Mike Ellis

Hammer thrower Mike Ellis attended Loughborough College and subsequently represented the Universities Athletics Union. It was in 1959 that he threw a personal best 64.95 (213´1”) in the match between past and present Loughborough College students against the AAA at Loughborough. It was also a UK all-comers, British National, British Empire, and English Native record, and remained a UK record until broken by Howard Payne in 1968. Ellis´s previous PB was 62.90 established when winning the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games gold at Cardiff.

Ellis was a vice-president of The Hammer Circle (The Association of British Hammer Throwers) formed in 1952 and, between 1957-60, he won four consecutive AAA titles. At the 1960 Roma Olympics he finished 15th despite being the fourth best thrower behind three Eastern Bloc athletes in qualifying.

Ellis later became a games master at a Hemel Hempstead school and retired from competitive athletics in 1961. He had a great physique for a rugby forward and he played club rugby for Camelot RUFC, a local Hertfordshire club, before joining the crack Leicester Tigers in 1962. Ellis later emigrated to Canada and then the United States. He coached hammer throwing in Canada and in 1967 did his PhD at Illinois University.

Personal Best: HT – 64.95 (1959).