Todd Named Legend in the Field of Strength and Conditioning - June 2nd, 2009

Dr. Terry Todd, world record-setting power lifter and director of the world’s largest physical culture collection, has received the national Legends in the Field of Strength and Conditioning Honor Award from the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association (CSCCA).

The award recognizes extraordinary individuals for their “pioneering efforts on behalf of the strength and conditioning profession.” The CSCCA presented the award to Todd at its national conference in Nashville on May 7.

Known internationally for his accomplishments and contributions as an athlete, scholar and collector, Todd’s over five decades in sports began very early when he started lifting weights in high school. Gifted in both baseball and tennis, he received a full tennis scholarship to The University of Texas at Austin and continued to lift weights while he played tennis at the university level.

While at The University of Texas at Austin, Todd met Dr. Roy J. McLean, who was a true pioneer in weight training.  McLean owned an extensive collection of books and magazines on the subject, and Todd attributes McLean with piquing his interest in weightlifting.  He has been quoted as saying, “It was in Mac’s study where my love of strength-sport history began.”

Quitting the tennis team during his junior year of college, Todd began concentrating on Olympic-style weightlifting.  Soon he was competing, winning the Junior National Championship in 1963.  His unusually thick biceps and forearms made it difficult to catch the bar on his chest when performing a squat clean, however, and he realized that this would limit his success as an Olympic-style competitive weightlifter. 

Fortunately, power lifting was gaining support and increasing in popularity, so Todd switched gears and in 1964, won the first national event ever held in powerlifting.  The following year he won the first official Senior National Championships, weighing in at 335 pounds.  He became the first man to total 1,600, 1,700, 1,800 and 1,900 pounds, with his best official lifts being a 720 pound squat, a 515 pound bench press and a 742 pound dead lift. He also never was beaten in arm wrestling.

Todd’s interest in weight training segued into a full-time career and, in 1964, he became managing editor of Strength & Health, the largest and most influential magazine in the field of weight training. 

In 1974, he married Jan Suffolk, who then began her own lifting career.  Todd coached her in powerlifting, and by 1977, Sports Illustrated declared her the “strongest woman in the world.”  Jan now is a professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at The University of Texas at Austin.

While teaching at Auburn University, Terry and Jan coached the powerlifting team, which won several national championships, and Terry volunteered to design and oversee the varsity football team’s winter weight training program until the full-time strength coach arrived.  While trainer, one of his assistants was Bill Kazmaier and under Todd’s guidance, “Kaz” became the most famous male power lifter of that era, winning the World Championship as well as TV’s “World’s Strongest Man” competition three times.  Todd also worked with Lamar Gant at Auburn, a lifter Todd considers “the greatest power lifter in history.”

In addition to teaching and coaching, Todd was the top commentator for several of the earliest World’s Strongest Man competitions, as well as several World Powerlifting Championships on CBS and NBC.  In 1978, he created and directed the “Strongest Man in Football,” a CBS program that ran for three years.  That same year he began writing articles for Sports Illustrated

Along with doing commentary for CBS, NBC, BBC and ESPN, Todd also appeared on 60 Minutes, the CBS Evening News, ABC’s Nightline and covered the 1992 and 1994 Olympic Games.  He has written and delivered commentaries about sports and physical culture on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, as well as lecturing extensively around the country on strength training, sports history and drugs in sports. 

Todd also has written numerous books and over 500 articles for both popular and academic journals.  His book “Inside Powerlifting” was the first written about the subject. 

As a coach his greatest thrill has been working with Mark Henry, who in the mid-‘90s was the national champion in both weightlifting and powerlifting. Henry, who has remained drug free throughout his professional career, was considered by many experts to be the world’s strongest man.

In 2001, the Arnold Sports Festival asked Todd to create a strongman contest for the festival, and Mark Henry won this competition the first year. The festival has become the ArnoldStrongman Classic is considered the most prestigious contest in the strongman sport.

Since 1983, Todd has been a faculty member in the College of Education’s Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, and since 1990, he and wife Dr. Jan Todd have co-edited Iron Game History—the Journal of Physical Culture in an effort to stimulate research in the field.

Over several decades the Todds have collected countless books, magazines, photos, videos, films, posters and other artifacts related to physical culture, and they have donated their collection - the largest in the world in this field – to The University of Texas at Austin. This unique collection, which Terry and Jan established, forms the foundation for the massive H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports.

The Stark Center, of which Todd is director, is scheduled to open in its new 27,500 square foot home at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium this summer. Read more about Todd and the Stark Center here.

—Kay Randall, University Communications, 512-232-3910