Rhode Island's love affair with hammer started with Tootell

By Brian Towey for DyeStat

Rhode Island’s connection to the hammer throw extends back nearly 100 years. 

As one of the few states to contest the event (Ohio throws it and New York allows it at invitationals), the tiny state’s love affair with the hammer began with a quirk in history. 

“It started with the 1924 Paris Olympian Fred Tootell (Olympic gold medalist in the hammer throw),” said Bob Palazzo, track and field coach at Classical High in Providence. 

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“He was returning from the Olympic Games, passing through New England to New York – this was by train. 

“Frank Keaney, who was the athletic director at the University of Rhode Island – it was Rhode Island College at that time – he knew he had an opportunity. So he sent Tootell a telegraph and asked Tootell to stop by for supper.” 

Tootell accepted the invitation. 

“He got off the train and the rest is history,” Palazzo said. “He coached track, he coached tennis, he coached a lot of things. He developed the hammer throw at the University of Rhode Island. He had many Olympians. His disciples stayed on and many became coaches at the local level." 

One of those disciples was Al Morrow. A football player and discus thrower at Boston College, Morrow learned the hammer from Tootell, then passed it on to his athletes during 55 years as a teacher-coach at Classical High. 

“He was a mentor to me,” said Palazzo, who has coached at Classical for 27 years. 

The hammer has enjoyed a unique place in Rhode Island track and field lore. The state has produced many All-Americans. 

“It’s the best-kept secret,” Palazzo said. “A lot of our kids take advantage of throwing the hammer at the college level. It’s getting more difficult because Ohio throws it, Georgia has a good program, and New York is throwing it more. So it’s like anything else, as more athletes throw it, the distances are getting farther and farther.” 

Still, with programs like Classical and Barrington, coached by Bob Gourley, producing scores of top-flight throwers, Rhode Island remains a factor in the hammer. 

“We’re not dominating the way we used to (but we’re still doing well),” Palazzo said. 

And it all started with Tootell. 

“A train stopped in Kingston,” Palazzo said. “Frank Keaney didn’t know what he was getting. All he knew was he wanted an Olympian.” 

McGrath making it fun for New York Hammer Club 

Paddy McGrath has mastered all types of throws: shot put, discus, weight throw. But the hammer has a special resonance. 

“It’s a great feeling,” said McGrath, an Olympic hammer thrower for the Republic of Ireland at the 2000 Sydney Games who began throwing the hammer at a boarding school in Ireland when he was 13.

“‘I’m free.’  It’s a hypnotic feeling. That’s why I did it for so many years.” 

In Ireland, once the school year is over, scholastic throwers would train with club teams. In turn, they’d receive instruction from a junior national coach. Following college, after McGrath had begun working as a special education teacher in the Bronx, he approached his former Manhattan College throws coach and mentor, Roman Feldman (originally a hammer thrower in the former Soviet Union) and throws colleague Kevin Sullivan. 

“I said to (fellow coach) Kevin Sullivan and Roman Feldman, ‘Let’s start a club,’” said McGrath. “It’s a European-based idea. We had a field to compete in.” 

 Alec Faldermeyer from Minisink Valley High was one of the first athletes McGrath worked with. 

“We started 7, 8 years ago,” McGrath said. “Our first real national champion was Faldermeyer. He was the national champion in the weight throw in 2009. He was the national champion in the hammer in 2008 and 2009.” 

Faldermeyer later moved on to UCLA. 

“After that I got a new kid,” McGrath said. “He threw 130 feet in the hammer as a freshman. By the time he left high school, he threw 260 feet.” 

That new kid’s name was Rudy Winkler. He attended Averill Park High and travelled two and half hours each way to train with McGrath. 

“My freshman year I did the weight throw at New Balance Nationals indoor,” Winkler said. “He approached me and said, ‘I’d like to coach you.’ 

“I went to one of his camps. Within a week I was throwing 10 feet farther. I was like, ‘Hey, this guy really knows what he’s doing.’” 

Winkler, with McGrath as his coach, won the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials in the hammer with a throw of 251-10 (76.75m). At the Rio Olympics, Winkler finished 18th overall, throwing 235-10.25 (71.88m). 

“From the day he started training with me to the day he won the Olympic Trials it was six years,” McGrath said. 

Why has McGrath had so much success teaching the hammer?  He thinks the answer lies in his teaching background. 

“I work in special education with kids with disabilities as an adapted physical education teacher,” McGrath said. “I think it gives me the patience to teach.” 

