Houser, "Bud" (Lemuel C.)
Track and Field
b. Sept. 25, 1901, Winnigan, MO
Houser was the last athlete to win both the shot put and the discus in the Olympics, in 1924, when he was a student at Southern California.
He carried the U. S. flag at the opening ceremonies of the Amsterdam Games in 1928; he was then a practicing dentist and he was competing only in the discus throw. He almost failed to qualify for the finals because he fouled on the first attempt and the discus slipped out of his hand on the second. But he made a good throw on his third and final attempt, then went on to win the gold medal.
Houser won the IC4A discus throw in 1925 and both the discus throw and shot put in 1926. He was the NCAA discus champion in 1926. He won national championships in the discus in 1925, 1926, and 1928, and in the shot put in 1921 and 1925.
On April 3, 1926, he set a world record with a discus throw of 158 feet, 1 3/4 inches. The record stood until 1929.