Frank Spellman

Spellman was born in Malvern, Pennsylvania, to Sara, an Austrian immigrant and seamstress, and David, a German immigrant and stone quarry foreman who died at 48 years of age, and was Jewish.[3][4][5] He had four siblings.[6] From the ages of 7 to 17 he lived in Downtown Jewish Orphan Home in Philadelphia; later he lived in South Philadelphia.[3][7]

He was drafted in 1942, and served in the US Army for three years during World War II. [8][3] Spellman fought in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944.[3] After returning from fighting in World War II he lived in and was a machinist in York, Pennsylvania, at York Barbell and represented the York Barbell team, and in 1952 moved to Santa Monica, California, where he lived for 18 years before moving to Florida.[8][3][5][9]

Outside of weighlifting, Spellman was a professional photographer.[10] He later lived in Gulf Breeze, Florida.[3][7]

Spellman died on January 12, 2017, at the age of 94. He had two brothers, Charlie and Harold, two sisters, Ethyl and Frances, and six children: Danny, Kevin, Katie, Yvonne, Larry, and Steve.[1]

In 1942 Spellman won the US middleweight junior title in weightlifting.[5][8]

Spellman won a bronze medal at the 1946 World Weightlifting Championships.[5][11] That year he set a new US middleweight record with a press of 257.75 pounds.[5] He also won the US Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) middleweight championship.[12]

He won a silver medal at the 1947 World Weightlifting Championships, and a silver medal at the 1947 US championships[5][11]

Spellman won a gold medal at the 1948 Olympics in Men's 75 kg Weightlifting when he was 25 years old, setting Olympic middleweight (165 pound) records in the clean & jerk (336.25 pounds) and the total lift (859.5 pounds).[5][7] That year he set a new US middleweight record with a press of 260 pounds.[5] He also won the US AAU middleweight championship.[12]

In 1949 Spellman won the North American middleweight title, and finished second in the US championships.[5][12]

Spellman competed at the 1950 Maccabiah Games in Israel, and won a gold medal at middleweight.[11][5] That year he set a new US middleweight record with a press of 261.75 pounds.[5]

In 1951 he finished third in the US championships.[11][5] In 1952 he finished second at lightweight in the US championships.[11][5]

In 1954 he established a new world record at the US squat championships with a squat lift of 510 pounds, as he weighed 170 pounds.[5][11] Spellman finished second in light-heavyweight at the US championships.[11][5]

Spellman resumed competing in 1971, at the age of 49, and won his third US national AAU middleweight title that year.[2][5][12]

Spellman was elected to the United States Weightlifting Hall of Fame, the Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame, and the Porterville Quarterback Hall of Fame.[11][5] Spellman was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1983.[13][14] In 1990 he was inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.[15] He was inducted into the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in its class of 2003/2004.[13][14] In 2011 he was inducted into the Chester County Sports Hall of Fame.[12]

• List of select Jewish weightlifters