In 2008, Joe and Betty Weider donated a second million dollars to the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports at the University of Texas, and as a way to thank the Weiders for their many contributions to the fields of exercise and health as well as for their financial support to the university, The Joe and Betty Weider Museum of Physical Culture was established within the Stark Center. In addition to the million dollars, the Weiders also gave almost all of their personal art collection relating to the field of physical culture. A small part of that...