Remembrances: Oldfield Had Giant Impact on Shot Put
Elgin High State Champion Competed in 1972 Olympics, Became International Celebrity
Getting a chance to meet Brian Oldfield at his family’s house in Elgin for an interview in the spring of 1995 was pretty exciting. Growing up in the 1970s, the legendary shot putter was a giant figure on the international sports scene and the Daily Herald wanted to catch up with him for a feature story as it expanded its coverage into the Fox Valley area.
Oldfield was, to use a wonderful phrase from the late Hoffman Estates track coach Pete Reiff, “a mountain of a man.” One of the thoughts in my mind was this man could reach across the table where we’re sitting and crush my skull like a grape without much difficulty.
That really wasn’t a concern, though. After Oldfield passed away in March 2017, his friend Van Johnson of St. Charles told Elena Ferrarin of the Herald that “he was a gentle giant.”
One who was ahead of his time in many ways and whose influence is on display for millions throughout the world every four years during the Olympic shot put competition. But Oldfield didn’t have Olympic aspirations on the way to winning the IHSA state shot put title in 1963 for Elgin High School.
“Back then I didn’t even hear about the Olympics … that’s Jim Thorpe kind of stuff,” said Oldfield, who set an official U.S. shot put record of 72-feet, 9-inches in 1984. “People in Elgin didn’t have that much vision and neither do these kids now. You don’t know. I just wanted to get in there and have fun and mix it up a little bit.”
Oldfield said much of the joy of his lone Olympic appearance in 1972 was lost because of the Palestinian terrorist attack and massacre of 11 Israelis during the Games in Munich, Germany. But the flamboyant Oldfield was in the mix to rub elbows with celebrities like Johnny Carson and in appearances on the TV show “The Superstars.” He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, participated in the “World’s Strongest Man” competition.
We even watched some of a B-movie he starred in, “Savage Instinct,” where he played an evil drug/gang leader named “Mongo.” Being somewhat of an aficionado of B movies I had seen it before.
But one of the big things Oldfield had started doing that spring as he approached his 50th birthday was coach the throwers at Lake Park. He had retired from competing after just missing out on a spot with the 1988 Olympic team.
“I’ve never worked so hard to convince people because they don’t know anything about me,” Oldfield said of teaching his renowned spin technique. He laughed and added, “ I never knew I had this many facets to my personality.”
Oldifeld was using the traditional glide method in the shot when he won the state title at 57-7¼ in 1963. A year earlier he had finished fourth as Palatine’s Andy Merutka won his second consecutive title with a state-meet record 62-2¼.
Oldfield also played football and wrestled at Elgin and went to Middle Tennessee State to major in education. The 6-foot-5, 280-pound Oldfield had a 40-inch vertical, could high jump 6-10 and ran the 100 meters in 10.5 seconds.
“He was a physical freak,” said Jim Aikens, who coached state champion throwers at Fremd and Burlington Central, to Ferrarin after Oldfield’s death.
It was at the ‘72 Olympics where Oldfield ultimately connected those gifts with the technique that sent him into the shot put stratosphere. Oldfield said he had experimented with the spin after seeing standout John McGrath use it at the 1968 national championships, but Oldfield said he went back to the glide after falling out of the ring.
Oldfield was the leader in the ‘72 Olympics after the first round and finished sixth with a 68-7¼ that was only 10½ inches shy of the Gold medal distance. He also watched Aleksandr Baryshnikov of Russia throw an Olympic-record 70-10 in the qualifying round with the spin.
“I tried it again and I threw 72 feet with it and didn’t fall down,” Oldfield said. “I knew I had some potential.”
But it would be at a professional level with the International Track Association after the Games in Munich, Germany were touched by tragedy.
“It almost took all of the fun out of it for everybody,” Oldfield said. “I didn’t mind signing on for professionalism after that.”
He broke the world record distance three times in one day in 1975 and hit 75 feet. The mark wasn’t officially recognized because Oldfield was competing professionally, but no one produced a better throw for 12 years and three months. And Oldfield believed 1976 would have been his best year ever.
In practice for an ITA meet he said he had “the most perfect throw I’ve ever thrown” of nearly 85 feet. He fouled at 78-11 on his second-to-last throw and thought he’d break 80 feet on his last one but he stumbled. Then the ITA folded and his career went into limbo.
“If I had a full complement of track meets that year, I don’t know where the record would have gone,” he said. “My record throw was considered the performance of the decade. That’s not too bad. Some nice things happened.”
Oldfield coached for a number of years at Lake Park and was still around the area’s throwing scene in 2010 when he watched Huntley star Marcus Popenfoose win sectional shot and discus titles. Popenfoose would go on to win the state discus title and become a Southeastern Conference (SEC) champion, NCAA qualifier and All-American in the shot put at Auburn.
“It’s really cool. He knows his stuff,” Popenfoose told the Daily Herald’s Jerry Fitzpatrick. “He can tell everything that I’m doing wrong. I know it’s there but he can see it. These guys who competed at higher levels just know so much more than any of us.”
And Oldfield’s knowledge and ability paved the way for many others such as the United States’ Ryan Crouser, who became the first men’s Olympian to win three shot put Gold medals with a throw of 75-1½ on Saturday in Paris.
“People copied (Oldfield’s technique),” Aikens said after Oldfield’s death, “and now the major throwers in the world, almost all of them use the rotational style similar to Brian Oldfield’s style.”