Arthur Rowe

Shot-putter Arthur Rowe was a giant of a man in more ways than one. His massive 187 cm and 100kg frame made him stand out wherever he went, and on the athletics-track he was a giant in the world of shot-putting. A blacksmith since leaving school, Rowe was ironically born in the Barnsley suburb of Smithies, and between 1959-62 was a dominant force in the shot both in Britain and around the world. He only took up the discipline as a 17-year-old when he was playing cricket and awaiting his turn to bat. He saw some youths practicing the shot in an adjacent field. He asked if he could “have a go” and out-threw them by 10-feet. Their coach suggested Rowe gave up cricket and took up the shot instead. The rest is, as they say, history. A promising football career with Rotherham United also took a back seat to athletics.

Rowe became a leading personality in British athletics, and shot-putting in particular, in the late-1950s/early-1960s as he established records that were not to be broken until the Geoff Capes era of the mid-1970s. The man responsible for turning Rowe from a good shot putter into an outstanding one was national coach Geoff Dyson. After finishing third in the AAA Championship in 1956, Rowe won the first of five consecutive titles the following year. Capes also won five consecutive but could not better Rowe´s record.

In 1958 Rowe was a double gold medal winner on the international stage, winning both the British Empire and Commonwealth Games gold at Cardiff and the European title in Stockholm. Sadly, an Olympic medal eluded Rowe when a combination of the heat, a stomach illness, and probably nerves got the better of him at Roma in 1960. He failed to qualify for the final after finishing 17th in the qualifying round, with only the top 15 going through to the final.

Rowe set the first of many British records shortly after his first AAA title in 1957, and such was his presence in British athletics that he became first field event athlete to become the AAA’s “UK Athlete of the Year”. Having steadily pushed up the British record close to the 60-foot (18.3 m) mark, Rowe eventually reached that milestone in an international against Poland in 1959. Despite his failure at the Olympics, Rowe recovered and was undefeated throughout the 1961 season. On 7 August that year, Rowe broke his last British record when he threw 19.56 (64 ft 2 in) at the National Coal Board Sports at Mansfield for a British and European record.

Rowe got to No.2 in the world but, in 1962, he quit amateur athletics to take up a lucrative professional Rugby League career with Oldham RLFC. After four matches in just over three months, however, he handed in his resignation. Rowe returned to athletics, but not as an amateur. He joined the professional ranks and took part in many of the physical throwing events on the Scottish Highland Games circuit. He was very successful both in terms of results and financially. Despite having to borrow a kilt for his first Highland gathering, he went on to become a favourite “North of the Border”. At the famous Braemar Highland Games in 1963, he broke four records in the one day. Rowe also won professional hammer throwing titles and, at Aberdeen in 1968, became the world caber tossing champion, a title he retained the following year. After the 1970 season Rowe retired and concentrated on the Barnsley building firm he had set up after his short-lived rugby League career.

In 1955 Rowe became a television celebrity before he became an athletics celebrity. He appeared on the popular BBC television programme “What´s My Line” whereby a panel of celebrities had to guess the occupation of a member of the public who had to give a mime describing their job, and also reply to a series of questions with only a” yes” or “no” answer. Rowe´s job as “Blacksmith´s striker” at the time beat the panellists and he was awarded a certificate for doing so. Not as impressive as an AAA title or Commonwealth Games gold, but probably equally satisfying to the Yorkshireman at the time.

Personal Best: SP – 19.56 (1961).