Clarence Darrow Hooper (born 30 January 1932) is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 athlete who competed mainly in the shot put.

In 1949 he graduated from North Side High School

North Side High School (Fort Worth, Texas)

North Side High School is a public secondary school located in Fort Worth, Texas.The school serves about 1,600 students in the Fort Worth Independent School District.- History :...

 in Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...

, and went on to attend Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...

. He won the NCAA shot put title in 1951. By the time he graduated from college, he had a wife and two children. He competed for the United States in the 1952 Summer Olympics

1952 Summer Olympics

The 1952 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Helsinki, Finland in 1952. Helsinki had been earlier given the 1940 Summer Olympics, which were cancelled due to World War II...

 held in Helsinki

Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...

, Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 in the shot put. Hooper's last throw was just two centimeters away from winning the gold medal: Parry O’Brien's shot put measured 17.41 (57' 1 1/2"), while Hooper's measured 17.39m (57' 3/4") Hooper won the silver medal.

In the Olympic trials

United States Olympic Trials (track and field)

The United States Olympic Trials for the sport of Track and Field is the quadrennial meet to select the United States representatives at the Olympic Games. Since 1992, the meet has also served as the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Because of the depth of competition in some events,...

, Hooper had beaten O'Brien with an almost mirror image of the Olympics, 17.41m listed as (57' 1 3/8") while O'Brien shot putted 17.38 (57' 1/2"). It was O'Brien's last defeat before an unprecedented 116 straight victories over the next 3 years, 364 days. Both athletes left Jim Fuchs

Jim Fuchs

James "Jim" Emanuel Fuchs was an American athlete who competed in both the discus and shot put. He developed a new shot-putting technique in order to compensate for a leg injury, and then used what he called "the sideways glide" to set world records and dominate the sport over a two-year span in...

, the World Record holder at the time, relegated to third place with a 17.36m. That ended Fuchs' string of 88 consecutive consecutive victories that dated back to 1949.