Fight On, Sim! Iness Set World Record In 1953

Something was missing when Sim Iness of Southern California threw a world record 190-0⅞ (57.93m) at the 1953 NCAA Track & Field Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska.

“Iness got off his throw with such ease he omitted his usual grunt,” reported Cordner Nelson of Track & Field News.

“The discus left my hand so easy I figured it wasn’t going very far,” explained Iness, repeating his title from 1952. “I never spun in the ring as fast as I did today.”

The ease of the throw belied the difficulty Iness experienced during the 1953 season.

Earlier in the year Iness – whose first name of “Sim” is actually short for “Simeon” – was dominating his collegiate competition much the way a 1952 Olympic gold medalist would be expected to. But a fall down some steps set him back some 25 feet from when he threw 185-5¼ (56.52m) in April – merely the longest by an American on U.S. soil.

Then, a week before the NCAA Championships, Iness was hit squarely in the mouth by a flying disc, leaving him questionable for the meet. But, when he eventually arrived in Nebraska and launched a meet record of 183-0 (55.78m) in the trials, everybody knew he was good to go.

The WR effort came on his third and final effort the next day in the finals as Iness successfully defended his NCAA title. Second place – for the second-straight year – went to teammate Parry O’Brien, who would go on to win repeat as NCAA shot put champion.

Fun fact: Iness was a high school teammate of Bob Mathias. Both graduated from Tulare (California) High School in 1948 and Mathias went on that summer to win the first of two Olympic golds in the decathlon. As the 10-eventer would not become part of the NCAA meet until 1970, Mathias was NCAA runner-up for Stanford in the 1951 discus and 1952 120-yard hurdles.