McGrath has worked for 19 years with the New York City Board of Education in the Bronx. It’s complemented his throws background well. 

“Sometimes I see other coaches get frustrated if a kid’s not picking something up,” McGrath said. “You want to ask yourself, ‘Why isn’t what I’m doing working?’ Reevaluate. You’re always trying to figure out what makes (athletes) tick.” 

In conveying the lessons of the hammer, as in teaching in special education, the approach is the same. 

“If a kid’s throwing 130 feet or the kid’s trying to go from 265 to 270 feet, it doesn’t matter,” McGrath said. “It’s really the same thing. 

“You’ve got to keep it simple. You’ve got to keep them focused. And I make it fun. … That’s important – it has to be fun.” 

At New Balance Nationals Outdoor, the New York Hammer Club Squad was dominant. 

Jillian Shippee, who recently graduated from Shenendehowa High in New York, won the girls hammer with a throw of 192-10 (58.77m). Among the club’s boys, Michael and Steven Feldman (the sons of McGrath’s Manhattan College coach, Roman Feldman) of Tottenville High on Staten Island, finished third (212-9) and fourth (211-8) and Jason Wright, a senior from St. Anthony’s High (South Huntington, N.Y.) placed eighth (196-11). 

Jack Zimmerman, whom McGrath works with as the throws coach at Briarcliff High, finished 12th (187-00) and junior Joe Ryan of Massapequa High finished 15th (185-11). 

“If you look at the top guys in New York, we’re all coached by Paddy,” Ryan said. “We’re all coming from the same guy.” 

For many of McGrath’s athletes, the hammer has become a path to college.  In addition to Faldermeyer and Winkler, nine athletes have gone on to Ivy League schools, the latest of whom are the Feldman brothers, who will enroll at the University of Pennsylvania in the fall. 

“I really think the hammer and weight is a good opportunity for kids to get into good schools, go to an Ivy League school, or get a college scholarship,” McGrath said. “Especially for girls – there’s more money on the girls side.” 

Shippee, who owns the No. 6 all-time throw in the hammer at 196-1 (59.76m), began working with McGrath in October 2016 after he sent her an e-mail following New Balance Nationals Outdoor. 

“He found me and sent me an e-mail after nationals,” said Shippee, who will throw at the University of North Carolina. 

“He’s only about two hours away. It was just perfect.” 

The Hammer Club Squad has trained on a patch of farmland in Walkill, N.Y., owned by the family of one of his throwers, Ryan Diener of Walkill High. 

“They have a good squad with a lot of different levels,” Shippee said. “It’s fun to work with newbies and also Rudy Winkler, who trains with us.” 

Shippee said that McGrath’s reliance on the fundamentals makes him unique as a coach. 

“He starts with the basics,” Shippee said. “A lot of coaches start with the whole (form). He starts very technically, very in-depth. 

“A lot of kids are deterred by that because it takes a long time to get the technique and the base. We do a lot of drills. Once you get the technique down and the drills down, it’s smooth sailing.” 

Shippee knows there are many components that need to be in place for a successful throw. 

“I always refer to it as a ‘dance,’” said Shippee. “If one turn is off then the rest are off. The stars have to be aligned for a good throw.” 

In the New York Hammer Club Squad, one of the most gratifying things for Shippee is to watch newcomers arrive in the fall. 

“They come in and they can’t turn or anything,” said Shippee. “It’s kind of cool to see them grow and see kids take it up.” 

Ryan was one of those newbies.  His best in the hammer was 71 feet when he arrived at McGrath’s Club in October. 

“At the beginning it was something different,” Ryan said. “I’d never been coached by anyone that good. Paddy’s thrown for Ireland in the Olympics.” 

Following his work with McGrath, Ryan threw 196-4 (59.84m) this spring. 

“It was cool because I saw the progression almost immediately,” Ryan said. “The numbers go up and up.” 

The final Hammer Club Squad success story is Tom Reiser, a 6-foot-5, 280-pound football player from Minisink Valley High. 

Reiser began throwing the hammer and weight throw with Hammer Club Squad coach Kevin Sullivan last year. Reiser progressed to 73-0.75 (22.26m) in the weight and topped 200 feet (60.96m) in the hammer. He’s signed to throw at the University of Wisconsin. 

“The hammer helped him get to college,” McGrath said. “He probably couldn’t have gone to the University of Wisconsin for football.” 

Shippee had an apt metaphor for the transformation athletes undergo with the New York Hammer Club Squad. 

“It’s like Narnia,” Shippee said. “They come in one way and come out a different way.”