Celebrating The H.J. Lutcher Stark Center

Rogue Fitness Honors Terry Todd with Documentary Premiering at Austin Film Festival

The H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports announces the premiere and theatrical release of The Commissioner of Power, a feature-length documentary about the life and work of Terry Todd, Ph.D. 

Todd was the founder (with his wife Jan) of the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center in the College of Education and taught in the Department of Kinesiology & Health Education for 35 years specializing in research related to strength and sport history. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of strength training and strength coaching.

The Commissioner of Power premieres on Wednesday, October 27, 2021, as one of the marquee features of the Austin Film Festival. After making its premiere at The Austin Film Festival, The Commissioner of Power will be released online and a link will be provided at starkcenter.org and on Rogue’s various online platforms. The trailer can be viewed here.

The Stark Center Opens New Sculpture Exhibit Featuring Works By David L. Deming and Michael Deming

Degrees of Fitness / Sporting Bodies is a new exhibit at The H.J. Lutcher Stark Center featuring works by acclaimed sculptor and former dean of the UT Austin College of Fine Arts David L. Deming, as well as figures made by his son and fellow sculptor, Michael Deming. The exhibit opened on October 8, 2021.

David Deming is no stranger to the Forty Acres. His eight-foot-tall statue of football great Ricky Williams was unveiled in 2012. His life-size statue of Mike A. Myers adorns the track and soccer stadium. At UFCU Disch-Falk Field, Deming immortalized, in bronze, iconic coaches Billy Disch, Bibb Falk, Cliff Gustafson, and Augie Garrido. And, in the lobby of The Stark Center, a bronze medallion (bas relief) that Deming made as a gift for Terry and Jan Todd to commemorate the opening of the center hangs in a place of honor.

Michael Deming, David’s son, has established himself as a prolific and versatile sculptor creating both representational figures and abstract sculptures of wood and metal. Mike’s physical culture sculptures represent his deep interest in the beauty and power of the human body as athlete and body builder. The Stark Center is proud to be the first museum to exhibit these pieces.