Apollo

[Roark]

William 'Apollo' Bankier was born Dec 10, 1870

and became a marvelous strength athlete for

Scotland and had his famous flour sack that

weighed about 280 pounds, and Willoughby

described it: "The sack was tightly pressed down,

and was quite unlike an ordinary sack of flour." The

sack did not stand tall so contestants trying for the

L10 (pounds) of money, had to lie on the floor with

their back against the sack and try to manuver it

onto their back, and then stand with it. Usually,

of course, ir rolled off,

Apollo could also hold five pool cues horizontal using

the adductor muscles of one hand. (pool cues...was

chalk allowed?)

Apollo died in 1949.

Dec 10 was also the day in 1890 that the McCann

Brothers and Sandow contested.

And Dec 10, 1955 was the day Joseph Curtis Hise's

mother, Amy, passed away, having suffered a heart

attack two days earlier.

[blueshadow]

Thanx for the trivia Roark its all very fascinating! Always interesting!! :0

[Guest 68-1005097157]

I'm having some difficulty visualizing this; why exactly would they have to lie on top of the flour?  There are numerous men out there who can pick up a 280 lb sandbag, and the usual method involves putting at least one hand below the bag, that is, touching the ground.  The trick is simply to round one's back to the extent necessary; the height of the sack would not really matter to a round-back lifter.  It would seem extremely awkward to pick up a huge sack while lying on top of it, or perhaps this was the manner of lifting required by Apollo in his challenge for him to give out the money?

[Roark]

DocDeadlift,

What I meant to communicate was that by lying with

the lifter's back to the sack, then the lifter would grab

the sack, then lifter is face down on floor with the sack on

top of his back; then go to knees, so that standing is

possible with the sack on back.

Saxon had two flour sacks, one of  themhad an offset 56

lb   weight in it, so the sack was not 'centered weighted'

and if you did not know where the 56 pound weight was in

the sack, you would probably fail. Saxon's sacks have been

variously reported as 300 and 336 and even more; the heavier he would dust with slippery chalk.

Here is some text from nearly 100 years ago: Health &

Strength Feb 1903:

Last night at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, there

was an exciting scene, the outcome of the offer of

Apollo, the Scottish athlete, to give L100 to Arthur

Saxon, or either of his partners appearing as the Saxon

Trio, who can lift a sack of flour weighing over 280 lbs.,

to put it in his arms, ohis shoulder, and successfully

carry it off the stage. The challenge was taken up by

Arthur Saxon, but he could only get the sack up to his

shoulder, when it fell to the stage. Again he attempted it,

but with as little success."

The text goes on to describe Saxon's sack as 2'6" in

height and 5' in circumference, and one had to 'bear hug'

the sack, which of course Arthur had length of arm to do

but Apollo could not grasp his hands around the sack, and

thus declined the challenge.

Further, Arthur claimed he had carried off Apollo's sack

in November 1902.

Confusing, conflicting sides to this story! Perhaps atvarious times, different methods were employed to lift the sacks?

[Guest 68-1005097157]

Roark,

  That's very interesting.  I suppose if it was slippery as well, to carry it offstage would be extremely difficult in sandbag fashion.  However, I find the detail about the miscellaneous off-center weight to be rather disconcerting; it would seem to imply that this was (to some extent) another oldtime strongman trick rather than a real test of strength.  I've heard of similar ones, e.g., a strongman challenges anyone to lift his challenge dumbbell during a show.  A huge manual laborer comes up, grasps the bell by the fancy grip in the center not realizing that the center of mass of the bell is actually 6" off-center, and because of this loses balance and fails.  But still, 280 lbs is this manner is quite remarkable.