National High School Records Through the Years

Boys Outdoor Record – Hammer

Alfred Plaw (Oakland High School, Oakland, California) 

Performance – 166 feet, 2 inches (12-pound hammer)

Date – Oct. 9, 1897

Place – San Francisco (Olympic Club Grounds)

Meet – Amateur Athletic League Championships

Previous Record – 156-8 by Plaw in Oakland March 28, 1897

Plaw was a big 16-year-old for his day (6-0, 197). He had been throwing the hammer for about a year, breaking the HSR four times between March and October of 1897. He won the league hammer title 128 years ago this week. The AAL champs were held twice a year, in the spring and fall, and were the occasion for a big turnout as young people from the East Bay crossed San Francisco Bay for the championships in the city. “The annual Field Day was the occasion of an immense turnout of high school students and their friends,” wrote the San Francisco Chronicle, “and at noon already outward bound cars (streetcars) were filled with an enthusiastic and excited crowd of yelling students from across the Bay, all gayly bedecked with colored ribbons to indicate their partisanship. Fish horns provided suitable accompaniment to the school cries and yells with which the downtown streets were greeted.” Plaw went on to attend Cal-Berkeley, for which he won the IC4A hammer in 1900. He also competed in the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis.

National High School Records Through the Years appears once a week, compiled and written by a track historian, Jack Pfeifer (Lake Oswego, Oregon). Inquiries may be directed to him by email (jack.pfeifer@gmail.com).     

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