When Roger Knapp of Melrose, Mass. was 5, he learned to skate. At 8, he learned to swim. Later, to build up his arm and shoulder muscles, he climbed ropes in his back yard. In high school he played football, in the Y. M. C. A. went in for basketball, boxing, gymnastics. Last year he began conscientious efforts to improve his strength. As the result of this diligence, Professor Frederick Rand Rogers, Dean of Student Health & Physical Education at Boston University, last week was able to declare Roger Knapp, at 17, the strongest boy of his age in the U. S.
Young Roger Knapp can lift 1,165 Ib. attached to a bar across his thighs. He can raise 765 Ib. shoulder high, has a 159-Ib. grip with his left hand, a 155-lb. grip with his right. He chins himself 30 times in succession. Stretched on the floor, he raises and lowers himself by his arms 80 times in succession. He weighs 175 Ib., stands 6 ft.
Mrs. Knapp credits her big boy's strength to the home-cooked food she feeds him : a substantial breakfast of hot cereal, fruit, bacon & eggs, milk; a light noon lunch; a light mid-afternoon lunch; a dinner of meat, potatoes, one other cooked vegetable, green salad, two pieces of pie. He drinks a quart of milk a day, no tea, no coffee.
Proud are the Knapps that Roger never failed in school, that he is smart in mathematics. The family have not decided whether to send him to Temple University in Philadelphia or to Y. M. C. A. College in Springfield, Mass. Since he prefers exercise to study they agree that, like Professor Rogers, he should become a teacher of physical education.
When Robert Wadlow of Alton, Ill. was 9 he could lift his 150-lb. father. By last week Robert Wadlow, 18, had become the biggest man in the world, but he could not lift even his small brother (see cut). He stands 8 ft. 3¾ in., weighs 390 Ib., wears size 39 shoes ($86 a pair). During the past year he gained 2 in. in height, continues to grow, may not reach his full growth until he is 21.
Robert Wadlow's giantism is due to dysfunction of the small, chestnut-like pituitary gland, which lies under the front part of the brain. Among the many results which follow pituitary disorder is muscular weakness. Vast Robert Wadlow must move slowly and deliberately, lest he drop things or stumble. At Shurtleff College, where he is a freshman, he ranks well above the average. His best subject is German. When he graduates he expects to become a lawyer.