Dave Davis (athlete)

Dave Davis (born August 20, 1937) is an American Shot Putter.^[1] He was on the 1960 United States Olympic Team. The circumstances of his failure to throw in those games are one of the quirky stories of the Olympics. Davis almost did not get to the Olympic Trials. As Cordner Nelson wrote at the time, he found himself 45 miles north of the Stanford University stadium at the time his event was about to begin.^[2] This was not the first time he had gotten lost on the way to a big meet. Davis spent $18 to rent a seaplane to fly him to the Palo Alto harbor, where he convinced a city employee to drive him to the stadium while he changed his clothes. Arriving after the first two rounds had been completed, he took his qualifying throw with no warm up and made it to the final. In the final, he surpassed Bill Nieder's earlier throw to move into third place. Injured with his leg heavily taped, Nieder was unable to improve and was pushed to the "alternate" position, while the team was made up of three University of Southern California alumni (though Davis and Parry O'Brien were officially competing for the Southern California Striders).^[3]

At the Olympics, it was Davis who was injured. Olympic Team coach Payton Jordan replaced Davis with the alternate Nieder. The Associated Press sent out a picture of Davis congratulating Nieder on his advancement to the Olympics when it was clear his injury would prevent his participation.^[4] Nieder went on to win the gold medal and set the world record, leading an American sweep of the medals.^[5]

Davis was a big, strong man, known for warming up by "calmly" lifting 350 pound weights,^[6] techniques he later taught to Brian Oldfield.^[7]

While competing for Canoga Park High School in 1956, Davis set the National High School Record for the shot put at 62' 7½" which lasted just 5 days. Two weeks later at the CIF California State Meet he easily won the 16 Lb. Shot Put event, at the time a separate event from the standard high school 12 Lb., but lost to high school version to a new national record by Homer Robertson. He also finished third in the discus throw.^[8]

At USC, he won the 1958 NCAA Championship. In 1963 he won the United States championship.^[9] He continued throwing until 1972 setting his personal best of 19.72 in 1967.^[1]

References

US National Championship winners in men's shot put

1876–1878 New York Athletic Club	1876–78: Henry Buermeyer

1879–1888 NAAAA	1879–80: A.W. Adams 1881–86: Frank Lambrecht 1887: George Gray/Frank Lambrecht 1888^{Note 1}: Frank Lambrecht

1888–1979 Amateur Athletic Union	1888–94^{Note 1}: George Gray 1895: William Hickok 1896: George Gray 1897: Charles Hennemann 1898–99: Richard Sheldon 1900: Denis Horgan 1901: Fred Beck 1902: George Gray 1903: Leon Feuerbach 1904: Martin Sheridan 1905–06: Wesley Coe 1907–10: Ralph Rose 1911–12: Pat McDonald 1913: Lawrence Whitney 1914: Pat McDonald 1915–17: Arlie Mucks 1918: Alma Richards 1919–20^OT: Pat McDonald 1921: Bud Houser 1922: Pat McDonald 1923: Orville Wanzer 1924: Ralph Hills 1925: Bud Houser 1926: Herbert Schwarze 1927: John Kuck 1928^OT–31: Herman Brix 1932^OT: Leo Sexton 1933–35: Jack Torrance 1936: Dmitri Zaitz 1937: James Reynolds 1938: Frank Ryan 1939: Lilburn Williams 1940–42: Al Blozis 1943–44: Earl Audet 1945–46: Bill Bangert 1947–48: Jim Delaney 1949–50: Jim Fuchs 1951–55: Parry O'Brien 1956: Ken Bantum 1957: Bill Nieder 1958–60: Parry O'Brien 1961: Dallas Long 1962: Gary Gubner 1963: Dave Davis 1964: Randy Matson 1965: John McGrath 1966–68: Randy Matson 1969: Neal Steinhauer 1970: Randy Matson 1971: Karl Salb 1972: Randy Matson 1973–75: Al Feuerbach 1976–77: Terry Albritton 1978: Al Feuerbach 1979: Dave Laut

1980–1992 The Athletics Congress	1980: Brian Oldfield 1981: Dave Laut 1982: Kevin Akins 1983: Dave Laut 1984: Augie Wolf 1985: Dave Laut 1986–87: John Brenner 1988: Ed Wade 1989: Randy Barnes 1990: Jim Doehring 1991: Ron Backes 1992^OT: Mike Stulce

1993–onwards USA Track & Field	1993: Randy Barnes 1994: C.J. Hunter 1995: Brent Noon 1996^OT–97: Randy Barnes 1998–99: John Godina 2000^OT: Adam Nelson 2001: John Godina 2002: Adam Nelson 2003: John Godina 2004^OT: Adam Nelson 2005: Christian Cantwell 2006: Adam Nelson 2007–08^OT: Reese Hoffa 2009–10: Christian Cantwell 2011: Adam Nelson 2012^OT: Reese Hoffa 2013: Ryan Whiting 2014–15: Joe Kovacs 2016: Ryan Crouser

Notes	Note 1: In 1888 both the NAAAA and the AAU held championships OT: The 1920, 1928, 1932, and since 1992, championships incorporated the Olympic Trials, otherwise held as a discrete event.

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