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Irving Folwartshny

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Irving Henry "Shorty" Folsworth (born Folwartshny; March 16, 1914 – July 27, 1994) was an American hammer thrower and weight thrower. He was a seven-time United States champion and briefly held the indoor world record in men's weight throw.

Biography

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Like his fellow hammer thrower Don Favor, Irving Folwartshny was an alumnus of Deering High School in Portland, Maine.[1][2] Subsequently, he studied at Rhode Island State College, where Fred Tootell, 1924 Olympic hammer throw champion, was track and field coach;[3] Tootell's other pupils included Henry Dreyer and Bill Rowe, both of whom also became national hammer throw champions.[3]

Folwartshny placed fourth in the 35-lb weight throw at the 1935 national indoor championships,[4] but his breakthrough year was 1936, his sophomore year at Rhode Island, when his results improved rapidly.[1][4] At the 1936 indoor championships he won the weight throw with a heave of 58 ft 1+1⁄2 in (17.71 m), defeating Dreyer and Pete Zaremba and breaking Dreyer's world record by four and a half inches;[5][6] as a world record Folwartshny's throw was short-lived, as Dreyer threw 58 ft 4+1⁄2 in (17.79 m) only seven days later;[7] but as a championship record it lasted until 1951.[8][9]

During the 1936 outdoor season Folwartshny repeatedly threw the hammer over 170 ft (52 m), smashing his 1935 best of 156 ft (48 m).[1] He won the IC4A hammer championship with a throw of 172 ft 9+3⁄8 in (52.66 m), ahead of Bates's Anton Kishon and Rowe.[10] At the national championships Folwartshny threw 167 ft 1⁄4 in (50.90 m) and took second behind Rowe;[11] like his fellow Rhode Island throwers Rowe and Dreyer, he was one of the favorites to qualify for the American Olympic team.[4] The Olympic Trials, however, were held separately from the national championships for the first time since 1924;[12] at the Trials, Dreyer and Rowe took first and second, but the third and final Olympic spot went to Don Favor as Folwartshny only managed 157 ft 3+1⁄4 in (47.93 m) and placed sixth.[12]

In 1937 Folwartshny won his second national indoor weight throw title with a throw of 57 ft 4+3⁄4 in (17.49 m), again defeating Dreyer.[8][13] He also won the IC4A indoor weight throw[14] and successfully defended his outdoor IC4A hammer title.[15] In addition, he became national (AAU) outdoor champion for the first time, throwing the hammer 173 ft 7+5⁄8 in (52.92 m) and beating runner-up Bill Lynch by seven feet.[11]

In 1938 Folwartshny repeated as AAU and IC4A weight throw champion indoors and reached his peak as a hammer thrower outdoors.[8][16] He won his third consecutive IC4A hammer title with a throw of 178 ft 9+3⁄4 in (54.50 m),[17] then the second-best mark in IC4A history behind his own coach, Fred Tootell, who had thrown 181 ft 6+1⁄2 in (55.33 m) when he won in 1923.[18][19] Folwartshny also repeated as AAU hammer champion, throwing 179 ft 3 in (54.64 m) in that meet; it was the best throw at the national championships since Pat Ryan's meeting record of 183 ft 3+3⁄4 in (55.87 m) from 1914.[11] After the American season Folwartshny toured Europe with a number of other athletes;[20] he set his personal best of 56.17 m (184.3 ft) 3+3⁄8 in) in Osnabrück on August 21, although he still only placed second to Germany's reigning Olympic champion Karl Hein.[21][22]

Like Dreyer before him, Folwartshny represented the New York Athletic Club after graduating from Rhode Island State.[23] Dreyer dethroned him as indoor weight throw champion in 1939,[24] and Folwartshny also lost his outdoor hammer title that year, only placing fourth with a throw of 169 ft 9+3⁄4 in (51.75 m) as Chester Cruikshank won.[11] Folwartshny never regained the weight throw championship,[8] but did win the hammer title again in 1941, throwing 175 ft 6+1⁄8 in (53.49 m) and defeating the previous year's champion, fellow Maine native Stanley Johnson, by almost three feet.[11][25] Folwartshny anglicized his surname to Folsworth before the 1944 national indoor championships, where he took second behind Dreyer in the weight throw.[23] As Folsworth, he won the AAU hammer title for a fourth and final time in 1946, throwing 169 ft 8 in (51.71 m); it was the eleventh consecutive time he had placed in the top four.[11] The streak ended that year, however, as he no longer placed in 1947; Folsworth retired from competition before the 1948 season, not pursuing selection for the Olympics in London.[2]

Folsworth earned his living as a construction engineer, and as sales engineer and corporate vice president of Grinding Inc. in Connecticut.[2][26]

