{{Short description|American weightlifter (1922–2017)}} {{distinguish|Francis Spellman}} {{Use American English|date=April 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2017}} {{Infobox sportsperson | name = Frank Spellman | full_name =Frank Isaac Spellman | image =Frank Spellman 1951.jpg | image_size = 280px | caption = Spellman, circa 1951 | birth_date = September 17, 1922 | residence = | hometown = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | birth_place = Malvern, Pennsylvania, U.S.<ref name=obit/> | death_date = January 12, 2017 (aged 94)<ref name=obit/> | death_place = Gulf Breeze, Florida | spouse = Camylle | sport = Weightlifting | club = York Barbell Club<ref name=sr/> | occupation = machinist, photographer | worlds = | regionals = | nationals = | show-medals = yes | medaltemplates = {{MedalCountry | the {{USA}} }} {{MedalCompetition | Olympic Games }} {{MedalGold | 1948 London | -75 kg }} {{MedalCompetition|World Championships}} {{MedalBronze| 1946 Paris | -75 kg}} {{MedalSilver| 1947 Philadelphia | -75 kg}} {{MedalCompetition|Maccabiah Games}} {{MedalGold|1950 Israel|middleweight}} }}
'''Frank Isaac Spellman''' (September 17, 1922 – January 12, 2017) was an American machinist and photographer and a middleweight Olympic champion weightlifter. He won a gold medal at the 1948 Olympics, and a bronze medal and a silver medal at the World Championships in 1946–47. He also won a gold medal at the 1950 Maccabiah Games.
In the US, Spellman won the 1946 and 1948 Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) National titles. He resumed competing in 1961 and won another AAU title that year.
==Early and personal life== 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 forty-eight years of age, and was Jewish.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.naplesnews.com/story/sports/olympics/2016/07/31/olympic-fire-still-burns-93-year-old-floridian-frank-spellman-weighlifting-medalist/87883798/|title=Olympic fire still burns for 93-year-old Floridian Frank Spellman, weighlifting medalist|first=Jim|last=Seip|website=Naples News|date=July 31, 2016}}</ref><ref>Joseph M. Siegman (1992). [https://books.google.com/books?id=Qpiphgls99IC&dq=Frank+Spellman+weightlifter&pg=PA181 ''The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame'']</ref><ref name="auto">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n_j1DwAAQBAJ&q=Frank+Spellman+weightlifter&pg=PA264|title=Jewish Sports Legends: The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame|first=Joseph|last=Siegman|date= 2020|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|isbn=9781496201881|via=Google Books}}</ref> He had four siblings.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ydr.com/picture-gallery/sports/2016/07/13/photos-olympic-weightlifter-frank-spellman/87063864/|title=Photos: Olympic weightlifter Frank Spellman|website=www.ydr.com|date=July 13, 2016}}</ref>
From the ages of seven to seventeen, he lived in the Downtown Jewish Orphan Home in Philadelphia; he subsequently lived in South Philadelphia.<ref name="auto1"/><ref name="auto5">Kevin Farley (January 12, 2017). [https://web.archive.org/web/20170113155839/http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Weightlifting/Features/2017/January/12/Remembering-Frank-Spellman "Remembering Frank Spellman,"] teamusa.org.</ref> Beginning a long career in the sport, at the age of twenty, he became a US junior champion in middleweight representing the York Barbell Club.<ref name=Olympedia>{{cite web|url=https://iwf.sport/2020/09/17/anniversary-frank-isaac-spellman/|title=Anniversary, Frank Isaac Spellman, Sept. 17, 2020|work=International Weight Lifting Federation|date=September 17, 2020 |access-date=January 10, 2023}}</ref>
Drafted in 1942, Spellman served in the United States Army for three years during World War II.<ref name="auto4">{{Cite web|url=http://phillyjewishsports.org/2014/03/frank-spellman/|title= Frank Spellman|website=Philly Jewish Sports Hall of Fame}}</ref><ref name="auto1"/> In 1944, he fought in the Battle of the Bulge.<ref name="auto1"/>
After returning from World War II, he lived and was a machinist in York, Pennsylvania. Employed by York Barbell in Pennsylvania, he represented the York Barbell team. In 1952, he moved to Santa Monica, California, where he lived for eighteen years before relocating to Florida.<ref name="auto4"/><ref name="auto1"/><ref name="auto"/><ref>Carl Miller (2011). [https://books.google.com/books?id=nvg31rO1dM0C&dq=Frank+Spellman+weightlifter&pg=PA16 ''The Sport of Olympic-Style Weightlifting'']</ref>
In addition to weightlifting, Spellman was a professional photographer.<ref>Bernard Postal, Jesse Silver, Roy Silver (1965). [https://books.google.com/books?id=AgmDAAAAMAAJ&q=Frank+Spellman+weightlifter ''Encyclopedia of Jews in Sports'']</ref> He later lived in Gulf Breeze, Florida.<ref name="auto1"/><ref name="auto5"/>
Spellman died on January 12, 2017, at the age of ninety-four at Baptist Hospital in Gold Breeze. He was preceded in death by his wife Camylle Spellman. He had two brothers, Charlie and Harold, two sisters, Ethyl and Frances, and six children: Danny, Kevin, Katie, Yvonne, Larry, and Steve. In addition to photography, he had enjoyed woodworking and playing music as hobbys.<ref name=obit/><ref>"Obituaries, Frank Isaac Spellman", ''Pensacola News Journal'', Pensacola, Florida, pg. A14, 15 January 2017</ref>
==Weightlifting career== In 1942, Spellman won the US middleweight junior title in weightlifting.<ref name="auto"/><ref name="auto4"/>
