Finding Lost Voices: Visiting the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports in Austin, TX
A weekly email that brings back the voices of those who have been forgotten or misremembered.
This past week, I started researching my next book. While I was in Austin, Texas (for a reading I had at BookWoman – a feminist bookstore that’s been in operation for forty-nine years), I visited The H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports at the University of Texas at Austin.
The center is located in the Texas stadium and is directed by Jan Todd. Todd is a pioneer of women’s strength sports and an incredible academic. She was the strongest woman in the world from the late 1970s through the 1980s, had a successful career as a powerlifter and was also the first (and only until quite recently) woman to lift the Dinne Stones (733 lbs).
Terry Todd, Jan’s husband, began collecting materials in the 1960s when he realized there was a shortage of archival materials in most libraries on physical culture and sports training and once they were married, both continued to avidly collect materials. In 1983, The Todds brought “more than 380 boxes of books, magazines, photos, and ephemera” they had collected, and thanks to a generous gift from Terry Todd’s former weightlifting coach, Roy J. McLean, the Stark Center was opened that same year.
I visited the collection to learn more about women in strength training. On this visit, I was focused on Pudgy Stockton. For those who follow this Substack, you might remember that I wrote a post on Stockton in back in August. The center hosts the Pudgy and Les Stockton Collection, 1922-2006 - donated by Stockton herself which offers everything from the early history of Muscle Beach, to Stockton'’s fascinating column “Barbelles” in Strength and Health magazine 1944-1954. Those articles offered women both inspiration and a sense of normalcy for those who wished to pursue strength training.
It’s no surprise that in the world of physical culture there are loads of forgotten women. I’ve done a past column on Katie Sandwina (1884- 1952), the incredibly strong woman whose posters are proudly displayed at the Stark Center. In fact, I was thrilled to have my photo taken with Jan Todd in front of one of her posters.
Knowing my research interest, Todd gave me a tour of the collections. Shelves are lined with books, papers and artifacts that tell the story of physical culture. I only had a day and a half to spend with the collection. Just enough to make me want to come back for an extended time to dive in.
This week’s post is both late and short. It is the last of a year’s worth of columns at Finding Lost Voices. Thank you to all of you who have followed this column thus far. There is so much work to be done. Thanks for reading!
Upcoming Events
January 11 - Daughters of the Revolution
January 12 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM - California Writers' Club Marin chapter talk on "Building a Readership with Biographer and Poet Iris Jamahl Dunkle" at Dominican University
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February
February 21, Iris Jamahl Dunkle’s talk at New York University, New York, NY
February 22, Iris Jamahl Dunkle reads at North Bay Letter Press, Sebastopol, CA
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March
March 5 - The Bill Lane Center for the American West: Stanford, CA
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March 13- 5:00 PM Garden City Community College, Kansas
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March 30, 4:00-5:30 PM, Occidental Center for the Arts, Occidental, CA
May
May 17 - 5:30 - 7:30 PM - National Steinbeck Center, Salinas, CA
Golly, Iris You are One Busy Gal.......Traveling the Country sharing your wonderful Voice for those who have been lost......Thank You.