The fifty-six-pound weight, with which Mitchell performed more brilliantly though no more con sistently than with the hammer, is obviously not to be toyed with by any but the most powerful men. The throwing of this formidable missile is not included at all in the list of college events, but it is one of the events contested at the national amateur and the national all-round championships. The weight is shaped like the shot, but is thrown with a shorter and ring-shaped swivel handle. The theory of hurling it is the same as that used in hammer-throwing, except that the pon derousness of the missile requires an accentua tion of the motions used in throwing the lighter ball. The pull exerted by the fifty-six-pound weight as it swings over the head is very great, and it takes unusually strong legs and the most skilful adaptation of the principles of hammer throwing even to maintain one's balance, not to speak of throwing the weight with any effect. Throwing the fifty-six-pound ball with more than a single turn is rarely attempted, for the simple reason that none but extraordinarily powerful men have the necessary strength. The record for throwing the fifty-six-pound weight from a seven foot circle without follow — the form prescribed at the Amateur Athletic Union meets since 1887 is 36 feet 91 inches, and it was made by John Flanagan in 1901. Throwing with one hand, in what is called the Irish style, with unlimited run and follow, Mitchell, in 1903, set up a record of 38 feet 5 inches. He has thrown it from the side with one hand without run or follow—the old style in use before the present rule was adopted — 27 feet 4 inches. This record was made in Canada in 1889, after this method of throwing the weight had been given up in this country. Throwing for height Mitchell made, in 1897, a record of 15 feet 61 inches, which indicates some what the strength of the man's back and loin muscles.
Discus-throwing is another sport included in the programme of the Amateur Athletic Union, but not yet regularly practised in the colleges. The revival of the Olympic Games at Athens, in 1896, and the winning of the ancient Greek event by a member of the American team aroused interest in discus-throwing and caused its intro duction into this country. The discus is a circu lar disk, made of wood, brass, and steel, eight inches in diameter, about two inches thick in the middle, and half an inch thick at the edges. It weighs about four and one-half pounds. In this country the discus is thrown from a seven-foot circle, with one or more turns, in a manner similar to that used in throwing the hammer, except, of course, that the disk is held in one hand and that it is thrown flat, so that it " scales " through the air, very much as a clay pigeon sails away from a trap. The present record for throwing the discus is 127 feet 84 inches. It was made by R. J. Sheridan, at Celtic Park, Long Island, in 1902.
It was not long after Flanagan appeared among the weight-throwers in this country — he had al ready won the English hammer championship in i896, before he won his first national championship here, in 1897—that he showed himself to be easily superior to any other hammer-thrower on either side of the water. Like Mitchell, he too
was a big man — a black, shaggy, hirsute animal, the perfect picture of a hurler of weights. His first winning throw at the national championships was nearly ten feet beyond the best previous rec ord at these contests, and his form steadily im proved. He won in 1897 with a throw of 148 feet 5 inches ; in 1898 with 151 feet io2 inches ; in 1899 with 155 feet 4 inches. In 1900 Flanagan went abroad, and at the English cham pionships, where his fellow-countryman, Kieley, the Irish champion, had been winning with throws in the neighborhood of 14o feet, Flanagan smothered his competitors with the extraordinary throw of 163 feet 4 inches. This throw was made accord ing to English rules, of course, in a nine-foot instead of seven-foot circle. In 1901 Flanagan again won the national championship in this country with a throw of 158 feet 1(4 inches, and with a throw some seven feet shorter the victory went to the big Irishman again the following year. In 1901, at Long Island City, Flanagan, throwing from the regulation seven-foot circle with unlimited run and no follow—the customary manner of throwing the hammer in this country — made his world's record. This throw was 171 feet 9 inches more than six feet better than Plaw's collegiate record, and any where from fifteen to forty feet better than the average performances at college games.
Although the average undergraduate could not be expected to compete successfully with such a man as Flanagan, yet there have come up of recent years several big men whose performances with the hammer put them in the same class with all but the most phenomenal of the more mature and seasoned veterans of the athletic clubs. Football men they have been almost invariably, " giant " guards and tackles — such men as De Witt, McCracken, Woodruff, Hickock, and Chadwick. T. R. Finlay of Harvard was the first man to throw the hammer more than mo feet at Mott Haven. This was in 1891, and average ham mer-throwing form has improved so much since that time, that a man who cannot throw at least i3o feet can no longer be considered a really first-string man at Mott Haven. Fol lowing Hickock's throw of 135 feet 71 inches, in 1895, the winning throws at Mott Haven in creased in distance until De Witt in 1902 set up an " intercollegiate " record of 164 feet io inches. Plaw of California, who won at Mott Haven in 190o with a throw of 154 feet 42 inches, never equalled in the East the best of the throws which he made at home. His throw of 165 feet i inch stood as the collegiate record until 1904, when De Witt made a new collegiate record of 166 feet 5 inches.