Discus throw has been part of the original Olympic games since the first Olympics in 1896. Women’s competition in discus was added to the Olympics in 2000.
If not for Xena, Warrior Princess, no one would know why anyone ever put the discus throw into athletic competitions. Our records up to 1914 suggest that discus was not an event in early Track and Field here. There is a sketch of a student-athlete in Columbia track uniform with a discus in hand on the front cover of the March 1925 Columbiad. After track was reinstated as a major sport in 1934-35, the records record a cluster of discus marks for UP Track and Field. So, the March 1, 1935 Columbiad, documents Edwin (Moose) Dunstan (W. Elwyn Dunstan ’38) tossing a discus 117 feet. Notable squad records also show up in the 1938 Log where Joseph Enzler (Class of ’40) throws for 140′ 4″; exceeded in the 1940 Log record of James Shanahan’s (Class of ’41) throw of 144′ 6″.
Photo gallery of student-athletes in discus throw (University Archives photos; click image to enlarge)
