Bob Backus, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetBob Backus
American hammer thrower
Date of Birth: 11-Jul-1926
Place of Birth: Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Date of Death: 30-Jun-1999
Profession: hammer thrower
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Cancer 
About Bob Backus
- Robert ("Bob") Hudson Backus (July 11, 1926 – June 30, 1999) was an American track and field athlete who set world records in the hammer throw.
- He wore ballet slippers during competition and after using weight training to overcome the effects of meningitis.Backus was born on July 11, 1926 in Boston.
- At 6 feet, 5 inches in height and 160 pounds, Backus was rejected by the United States Army Air Forces' cadet program as he was deemed too thin.
- As part of his efforts to recover from spinal meningitis, Backus took up weight training and bulked up into a 290-pound strongman, despite concerns that such training would make him "musclebound".He attended Tufts University, where he started weight throwing, participating in the 16-pound hammer throw outdoors, and the 35 and 56 pound events indoors.
- Because no footwear had yet been developed for the sport, Backus wore ballet shoes.Backus set a world record and career best of 45 feet 2 inches in the 56-pound throw at the New York Athletic Club's annual spring games, held on June 8, 1957 in Pelham Manor, New York, setting a record that broke a record he had previously set, adding another foot to the world mark.
- He also set a record in February 1959 for the 35-pound weight with a distance of 66 feet 2¾ inches, one of five world records set at the Amateur Athletic Union's national indoor track and field championships at Madison Square Garden.
- He won U.S.
- titles in the 56-pound event each of the seven years from 1953 to 1959 and won seven out of eight years from 1954 to 1961 in the 35-pound throw.He won the American title in the hammer throw in 1954 and won a gold medal in the event at the 1955 Pan American Games in Mexico City.
- He competed in the event at the 1952 Summer Olympics, finishing in 13th place.In February 1978, a 51-year-old Backus came in second in an otherwise uneventful 35-pound weight throw at the AAU national indoor championships held at Madison Square Garden.Backus died at age 72 on June 30, 1999 at Boston's Vencor Hospital, having suffered a stroke in December 1998 and been in poor health for several years before his death.
- His first marriage, to Elsa Torikka of Finland, who he had met at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki where she had competed in the javelin, ended in divorce.
- He was survived by his second wife, a daughter and son.
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