‘Born swinging’: Tom Burrows and the forgotten art of endurance club swinging

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. To date Burrows’ has only featured as an insignificant historical figure in a handful of works on strength sports. See David P. Willoughby, The Super-Athletes: A Record of the Limits of Human Strength, Speed, and Stamina (New York: A. S. Barnes, 1970) and Graeme Kent, The Strongest Men on Earth: When the Muscle Men Ruled Show Business (London: Biteback Publishing, 2012).

2. While biographies such as David Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent: Eugen Sandow and the Beginnings of Bodybuilding (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2006) and David Waller, The Perfect Man: The Muscular Life and Times of Eugen Sandow, Victorian Strongman (London: Victorian Secrets, 2011) are exclusive by nature it is interesting that two of the foremost physical culture studies tended to focus primarily on a handful of physical culturists. See Michael Anton Budd, The Sculpture Machine: Physical Culture and Body Politics in the Age of Empire (New York: NYU Press, 1997); Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska, Managing the Body: Beauty, Health, and Fitness in Britain 1880–1939 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).

3. A particularly notable example of this is Burrows’ contemporary Eugen Sandow, whose personal biography was continually changed depending on the showman’s audience and more significantly, his consumers. See Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent, 4.

4. Tom Burrows, Club Swinging as Applied to Health, Development, Training & Display (Aldershot: Gale & Polden, 1906), viii.

5. Ibid.

6. ‘Club Swinging in Delirium’, The Leeds Mercury, 21 April (1913), 8.

7. Covered in detail in Conor Heffernan, ‘Indian Club Swinging in the Early Victorian Period’, Sport in History 37, no. 1 (2017): 95–120.

8. Bruce Haley, The Healthy Body and Victorian Culture (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978), 137.


9. Heffernan, ‘Indian Club Swinging’, 100–5.

10. Donald Walker, British Manly Exercises: in Which Rowing and Sailing Are Now First Described, and Riding and Driving Are for the First Time given in a Work of This Kind …  (London: Hurst, 1834), 263.

11. Jan Todd, ‘From Milo to Milo: A History of Barbells, Dumbells, and Indian Clubs’, Iron Game History 3 (1995), 8.

12. Ibid. and Simon D. Kehoe, The Indian Club Exercise: With Explanatory Figures and Positions: Photographed from Life: Also, General Remarks on Physical Culture: Illustrated with Portraitures of Celebrated Athletes, Exhibiting Great Muscular Development from the Club Exercise …  (New York: Peck & Snyder, 1866), IX. See also Alice J. Hoffman, Indian Clubs (New York: Harry N Abrams, 1996), 1–12.

13. Matthew Taylor, ‘The Global Ring? Boxing, Mobility, and Transnational Networks in the Anglophone World, 1890–1914’, Journal of Global History 8, no. 2 (2013): 231–55.

14. John Nauright, ‘Sport, Manhood and Empire: British Responses to the New Zealand Rugby Tour of 1905’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 8, no. 2 (1991): 239–55; Chris Bolsmann, ‘The 1899 Orange Free State Football Team Tour of Europe: Race, Imperial Loyalty and Sporting Contest’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 28, no. 1 (2011): 81–97.

15. Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent, 55–70; Carey A. Watt, ‘Cultural Exchange, Appropriation and Physical Culture: Strongman Eugen Sandow in Colonial India, 1904–1905’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 33, no. 16 (2016): 1921–42.

16. A point forcefully argued in Alfred Moss, Simple Indian Club Exercises (London: Athletic Publications, 1905).

17. Ibid., 5–10.

18. Tom Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (London: Health & Strength, 1908), 12.

19. ‘A Chat with Tom Burrows’, Star, 23 May (1908), 4.

20. Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (1908 Edition), v–x.

21. Ibid., 58.

22. For a more recent example, see Dave Day and Samantha-Jayne Oldfield, ‘Delineating Professional and Amateur Athletic Bodies in Victorian England’, Sport in History 35, no. 1 (2015): 19–45. Other well-known works include Richard Holt, Sport and the British. A Modern History (Oxford: Clarendon, 1992); Norman Baker, ‘Whose Hegemony? The Origins of the Amateur Ethos in Nineteenth Century English Society’, Sport in History 24, no. 1 (2004): 2–6 and Christiane Eisenberg, ‘The Middle Class and Competition: Some Considerations of the Beginnings of Modern Sport in England and Germany’, The International Journal of the History of Sport 7, no. 2 (1990): 267–8.

23. Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (1908 Edition), 58.

24. Tom Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (Aldershot: Gale & Polden, 1900), 13.

25. ‘A Chat with Tom Burrows’, Star, 23 May (1908), 4.

26. One of the earliest competitions appears to have been held in Leeds in 1876. ‘Leeds Athletic Club’, Leeds Mercury, 8 March (1876), 2.

27. Henry Washington, ‘The Evolution of Indian Club Swinging: A Chat with Mr. George Cobbett’, in Sandow’s Magazine of Physical Culture, Vol. IV: January to June (London, 1900), 43.

