Charles Hubbard - Champion Buckeye Grenade Slinger - 1918

April 1, 2015 - Yes, the Buckeye Track and Field team (Charles Hubbard, individual champ) owns the all-time inter-collegiate record in hand grenade throwing. Sound like an April Fool's spoof? Don't bet all your lunch money against it...

In early spring 1918, the United States had been fighting in World War I for nearly a year, and the war effort at home was going strong. Here at OSU, the campus was home to a barracks, machine-gun range, and a small hospital. A school for military aeronautics was open for one year (1917-1918), an aviation laboratory opened, and an airplane landing field was installed.

So, naturally, someone came up with the idea of including a hand-grenade tossing competition at track events to prepare student cadets once they hit the front lines in France. The Lantern first reported about it in March 1918:

http://library.osu.edu/blogs/archives/2013/04/05/when-being-close-really...