Size

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Despite his nickname "Shorty", Folwartshny was tall and bulky even by the standards of heavy throwers, and the press described him as a "giant".[27][28][29] Listed as 6 ft 6 in (198 cm) and 225 pounds (102 kg) as a collegiate sophomore in 1936,[4] Folwartshny continued to bulk up, weighing 262 pounds (119 kg) by 1947.[30] The Association of Track and Field Statisticians gives his height as 200 cm (6 ft 7 in).[21]

Legacy

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Folsworth was inducted in the University of Rhode Island Athletic Hall of Fame in 1973, in the same class as Rowe and Dreyer,[26] and in the Maine Sports Hall of Fame in 1981, in the same class as Favor.[31]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Olympic Hammer Competition Keen". The Bates Student. May 26, 1936. p. 2. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  2. ^ a b c "Irving Folsworth". Maine Sports Hall of Fame. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  3. ^ a b "Hammer Thrower". Oakland Tribune. July 16, 1938. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  4. ^ a b c d Johns, Walter (March 6, 1936). "Olympic Roll Call" (PDF). The Herald Statesman. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  5. ^ "Portland Boy Hangs Up New Weight Record". Lewiston Daily Sun. February 22, 1936. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  6. ^ "Folwartshny Adds Inches to Record". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. February 23, 2014. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  7. ^ "Round the Sports Calendar - 1936 Chronology" (PDF). Gloversville Morning Herald. December 31, 1936. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  8. ^ a b c d "USA Indoor Track & Field Champions – Men's 35-lb. Weight Throw". USA Track & Field. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  9. ^ "Bane Of Tufts Sets 35-Pound Weight Record". Portland Press Herald. February 18, 1951. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  10. ^ "Cornell Alumni News" (PDF). Cornell University. June 4, 1936. p. 513. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  11. ^ a b c d e f Mallon, Bill; Buchanan, Ian; Track & Field News. "A History Of The Results Of The National Track & Field Championships Of The USA From 1876 Through 2014". Track & Field News. Archived from the original on December 19, 2014. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  12. ^ a b Hymans, Richard. "The History of the United States Olympic Trials – Track & Field". USA Track & Field; Track & Field News. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 23, 2015. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  13. ^ "Folwartshny Keeps 30-Pound Shot Put Title" (PDF). Brooklyn Daily Eagle. February 28, 1937. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  14. ^ Dunbar, Glenn S. (March 15, 1937). "Sidelines". Columbia Daily Spectator. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  15. ^ "Saturday's Sport Summaries". The Cornell Daily Sun. May 31, 1937. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
  16. ^ "Columbia Wins I.C.4-A. Pennant, As Ben Johnson Leads Scoring". Columbia Daily Spectator. March 7, 1938. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  17. ^ "I.C.4-A. Won By Trojans, Bears Third". Berkeley Daily Gazette. June 4, 1938. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  18. ^ "Southern Cal Takes I.C.4-A". The San Bernardino County Sun. June 5, 1938. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  19. ^ "Javelin and Hammer Throw Records Shattered in Trial Events of Intercollegiates" (PDF). The Pennsylvanian. May 26, 1923. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  20. ^ "U. S. Stars Sail Tonight". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. July 26, 1938. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  21. ^ a b All-Time List As At 31 December 1945, Association of Track and Field Statisticians
  22. ^ "U.S. Trackmen Still Cleaning Up in Europe". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. August 22, 1938. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  23. ^ a b Richardson, William D. (February 27, 1944). "Dodds Gains Title With 4:08.3 Mile At National Meet". The New York Times.
  24. ^ "Cunningham 1500-Meter National Winner in 3:54.6" (PDF). Brooklyn Daily Eagle. February 26, 1939. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  25. ^ "Hammer Throwing A Specialty In Maine". Lewiston Evening Journal. July 14, 1938. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  26. ^ a b "University of Rhode Island Athletic Hall of Fame". GoRhody.com. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  27. ^ "Cunningham's Mile in 4:04.4 Track Feature" (PDF). Brooklyn Daily Eagle. December 25, 1938. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  28. ^ "Lions Win I.C.4-A. Crown As Stars Take Five Titles Before 15,000 at Garden". Columbia Daily Spectator. March 15, 1937. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  29. ^ "Sports Snacks". Lewiston Daily Sun. May 31, 1937. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  30. ^ "Felton Ranked Nation's Best Hammer Thrower". The Harvard Crimson. June 9, 1948. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  31. ^ "Maine Sports Hall of Fame". Bangor Daily News. May 31, 2009. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
Records
Preceded by World record holder in men's 35-lb indoor weight throw
22 February 1936 – 29 February 1936 		Succeeded by
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