36 Tries, 19 Records

Dullest of sport events is shot-putting. On a track-meet program, it is usually an incidental diversion while running races are being staged. This year, however, the shot-put has thudded into more general attention due to a Titan named Al Blozis.

Alfred C. Blozis, son of a New Jersey laborer, stands 6 ft. 6, weighs 250 lb., is a perfectly coordinated strong man. During last winter's indoor track season, Blozis, a Georgetown University sophomore, cracked a world's record almost every time he picked up the iron grapefruit. In six indoor meets, he put the 16-lb. shot 36 times. Nineteen times he bettered the world's record (53 ft. 1 1/2 in.) set by Louisiana's famed 300-lb. Jack Torrance. A half-dozen times he chalked up 55 ft., once 55 ft. 8 1/4 in. With the 12-lb. and 8-lb. shots, he was equally prodigious.

Before the summer is over, track fans expect Blozis to smash Torrance's world's outdoor mark for 16 lb. (57 ft. 1 in.) as well. Six weeks ago, in the Penn Relay Carnival, he started out creditably with a 55 ft. 5 3/8 in. toss that broke the meet record by almost three feet. Last week, in the Intercollegiate A. A. A. A. track meet, held in a downpour at Harvard's Stadium, the Georgetown giant, skidding around in ankle-deep mud, heaved the slippery cannonball 53 ft. 6 3/8 in., later 53 ft. 9 1/4 in. to set a new intercollegiate outdoor mark.

Then, to prove that his was no one-groove arm, he broke the ten-year-old intercollegiate record for the discus throw with a flip of 167 ft. 4 3/8 in., less than seven feet under the world's record set by Germany's Willi Schroeder five years ago.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.