From Director’s Blog
Another Weider Gift
13 February 2012 | 1:55 pm
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 [...]
The Weider Museum Documentary
4 November 2011 | 2:49 pm
The reception to celebrate the official opening of the Joe and Betty Weider Museum of Physical Culture was private, and only invited guests were allowed to take photographs or to videotape the occasion. Almost 200 professional photographs—taken by several leading photographers including John Balik, the publisher and editor of Iron Man magazine and Robert Gardner, [...]
We Give You…The Hackenschmidt Scrapbook
18 July 2011 | 8:58 pm
The main point of today’s post is to announce that we have just placed on our Stark Center Research Page a digitized, searchable version of one of our most important documents—the almost 600-page scrapbook owned for decades by George Hackenschmidt, the World Wrestling Champion during the early part of the 20th century. The entire scrapbook [...]
The Stark Center Welcomes NASSH 2011
27 May 2011 | 1:33 pm
The H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports is pleased and even a bit proud to have played a role in attracting the annual conference of the North American Society for Sport History to the University of Texas at Austin. Based on the latest projections, approximately 210 sport and physical culture historians will [...]
From the Iron Game to the Auld Game
19 January 2011 | 5:58 pm
Those who know a bit—or a lot—about the collecting my wife Jan and I have done over the past decades realize that our focus has been on Physical Culture, broadly defined. (Those who remain unclear about what the term “Physical Culture” means might want to take a look at one of the earlier posts in [...]
Elmer Bitgood’s Boulder Bell
14 December 2010 | 5:58 pm
This is the first of what I hope will be more regular and frequent additions to the Director’s Blog, which I allowed to lapse some months ago due to a combination of other time demands related to the Stark Center, travel, several lengthy writing projects and, of course, procrastination—my old standby. Anyway, I have notes [...]
Helping Hands
12 May 2010 | 4:22 pm
For whatever reason, hands and hand strength have always fascinated me. Perhaps it began with seeing my maternal grandfather, Marvin Williams, break the shell of a native pecan by the pressure of the thumb and forefinger of one hand—a truly difficult stunt. In any case, my fascitation blossomed in my late teens and early 20s [...]
OUR BODY: The Universe Within
14 April 2010 | 2:24 pm
Following a month of complicated negotiations, the Stark Center is very pleased to announce the opening of a major traveling exhibit, which will be the inaugural presentation in the Joe and Betty Weider Museum of Physical Culture. Because of unanticipated hold-ups with the construction of several permanent displays for the Weider Museum, we decided to [...]
Our Davie
24 March 2010 | 4:27 pm
Sorry to be away for so long but the combination of our work here at the Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports and the month-long run-up to the annual Arnold Strongman Classic we direct for Jim Lorimer at the unimaginably large Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio left us with little time for blogging. However, [...]
Digitizing History: Professor Attila’s Scrapbook and the Pudgy Stockton Collection
22 February 2010 | 3:35 pm
One of the long-held dreams Jan and I have had for the Stark Center has been to share our materials—many of which have been given to us for that purpose–with the wider world of scholars and fans of physical culture and sports. For almost 30 years we’ve done that primarily by working personally with people [...]
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About the Stark Center
| Phone | (512) 471-4890 |
| info@starkcenter.org | |
| Physical Address | Gate 16; North End Zone Suite 5.700 |
News and Events
Your Physique: Volume 1, No. 1 Now Online
Joe Weider began his publishing career in 1940 with this mimeographed edition of Your Physique magazine. Very few copies of Volume 1, No. 1 have survived through the ages so we recently digitized our copy to make this valuable resource available to all. After opening the link, clicking on the titles in the index on the left will lead you directly to the articles.
Our Mission
As a research center at The University of Texas at Austin—one of the nation’s major research universities—the Stark Center is dedicated to: 1. acquiring and providing access to archival materials in the fields of physical culture and sports; 2. supporting and conducting research in disciplines concerned with health and high performance; 3. preserving the history of physical culture and sports; and 4. educating the public about the cultural and scientific significance of physical culture and sports through publications, digitization, web-based initiatives, and museum gallery displays.
Physical Culture is a term used to describe the various activities people have employed over the centuries to strengthen their bodies, enhance their physiques, increase their endurance, enhance their health, fight against aging, and become better athletes.
