Terry Todd obit

Terry Todd Has Died

 He was not on the list.

The Iron Game lost a foundational pillar when Stark Center Founder and Director Terry Todd passed away.

Terry Todd first imagined a library dedicated to the study of exercise and strength during his doctoral work at UT Austin as he tried to write a dissertation about the history of strength and weight training in America.

Inspired to make it easier for others to follow in his academic path, Todd began collecting physical culture materials in the 1960s. That instinct to save and preserve the books and materials of the past eventually led to the creation of The Stark Center and the founding, in 1990, of “Iron Game History: The Journal of Physical Culture.”

Todd was multi-talented and tireless. He authored 8 books and more than 500 articles in both popular and academic journals. He worked for Sports Illustrated, CBS, and many other media outlets, he coached some of the strongest men and women in history, and he promoted the Arnold Strongman Classic—now considered the most important strongman event in the world.

He also made documentary films on the history of strength and was a major force in the popularization of powerlifting and strength training in the twenty-first century. Without his vision and willingness to take on big tasks, The Stark Center would not have existed and the world of strength would not be what it is today.

Help us continue Terry’s mission and honor his legacy by making a gift to The Stark Center today. Your generous support is an investment in the Center’s future and will provide important resources to continue Terry’s work.

Todd was co-founder of the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports, co-editor of Iron Game History: The Journal of Physical Culture, event director of the World's Strongest Man, and creator of the Arnold Strongman Classic. Todd also held a career as a journalist on the staff of Sports Illustrated magazine, as well as doing commentary for CBS, NBC, ESPN and National Public Radio.

Todd was born in Beaumont, Texas, and moved to Austin, Texas while in elementary school. Todd was on the tennis team at Travis High School and began weight training after graduating to make his left arm as strong as his dominant tennis arm. He played on the varsity tennis team at the University of Texas at Austin in his freshman and sophomore years and then quit the team to pursue weightlifting. He majored in English as an undergraduate and completed his doctoral degree in the history and philosophy of education in 1966.

Todd began as a weightlifter in 1956, and won the Junior Nationals in Olympic weightlifting in 1963. He then turned to powerlifting, and won the first two national championships in 1964 and in 1965 (the first official Senior Nationals) as a superheavyweight. At 1964 AAU Powerlifting Tournament Of America, Todd became the first man to Deadlift 700 lb (317.5 kg) in a documented and official setting with irrefutable evidence, hence initiating the inaugural official world record deadlift at 710 lb (322 kg). At 1965 AAU Senior Nationals Todd raised the world record to 740 lb (336 kg). At 1966 AAU Senior Nationals Todd became the first man to Squat 700 lb (317.5 kg) in wraps. His best bench press was 477 lb (216 kg). Todd retired from competition in 1967.

He was the winner of two National Powerlifting Championship titles in the super heavyweight division in the mid-1960s, is not known to have ever competed in an organized armwrestling tournament. The Texan did, however, did like to armwrestle for fun, and he even wrote a few articles about the sport in muscle magazines of the era. He was one of the first to write about the particular stresses that can occur in an armwrestling match and how spiral fractures were not rare occurrences. The match that would have brought him the most attention, but that didn’t occur, was with basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain. A $1,000 money match was in the process of being arranged between the two before Wilt’s coach and team physician had heard about it convinced the star player to back out because of the risk of injury.