Bud Houser

Olympic medal record
Men’s athletics
Competitor for the  United States
Gold	1924 Paris	Shot put
Gold	1924 Paris	Discus throw
Gold	1928 Amsterdam	Discus throw

Bud Houser (Lemuel Clarence Houser; September 25, 1901 in Winigan, Missouri – October 1, 1994 in Gardena, California) was an American field athlete.

As a student of Oxnard High School, Houser participated in the California State Track Meets between 1920-22. His six wins in shot put and discus, each time breaking a state record, made him the most successful meet participant ever ^[1]. During this time he developed a discus-throwing style of doing one and a half rapid turns in the circle before release that has been copied by many later athletes. He then enrolled at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California.^[2]

At the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, Houser won the gold medal in the shot put, ahead of fellow Americans Glenn Hartranft and Ralph Hills and in the discus, ahead of the Finn Vilho Niittymaa and the American Thomas Lieb. This was the last time an athlete has won both the shot put and discus in the Olympics.

He won national championships in the discus in 1925, 1926, and 1928, and in the shot put in 1921 (while still in High School) and 1925. On April 3, 1926 in Palo Alto, in a USC dual meet with Stanford, he set a world record with a discus throw of 48.20 m.^[3]

At the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam he was flag bearer for the United States team. There he retained his title in discus-throwing, again leading a Finn Antero Kivi and an American James Corson.

Houser became a dentist with a practice in Hollywood, California. The stadium at Oxnard High School (the original location and now the new location) is named in his honor. He is a member of the National Track and Field Hall of Fame^[4] and an inaugural member of the Ventura County Athletic Hall of Fame.^[5]

References

1. ^ http://www.dyestatcal.com/ATHLETICS/TRACK/STATE_BK/statehis.htm
2. ^ USC OLYMPIANS: 1904-2004, USC Trojans Athletic Department, Accessed August 13, 2008.
3. ^ http://www.usatf.org/HallOfFame/TF/showBio.asp?HOFIDs=76 USATF Hall of Fame bio
4. ^ http://www.usatf.org/HallOfFame/TF/ USATF Hall of Fame
5. ^ http://www.vcshf.com/hall_of_fame_members.htm Ventura County Athletic Hall of Fame

External links

• Photo of Clarence (Bud) Houser in 1926, PhillyHistory.org.

Olympic Games
Preceded by Pat McDonald	Flagbearer for  United States Amsterdam 1928	Succeeded by Morgan Taylor
Records
Preceded by Glenn Hartranft	Men's Discus World Record Holder April 2, 1926 – March 9, 1929	Succeeded by Eric Krenz

Persondata
Name	Houser, Bud
Alternative names	Houser, Lemuel Clarence
Short description	American shot putter and discus thrower
Date of birth	25 September 1901
Place of birth	Winigan, Missouri
Date of death	1 October 1994
Place of death	Gardena, California