Frenn took up track and field in 1957 at North Hollywood High School, initially competing as a runner rather than a thrower.[3] He got interested in hammer throwing in 1959 after seeing Olympic champion and world record holder Hal Connolly throw in a local meet.[4] He improved rapidly, placing sixth at the 1962 NCAA championships with 169 ft 7 in (51.69 m);[5] in that meet, he represented Abilene Christian University, a school he only briefly attended.[4] In 1963 he showed good form from the early spring and placed second behind defending champion Al Hall at the national (AAU) championships, throwing 198 ft 10 in (60.60 m);[6]Track & Field News ranked him the third-best American that year, behind Connolly and Hall.[7] Nevertheless, he failed to gain selection either to the Pan American Games or the dual meet against the Soviet Union in Moscow.[4]
Frenn suffered an injury in April 1964 and lost his best form;[3] he returned to the NCAA championships, this time throwing for Long Beach State, but again only placed sixth.[5] He slipped from third to ninth in the United States[7] and failed to qualify for the 1964 Summer Olympics,[8] although with the emergence of Ed Burke as a third top thrower alongside Hall and Connolly, making the Olympic team would in any case have required Frenn to improve his personal best considerably.[8] In 1965 Frenn placed third behind Connolly and Burke at the national championships, throwing 210 ft 2 in (64.06 m),[6] and regained his ranking as #3 in the United States.[7] Frenn injured his back in training in August 1965,[9] and then his leg just before the 1966 national indoor championships, where he would have competed in the 35-lb weight throw.[3] At the 1966 outdoor championships Frenn only threw 199 ft 5 in (60.78 m) and placed fourth.[6]
By 1967, the outdoor 56-lb weight throw had become an obscure event; it rarely featured in meets, had only been contested once at the AAU national championships after 1959, and the International Amateur Athletic Federation didn't ratify official world records in it.[10][11][12] Nevertheless, Frenn took it up that year after a friend mailed him a free weight;[13] in his first competition with the outdoor weight he threw 45 ft 10+1⁄2 in (13.98 m), which would have broken Bob Backus's world best of 45 ft 2 in (13.77 m) from 1957, but his implement was found to have been slightly too light.[13] Later that year he legitimately broke the record at the Rose Bowl Invitational, smashing Backus's mark with a throw of 48 ft 3⁄4 in (14.64 m).[13][14] Frenn also improved in the hammer, throwing 220 ft 11 in (67.34 m) in Sacramento on June 10 for a new personal best;[2][15] at the national championships he threw 213 ft 7 in (65.10 m) and placed second as the winner, Burke, set a new American record of 235 ft 11 in (71.91 m).[6] Frenn was selected for the 1967 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, where he placed third with a throw of 64.08 m (210 ft 3 in) as fellow American Tom Gage won gold.[16]
In 1968 Frenn placed second at the national championships with a throw of 214 ft 11 in (65.51 m),[6] but at the Olympic Trials, which were held separately, he only managed 210 ft 1 in (64.03 m) and missed out in fourth place as Burke, Hall and Connolly qualified for the team for the second consecutive Olympics.[17] In November, after the Olympics, Frenn improved his personal best to 226 ft 6 in (69.04 m) in Long Beach.[2][18] In 1969 Frenn threw the 35-pound indoor weight 73 ft 3+1⁄2 in (22.33 m) to beat Connolly's world best from 1960;[19] he also broke his own world best in the 56-pound weight throw that year, improving to 49 ft 7 in (15.11 m).[20] In the hammer, Frenn placed second in the AAU meet for the third consecutive year; despite throwing 227 ft 2 in (69.24 m), he still lost to Gage by a foot and three inches.[6] Nevertheless, Track & Field News ranked him the #1 hammer thrower in the United States for the first time, ahead of Connolly and Gage.[7]
