Cliff Blair
 |
|---|
|
Sport: Track & Field |
|
Year
Graduated: 1956
|
|
Year
Inducted: 1976 |
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 School of Public Communications,
earned a berth on the U.S. Olympic team that competed in Melbourne,
Australia in the summer of 1956.
Just months earler, 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, MA, Blair came to BU in 1952 and was
under the tutelage of Ed Flannagan, 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
Hall-of-Famer John Lawler, who owns the University record
with a throw of 214' 10".
