Cliff Blair was the first collegian to ever throw the 16-pound hammer more than 200 feet. He would later set a world record in the event and may have added Olympic gold to his resume, if not for a last minute change of events.
Blair, a journalism graduate from BU's College of Communication, earned a berth on the U.S. Olympic team that competed in Melbourne, Australia in the summer of 1956.
Just months earlier, on July 4, 1956, performing at an AAU meet, he set a world record in the hammer throw, his toss of 216' 4-3/4" besting his own national mark of 211' 3" and the world mark of 216' 1/2" held by Russian Mikhail Krivonosov.
Blair was also filing reports on the Olympics for the Boston Globe that year. Although he was not being paid for his reporting and there was no rule barring athletes from writing newspaper articles, Blair's coach decided it was in the "Olympic Spirit," and dropped him from the team the day before the Games began.
Blair was far from dejected.
"Earning that spot on our Olympic team was the greatest thrill of my athletic career," he recalled on the eve of his induction into the BU Hall of Fame in 1976. "I would love to have participated. I guess I just wasn't enough of a politician."
He was certainly enough of an athlete while at BU.
A native of Hingham, Massachusetts, Blair came to BU in 1952 and was under the tutelage of then-head coach Ed Flanagan, whom he credited with transforming him into a world class performer.
And despite being the first collegian to break the 200-foot mark in the 16-pound hammer throw, he was bested by fellow BU Hall-of-Famer John Lawler, who broke the University record with a throw of 214' 10".