Frenn won his first national track and field championship title (he had previously become national champion in powerlifting) at the 1970 AAU indoor championships, throwing the 35-pound weight 70 ft 5+1⁄2 in (21.47 m) to beat Connolly, Gage and Hall.[21][22] That summer he also won his first national title in the hammer throw, throwing 230 feet (70 m) and beating Gage by a foot and seven inches;[6] in practice before the championships he reportedly threw 248 feet (76 m), which would have been a world record if duplicated in competition.[23] His best in official meets was 232 ft 7 in (70.89 m), which he reached in Berkeley on May 30; that mark was then the third-best by an American, and would remain his career best.[1][24] He appeared on the cover of the Sports Illustrated's July 6, 1970, issue.[23][25]
In 1971 Frenn repeated as national champion in both the hammer and the indoor weight and was ranked the #1 hammer thrower in the United States for the third consecutive year;[6][7][22] in the indoor weight, he broke Connolly's meeting record from the 1960 championships with his throw of 71 ft 4 in (21.74 m).[22] He also broke his own world best in the outdoor weight for a final time, reaching 49 ft 8+1⁄2 in (15.15 m).[26] At the 1971 Pan American Games in Cali he won silver in the hammer with a throw of 65.68 m (215 ft 5+3⁄4 in), losing to Hall by only six and a half inches.[27] In 1972 he won his third consecutive title in the indoor weight, breaking his championship record from the previous year with a throw of 72 ft 4 in (22.05 m).[22][28] Later that winter he threw 74 ft 2+3⁄4 in (22.62 m) in a dual meet against the Soviet Union to break his own world record.[29] That summer Frenn finally qualified for his first Olympics, albeit narrowly; with his throw of 224 ft 7 in (68.45 m), he placed third at the 1972 Olympic Trials and got the last spot on the team behind Gage and Al Schoterman.[30] At the Olympics in Munich he only reached 62.14 m (203 ft 10 in), placing 27th in the qualification round and failing to qualify for the final.[1]
Frenn's results in the hammer started slipping after 1972, and he never placed in the top three at the national outdoor championships again,[2][6] although in 1973 he was still ranked second in the country despite only placing sixth in the AAU meet.[7] He remained a top weight thrower, however; between 1970 and 1977 he won six indoor national titles, only missing out in 1974 (when he was the best American but lost to France's Jacques Accambray)[31] and in 1976, when he was a close second behind Larry Hart.[1][32] In 1975, he competed as a hammer thrower in his third Pan American Games, but only placed seventh with a throw of 63.22 m (207 ft 5 in).[2] He announced his retirement from track and field after the 1980 national indoor championships.[33]
Other sports
Frenn was also a good powerlifter, although he mostly approached that sport as training for hammer throwing; consequently, he concentrated on the squat and deadlift more than the bench press, as bench press was less good for his throws.[3] In 1967 he became the first national powerlifting champion in the 242 pounds (110 kg) weight class despite the runners-up comfortably beating him in the bench press.[34] Frenn helped promote powerlifting and challenged the authority of Bob Hoffman in the sport;[35] with Joe Weider, Frenn organized one of the first international powerlifting meets, a competition between American and British lifters, in 1970 despite opposition from Hoffman.[3][35]
Frenn worked as a high school teacher in California for thirty-two years. Frenn worked at Cerritos High School in Cerritos, California, where he was both a weightlifting coach (Physical Education) and science teacher.[38] In 1982 he helped his friend Tom Waddell promote the inaugural Gay Olympics in San Francisco and carried the torch into the stadium during the opening ceremonies;[39] he also competed in the meet, winning gold in the hammer throw.[40] Frenn, who was not homosexual, later regretted this, as being mistaken for gay interfered with his teaching and social relationships.[38] Frenn died in Sacramento, California, on June 26, 2006.[1]
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to George Frenn.
Note 1: In 1888 both the NAAAA and the AAU held championships
OT: The 1920, 1928, 1932, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 championships incorporated the Olympic Trials, otherwise held as a discrete event.
2020 OT: The 2020 Olympic Trials were delayed and held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.