Irving Henry"Shorty" Folsworth (bornFolwartshny; March 16, 1914 – July 27, 1994) was an Americanhammer thrower andweight thrower. He was a seven-time United States champion and briefly held theindoor world record in men's weight throw.
Like his fellow hammer throwerDon Favor, Irving Folwartshny was an alumnus ofDeering High School inPortland, Maine.[1][2] Subsequently, he studied atRhode Island State College, whereFred Tootell, 1924 Olympic hammer throw champion, was track and field coach;[3] Tootell's other pupils includedHenry Dreyer andBill Rowe, both of whom also became national hammer throw champions.[3]
Folwartshny placed fourth in the 35-lb weight throw at the 1935national indoor championships,[4] but his breakthrough year was 1936, hissophomore year at Rhode Island, when his results improved rapidly.[1][4] At the 1936 indoor championships he won the weight throw with a heave of 58 ft 1+1⁄2 in (17.71 m), defeating Dreyer andPete Zaremba and breaking Dreyer's world record by four and a half inches;[5][6] as a world record Folwartshny's throw was short-lived, as Dreyer threw 58 ft 4+1⁄2 in (17.79 m) only seven days later;[7] but as a championship record it lasted until 1951.[8][9]
During the 1936 outdoor season Folwartshny repeatedly threw the hammer over 170 ft (52 m), smashing his 1935 best of 156 ft (48 m).[1] He won theIC4A hammer championship with a throw of 172 ft 9+3⁄8 in (52.66 m), ahead of Bates'sAnton Kishon and Rowe.[10] At thenational championships Folwartshny threw 167 ft 1⁄4 in (50.90 m) and took second behind Rowe;[11] like his fellow Rhode Island throwers Rowe and Dreyer, he was one of the favorites to qualify for theAmerican Olympic team.[4] TheOlympic Trials, however, were held separately from the national championships for the first time since 1924;[12] at the Trials, Dreyer and Rowe took first and second, but the third and final Olympic spot went to Don Favor as Folwartshny only managed 157 ft 3+1⁄4 in (47.93 m) and placed sixth.[12]
In 1937 Folwartshny won his second national indoor weight throw title with a throw of 57 ft 4+3⁄4 in (17.49 m), again defeating Dreyer.[8][13] He also won the IC4A indoor weight throw[14] and successfully defended his outdoor IC4A hammer title.[15] In addition, he became national (AAU) outdoor champion for the first time, throwing the hammer 173 ft 7+5⁄8 in (52.92 m) and beating runner-upBill Lynch by seven feet.[11]
In 1938 Folwartshny repeated as AAU and IC4A weight throw champion indoors and reached his peak as a hammer thrower outdoors.[8][16] He won his third consecutive IC4A hammer title with a throw of 178 ft 9+3⁄4 in (54.50 m),[17] then the second-best mark in IC4A history behind his own coach, Fred Tootell, who had thrown 181 ft 6+1⁄2 in (55.33 m) when he won in 1923.[18][19] Folwartshny also repeated as AAU hammer champion, throwing 179 ft 3 in (54.64 m) in that meet; it was the best throw at the national championships sincePat Ryan's meeting record of 183 ft 3+3⁄4 in (55.87 m) from 1914.[11] After the American season Folwartshny toured Europe with a number of other athletes;[20] he set his personal best of 56.17 m (184.3 ft) 3+3⁄8 in) inOsnabrück on August 21, although he still only placed second to Germany's reigning Olympic championKarl Hein.[21][22]
Like Dreyer before him, Folwartshny represented theNew York Athletic Club after graduating from Rhode Island State.[23] Dreyer dethroned him as indoor weight throw champion in 1939,[24] and Folwartshny also lost his outdoor hammer title that year, only placing fourth with a throw of 169 ft 9+3⁄4 in (51.75 m) asChester Cruikshank won.[11] Folwartshny never regained the weight throw championship,[8] but did win the hammer title again in 1941, throwing 175 ft 6+1⁄8 in (53.49 m) and defeating the previous year's champion, fellow Maine nativeStanley Johnson, by almost three feet.[11][25] Folwartshny anglicized his surname to Folsworth before the 1944 national indoor championships, where he took second behind Dreyer in the weight throw.[23] As Folsworth, he won the AAU hammer title for a fourth and final time in 1946, throwing 169 ft 8 in (51.71 m); it was the eleventh consecutive time he had placed in the top four.[11] The streak ended that year, however, as he no longer placed in 1947; Folsworth retired from competition before the 1948 season, not pursuing selection for theOlympics in London.[2]
Folsworth earned his living as aconstruction engineer, and assales engineer and corporatevice president of Grinding Inc. in Connecticut.[2][26]
Despite his nickname "Shorty", Folwartshny was tall and bulky even by the standards of heavy throwers, and the press described him as a "giant".[27][28][29] Listed as 6 ft 6 in (198 cm) and 225 pounds (102 kg) as a collegiate sophomore in 1936,[4] Folwartshny continued to bulk up, weighing 262 pounds (119 kg) by 1947.[30] TheAssociation of Track and Field Statisticians gives his height as 200 cm (6 ft 7 in).[21]
Folsworth was inducted in the University of Rhode Island Athletic Hall of Fame in 1973, in the same class as Rowe and Dreyer,[26] and in the Maine Sports Hall of Fame in 1981, in the same class as Favor.[31]
| Records | ||
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| Preceded by | World record holder in men's 35-lb indoor weight throw 22 February 1936 – 29 February 1936 | Succeeded by |
