For The Helds, The Javelin Is A Family Affair

Bud Held of Stanford was a brilliant javelin thrower. But his true genius was sharing a design with his brother who would become the world’s foremost maker of javelins.

In 1950, Held became the first of only two three-time NCAA javelin champions (Patrik Boden, who competed at Texas and holds the current collegiate record in the event, was the other from 1989 to 1991). Shortly after graduating, Held began making his own javelins. The only catch was he couldn’t sell them, due to amateur rules at the time.

That’s when older brother Dick, also a Stanford grad, became involved, and the implement has never been the same. Bud threw one of his brother’s new inventions in 1953 and surpassed the 80-meter (262-5) mark for the first time to become the first American to set a world record in the event.

In fact, over the next 25 years, each and every world record javelin throw was made with a javelin created by the Held family.

Even the landscape of the NCAA javelin changed: By 1955, none of Bud’s winning throws would even score as the Held javelins were in prime usage.

Dick Held was also instrumental in the 1986 redesign of the men’s javelin. “The IAAF rule makers tried for several years, without much success, to modify the javelin specifications so as to lessen the danger,” Bud said. “Though Dick smiled with satisfaction at their failure, he eventually explained to them how to change the specifications to make the javelin a safer sport.”