Friday, June 28, 2013

Frank Stranahan, amateur...

...golfer, weightlifter and practical joker, died at age 90. From his obit in the Times:

He won more than 50 amateur tournaments in the 1940s and ’50s and six PGA Tour events while devoting himself to muscle-building, something that athletes of his era shunned, fearing it would restrict their flexibility. 
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Frank Stranahan later developed a specialized weight-lifting regimen that would be suitable for a golf swing by making sure he did not overdevelop his chest muscles or biceps, though his son recalled that when his weight lifting became known, “he was told if he wanted to pursue golf, this was a major mistake — in golf, it was unheard-of.”

Stranahan persisted, taking weight-lifting gear to tournaments because there were few fitness centers for workouts on the road.

He relished telling of his favorite gag: he would ask bellhops to carry his luggage to his hotel room, then watch them stumble under the weight of his unseen barbells.

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