August 5, 2020February 13, 2020
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Barbells and Bios: A Stark Experience with Graham Hudson

In 2019, I had the opportunity to spend a month traversing through the Stark Center’s numerous collections. Then in the final stages of completing my Ph.D. research, I left Austin after three weeks of frantic typing and photocopying with the unhappy realization that I had a lot more work to do than I realised. This, as I later learned, was not unique to me. Many researchers, myself included, underestimate just how much material the Stark Center holds which is unavailable anywhere else. As someone studying physical culture in Ireland, the idea that I needed to travel to Austin, Texas, to...

Photo of the cover of Jody Conradt's 1978-1979 scrapbook
July 29, 2020September 10, 2020
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Jody Conradt’s Early UT Career Scrapbooks

Here at the Stark Center, we are fortunate to have the Jody Conradt Papers, 1958-2017.  Several years ago, Jody Conradt, the University of Texas at Austin (UT) Women’s Basketball Coach (1976-2007) and Women’s Athletic Director (1992-2001) and the first female collegiate coach to win 700 games, generously gifted to the Stark Center documents, memorabilia, and scrapbooks that chronicle her career in collegiate women’s athletics. During Jody Conradt’s coaching career, her players won 900 games, 783 of those wins coming during her UT career.  At Texas, she also led the 1985-86 women’s basketball team to a 34-0 record and a national championships...

Photo of a New York Yankees Jersey folded inside of an archival box
July 23, 2020September 10, 2020
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New York Yankees Jersey, c. 1940

William B. Ward Collection, Box 220, Shelf 15-1 As the June days stack up and other sports leagues resume play, there still seems to be no prospect for the game that is most associated with the lazy days of American summers: baseball.  This New York Yankees road jersey is made of grey flannel with navy “New York” arcing across the chest and matching navy number 14 on back. It likely dates from the mid- to late- 1940s. Inside the collar, the black Wilson logo tag’s “Made in U.S.A.” declaration is still true, even as the official MLB jersey manufacturer changed...

Cover of the book The Magnificent Sandow: Eugen Sandow and the Beginnings of Bodybuilding, depicting strongman Eugen Sandow in a front single biceps pose, by David L. Chapman.
July 22, 2020September 10, 2020
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Barbells & Bios: David Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent (Original Manuscript)

Few scholars of physical culture and bodybuilding more generally will be unfamiliar with the name Eugen Sandow. Known by many as the father of modern bodybuilding, Sandow helped to popularize health, exercise and weight training to large swathes of individuals in Great Britain, the United States and further afield. He counted Kings and Queens as his admirers, opened his own line of gymnasiums, promoted health foods, workout devices and even his own magazine. For later scholars, Sandow’s legacy and importance was brought to the masses through David Chapman’s Sandow the Magnificent. While previous scholars discussed Sandow’s importance, including some wonderful work...

Wilmer Allison and Dave Snyder Tennis Collection Photos
July 13, 2020September 10, 2020
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Wilmer Allison and Dave Snyder Tennis Collection Photos

As a center for the history of sport and physical culture, the Stark Center benefits greatly from the rich athletics tradition of the University of Texas at Austin. Today’s short post looks at one of the sports in which the University of Texas has excelled for most of a century, tennis.  The Stark Center has holdings relating to two of the school’s most famous tennis coaches, Wilmer Allison and Dave Snyder. This post discusses images of the two coaches found in the Wilmer Allison and Dave Snyder Tennis Collection. These photographs give a brief insight into the mens’ respective tenure...

Autographed photograph of bodybuilder Pudgy Stockton posing, in a bikini, while wearing iron boots, from the Pudgy and Les Stockton Collection.
July 8, 2020February 19, 2020
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Barbells & Bios: The Abbye (Pudgy) Eville Stockton and Les Stockton Papers

Abbye ‘Pudgy’ Stockton played a central role in popularizing physical culture and exercise for women in the central decades of the twentieth century. Famed for her hand balancing routine at Muscle Beach with her husband Les, Pudgy Stockton has been rightly credited by many as one of the leading proponents of female weightlifting and physical culture more generally. Aside from her hand balancing routines, which captured attention both inside and outside the weightlifting community, Pudgy’s greatest influence was undoubtedly her monthly ‘Barbelles’ column in Strength and Health magazine from 1944 to 1954.  Pudgy’s ‘Barbelles’ column was one of the first sustained efforts...

Mark Henry’s 1992 U.S. Olympic Team Windbreaker
July 7, 2020September 10, 2020
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Mark Henry’s 1992 U.S. Olympic Team Windbreaker

The Mark Henry Collection at The Stark Center includes a number of artifacts from Mark’s dynamic career as powerlifter, strongman, Olympian, and wrestler in the WWE. Because 2020 was set to be an Olympic year with the Summer Games hosted in Tokyo, I was curious to get Mark’s perspective on the Olympic experience as a young, amateur athlete. Mark competed in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics at the age of twenty-one. He returned to the Olympics and served as team captain of the US Weightlifting Team in the 1996 Games held in Atlanta. I invited Mark to The Stark Center so...

Ryan Murtha's Headshot.
July 6, 2020July 6, 2020
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Congratulations to Ryan Murtha!

Ryan’s essay, “Untangling the Differences between Live and Filmed Sport, or Why are Sports Movies Bad?” was selected for the R. Scott Kretchmar Student Essay Award by the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport (IAPS). A three-member IAPS panel grants the award to an essay of outstanding quality addressing any philosophical issue arising in sport or a related area. Ryan will present his essay at the Annual Meeting of IAPS. Ryan Murtha is a PhD student in the Physical Culture & Sport Studies program. Originally from Philadelphia, he majored in economics and history as an undergrad before coming to...

The cover of Bernarr Macfadden's physical culture magazine, Physical Culture, from February 1910, featuring a photograph of Macfadden.
June 17, 2020February 19, 2020
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Barbells & Bios: Physical Culture Magazine

Established by American physical culturist Bernarr MacFadden in late 1899, Physical Culture Magazine was one of the most iconic American health, weight lifting and physical culture magazines of the early twentieth century. Covering everything from health and diet to fictional short stories, Physical Culture is a deeply rich resource for scholars of health, physical culture, gender, sport and American politics. The early years of MacFadden’s magazine witnessed the evolution of his health thinking, the promotion of his first physical culture competition (held in Madison Square Garden) and a series of disputes with American politicians and physicians. Thanks to the Stark’s digitization efforts, the first...