28. Gertrud Pfister, ‘The Role of German Turners in American Physical Education’, in G. Pfister (ed.), Gymnastics, a Transatlantic Movement: From Europe to America (London: Routledge, 2010), 15–20.

29. Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (1908 Edition), v–x.

30. Michael Anton Budd, The Sculpture Machine: Physical Culture and Body Politics in the Age of Empire (New York: NYU Press, 1997), 152.

31. Kent, The Strongest Men on Earth, 1–20.

32. Zweiniger-Bargielowska, Managing the Body, 1–22.

33. Ibid., 46.

34. Ibid.

35. For a history of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, see E.A.L. Oldfield, History of the Army Physical Training Corps (Aldershot: Gale & Polden, 1955).

36. Ibid., and James D. Campbell, ‘The Army Isn’t All Work’: Physical Culture in the Evolution of the British Army, 1860–1920 (London: Ashgate, 2012), 6–10.

37. Oldfield, History of the Army Physical Training Corps, 5.

38. Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (1900 edition), xi.

39. Budd, The Sculpture Machine, 26–8.

40. Archibald Maclaren, A Military System of Gymnastic Exercises for the Use of Instructors (London: The War Office, 1862), 1–10.

41. Maclaren, A Military System of Gymnastic Exercises.

42. Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (1900 edition), xi.

43. ‘A Chat with Tom Burrows’, Star, 23 May (1908), 4.

44. Ibid.

45. ‘Athletics’, The Bristol Mercury and Daily Post, 25 April, (1894), 8.

46. ‘Record Club Swing’, York Herald, 24 April (1894), 8.

47. Tom Burrows, ‘Colonel Deane's Great Feat’, Health & Strength, 21 June (1913), 627.

48. Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (1908 Edition), 13.

49. Ibid.

50. David Webster, Barbells and Beefcake: Illustrated History of Bodybuilding (London: DP Webster, 1979), 36.

51. This was addressed by Burrows publically in 1900. Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (1900 edition), 16.

52. ‘A Chat with Tom Burrows’, Star, 23 May (1908), 4.

53. Vanessa Heggie, ‘A Century of Cardiomythology: Exercise and the Heart c.1880–1980’, Social History of Medicine 23, no. 2 (2010): 280–98.

54. Hopton Hadley, ‘Echoes of the Great Tom Burrows’ Swing’, Health and Strength, 3 May, (1913), 464.

55. Burrows, Club Swinging as Applied to Health, Development, Training & Display (1906 edition), IX.

56. Ibid.

57. ‘A Chat with Tom Burrows’, Star, 23 May (1908), 4.

58. Ibid and Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (1900 edition), 12.

59. Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (1900 edition), 12.

60. Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent, 122.

61. ‘A Chat with Tom Burrows’, Star, 23 May (1908), 4.

62. Ibid.

63. Ibid.

64. Ibid. For a secondary work, see Kent, The Strongest Men on Earth, 46–50.

65. Burrows, Club Swinging as Applied to Health, Development, Training & Display (1906 edition), 13.

66. Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (1900 edition), 1–15.

67. Eugen Sandow, Strength and How to Obtain It (Aldershot: Gale & Polden, 1897); Ferdinand August Schmidt, and Eustace Miles, The Training of the Body for Games, Athletics, Gymnastics, and Other Forms of Exercise and for Health, Growth, and Development (London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1901); Jeorgen Peter Muller, My System For Ladies-15 Minutes' Exercise A Day For Health’s Sake (New York: Stechert, 1905); George Hackenschmidt, The Way to Live: Health & Physical Fitness (London: Health & Strength, 1911).

68. Ibid., I–X.

69. Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (1908 edition), 9.

70. Hopton Hadley, ‘Echoes of the Great Tom Burrows’ Swing’, 464.

71. Richard Holt, ‘The Amateur Body and the Middle-class Man: Work, Health and Style in Victorian Britain’, Sport in History 26, no. 3 (2006): 361.

72. Ibid.

73. Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (1900 edition), 16–20. Other authors employing such approaches in England at this time included Alfred Moss, Parallel Bar Exercises (London: Athletic Publications, 1900); J. P. Müller, My System: 15 Minutes' Exercise a Day for Health’s Sake (London: Athletic Publications, 1904); Sid Hammer, Feats of Strength (London: Athletic Publications, n/d).

74. Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (1900 edition), 11.

75. Ibid., 21–22.

76. Ibid.

77. Randy Roach, Muscle, Smoke and Mirrors: Volume One (Bloomington: AuthorHouse, 2008), 20–40 deals with the often ad hominem criticisms made of rival training systems at this time.

78. Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (1908 edition), 18.

79. Ibid., 19.

80. MacLaren’s views were made clear in A Military System of Gymnastic Exercises for the use of Instructors and also a series of articles written in the book’s aftermath for MacMillan’s Magazine. See, for example, Archibald Maclaren, ‘Private Schools for Boys: Their Management’, Macmillan’s Magazine, 9 (1864): 383–92; Archibald Maclaren, ‘Girl’s Schools’, Macmillan’s Magazine 10, no. 59 (1864): 409.

81. Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (1908 edition), 19.

82. Ibid., 1.

83. David Levinson and Karen Christensen Encyclopedia of World Sport: From Ancient Times to the Present (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 157–8.

84. Ibid., 16.

85. Kent, The Strongest Men on Earth, 69; Roach, Muscles, Smoke and Mirrors, 65–70.

86. Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent, 190; Kent, The Strongest Men on Earth, 173.

87. Kent, The Strongest Men on Earth, 173.

88. Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (1908 edition), 60–2.

89. ‘Tom Burrows Record’, The Liverpool Echo, 6 May (1914), 6.

90. Alan Stuart Radley, The Illustrated History of Physical Culture: The Muscular Ideal. Vol. 1. (Blackpool: Alan Radley, 2001), 50.

91. One early example of this was ‘Indian Clubs’, Health and Strength, 4 October (1901), 178 & 193.

92. Tom Burrows, ‘Leaguer Tom Burrows Sends a Message’, Health and Strength, 7 July (1912). Coutley Collection (University of Texas Stark Archives). Available at https://archives.starkcenter.org/handle/11048/2895. Accessed on 7 December 2016.

93. Jared van Duinen, ‘Playing to the ‘Imaginary Grandstand’: Sport, the ‘British World’, and an Australian Colonial Identity’, Journal of Global History 8, no. 2 (2013): 342–64.

94. One prolonged absence came in 1906 when Burrows spent several months on tour in South America. Burrows, The Text-Book of Club Swinging (1908 edition), 15.

95. ‘Athletics’, The Edinburgh Evening News, 26 December (1906), 6.

96. Ibid.

97. Helen C. Long, The Edwardian House: The Middle-class Home in Britain, 1880–1914 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993), 8.

98. Two examples of this can be found in ‘The Worlds Champion Club Swinger’, Dublin Daily Express, 10 September (1907), 3; ‘Indian Club Championship’, Lancashire Evening Post, 8 January (1907), 6.

99. Alfred Moss, a fellow club swinger who spoke highly of Burrows was similarly published by Health and Strength. Staff Sergeant Alfred Moss, Simple Indian Club Exercises (London: Health and Strength, 1905).

100. Tom Burrows, ‘Leaguer Tom Burrows sends a message’.

101. Ibid.

102. Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent, 74.

103. ‘Club Swinging’, Cornishman, 10 August (1911), 6.

104. Olive Anderson, Suicide in Victorian and Edwardian England (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).

105. ‘Club Swinging’, Brisbane Courier, 29 August (1911), 5; ‘Club Swinging Extraordinary’, Gloucestershire Echo, 13 October (1911), 1.

106. ‘Club Swinging Extraordinary’, Gloucestershire Echo, 13 October (1911), 1.

107. Ibid.

108. Ibid.

109. Ibid.

110. Ibid.

111. Ibid.

112. Ibid.

113. Gus Hill and Tom Burrows, Club Swinging (New York: Richard K. Fox, 1913).

114. ‘The Last Few Rounds’, Health and Strength, 6 September (1913), 233.

115. Ibid.

116. Ibid.

117. Ibid.

118. Ibid.

119. Hopton Hadley, ‘Echoes of the Great Tom Burrowes’ Swing, Health and Strength, 3 May, (1913): 464.

120. Ibid.

121. Ibid.

122. ‘The Last Few Rounds’, Health and Strength, 6 September (1913), 233.

123. ‘Club Swinging in Delirium’, The Leeds Mercury, 21 April (1913), 8.

124. ‘Magazines’, Lichfield Mercury, 25 April (1913), 8.

125. ‘Sporting Paragraphs’, Nottingham Evening Post, 21 April (1913), 8.

126. 'Record Club Swing', Manchester Evening News , 6 May (1915), 7.

127. A point covered, somewhat unsympathetically, in Kent, The Strongest Men on Earth, 290.

128. ‘Twenty Four Hours Game of Billiards’, Sheffield Weekly Telegraph, 14 August (1920), 21.

129. W.A. Pullum, ‘Random Recollections’, Health and Strength Magazine, 27 December (1951), 24–5.

130. Willoughby, The Super-Athletes, 308.

131. This is covered at length in Michael Anton Budd, The Sculpture Machine: Physical Culture and Body Politics in the Age of Empire (New York: NYU Press, 1997).

132. That is not to say that sports existing on the periphery have eschewed extreme competition in any way. See Dimitris Liokaftos, ‘Professional Bodybuilding and the Business of ‘Extreme’ Bodies: The Mr Olympia Competition in the Context of Las Vegas’s Leisure Industries’, Sport in History 34, no. 2 (2014): 318–39.

133. Samantha-Jayne Oldfield, ‘Running Pedestrianism in Victorian Manchester’, Sport in History 34, no. 2 (2014): 223–48.

134. The author wishes to thank the anonymous peer reviewers for their thoughtful and helpful suggestions, particularly when dealing with the national and transnational context surrounding Burrows.