Spellman won a bronze medal at the 1946 World Weightlifting Championships.<ref name="auto"/><ref name=chid/> That year he set a new US middleweight record with a press of 257.75 pounds.<ref name="auto"/> He also won the US Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) middleweight championship.<ref name="auto6">{{Cite web|url=http://www.chestercountysportshalloffame.com/inductees/2011/frank_spellman.html|title= Frank Spellman|website=Chester County Sports Hall of Fame}}</ref>
He won a silver medal at the 1947 World Weightlifting Championships, and a silver medal at the 1947 US championships<ref name="auto"/><ref name=chid/>
===Olympic gold medal=== Spellman won a gold medal at the 1948 Olympics in Men's 75 kg Weightlifting when he was twenty-five years old, setting Olympic middleweight (165 pound) records in the clean & jerk (336.25 pounds) and the total lift (859.5 pounds).<ref name="auto"/><ref name="auto5"/> That year he set a new US middleweight record with a press of two hundred and sixty pounds.<ref name="auto"/> He also won the US AAU middleweight championship.<ref name="auto6"/>
In 1949 Spellman won the North American middleweight title, and finished second in the United States championships.<ref name="auto"/><ref name="auto6"/>
Spellman competed at the 1950 Maccabiah Games in Israel, and won a gold medal at middleweight.<ref name=chid/><ref name="auto"/> That year, he set a new American middleweight record with a press of 261.75 pounds.<ref name="auto"/>
In 1951 he finished third in the US championships.<ref name=chid/><ref name="auto"/> In 1952, he finished second at lightweight in the US championships.<ref name=chid/><ref name="auto"/>
In 1954, he established a new world record during the American squat championships with a squat lift of five hundred and ten pounds; he weighed one hundred and seventy pounds at the time.<ref name="auto"/><ref name=chid/> Spellman finished second in light-heavyweight during the American championships.<ref name=chid/><ref name="auto"/>
Spellman resumed competing in 1971, at the age of forty-nine, and won his third national AAU middleweight title that year.<ref name=sr/><ref name="auto"/><ref name="auto6"/>
==Halls of Fame== 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.<ref name=chid/><ref name="auto"/> Spellman was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1983.<ref name="auto2">[http://www.phillyjewishsports.com/inductions/309.html Class of 2003/2004: Weightlifting] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319190453/http://www.phillyjewishsports.com/inductions/309.html |date=March 19, 2012 }}, Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Accessed February 2, 2011.</ref><ref name="auto3">[http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/FrankSpellman.htm FRANK SPELLMAN] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160605004901/http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/FrankSpellman.htm |date=June 5, 2016 }}, International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Accessed February 2, 2011.</ref> In 1990, he was inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://scjewishsportshof.com/spellman.html|title=FRANK SPELLMAN; Weightlifting - 1990|website=Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame }}</ref> He was then inducted into the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in its class of 2003/2004.<ref name="auto2"/><ref name="auto3"/> In 2011 he was inducted into the Chester County Sports Hall of Fame.<ref name="auto6"/>
==See also== *List of select Jewish weightlifters
==References== {{Reflist|refs= <ref name=chid>[http://www.chidlovski.net/liftup/l_athleteResult.asp?a_id=251 Frank Spellman]. chidlovski.net</ref> <ref name=sr>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200418102759/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/sp/frank-spellman-1.html Frank Spellman]. sports-reference.com</ref> <ref name=obit>[http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/pensacolanewsjournal/obituary.aspx?n=Frank-Spellman&pid=183578893 Frank Spellman (1922-2017) obituary]. legacy.com</ref> }}
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{{Footer Olympic Champions Weightlifting Middleweight}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spellman, Frank}} Category:1922 births Category:2017 deaths Category:American people of Austrian-Jewish descent Category:American people of German-Jewish descent Category:Sportspeople from Philadelphia Category:Sportspeople from York, Pennsylvania Category:Sportspeople from Santa Monica, California Category:American male weightlifters Category:Sportspeople from Chester County, Pennsylvania Category:Weightlifters at the 1948 Summer Olympics Category:Olympic gold medalists for the United States in weightlifting Category:Maccabiah Games medalists in weightlifting Category:Jewish weightlifters Category:Jewish American sportspeople Category:Competitors at the 1950 Maccabiah Games Category:Maccabiah Games gold medalists for the United States Category:United States Army Air Forces soldiers Category:United States Army personnel of World War II Category:Olympic medalists in weightlifting Category:Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics Category:People associated with physical culture Category:World Weightlifting Championships medalists Category:21st-century American Jews Category:20th-century American sportsmen