Bob Backus

Robert ("Bob") Hudson Backus (July 11, 1926 – June 30, 1999) was an American track and field athlete who set world records in the hammer throw. He wore ballet slippers during competition and after using weight training to overcome the effects of meningitis.

Backus was born on July 11, 1926, in Boston. At 6 feet, 5 inches in height and 160 pounds, Backus was rejected by the United States Army Air Forces' cadet program as he was deemed too thin. As part of his efforts to recover from spinal meningitis, Backus took up weight training and bulked up into a 290-pound strongman, despite concerns that such training would make him "musclebound". He also set a record in February 1959 for the 35-pound weight with a distance of 66 feet 2¾ inches, one of five world records set at the Amateur Athletic Union's national indoor track and field championships at Madison Square Garden. He won U.S. titles in the 56-pound event each of the seven years from 1953 to 1959 and won seven out of eight years from 1954 to 1961 in the 35-pound throw.

Backus died at age 72 on June 30, 1999, at Boston's Vencor Hospital, having suffered a stroke in December 1998 and been in poor health for several years before his death. His first marriage, to Elsa Torikka of Finland, who he had met at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki where she had competed in the javelin, ended in divorce.