Men's Track and Field | September 23, 2026

ON THE PLAQUE: One of the greatest field athletes in Penn history, he captured the 1959 NCAA Championship in the shot put and won three IC4A titles, five Heptagonal championships, and two Penn Relays crowns during his decorated career. He became Penn's first three-time Indoor Heptagonal champion in the same event and twice won the Outdoor Heptagonal title in the shot put. A team captain and recipient of the prestigious Class of 1915 Award, he set a standard of excellence that has endured for generations. More than 65 years after his graduation, his outdoor shot put mark of 58 feet, 9½ inches remains the program record. 

By Joe Juliano

Carl Shine was an outstanding field event participant for the Penn Quakers in the late 1950s, with his specialty being the shotput.

So how exceptional was he?

In his three seasons of track and field competition from 1957 through 1959 (freshmen were not allowed to compete then), Shine won three letters and etched his share of shot put titles into the Penn record books. In fact, his outdoor mark of 58 feet, 9 ½ inches late in his senior year remained the best in program history some 60 years after his graduation.

Captain of the track and field team in his final season, he earned first-team All-America honors at the 1959 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, winning his event with a throw of 57-11 ¾.

Dr. M. Carl Shine Jr. MTE'59, GR'68, who passed away in 1998, is being honored posthumously as a member of Class XIV of the Penn Athletics Hall of Fame that will be inducted on Sept. 25.

The list of Shine's achievements at Penn was legendary.

He won back-to-back shot put championships at the Penn Relays, unleashing a toss of 56 feet, 6 ½ inches in 1958 and another of 56-2 ¾ in 1959. The 1958 competition marked the second-longest throw at the carnival in the 1950s, with only Ken Bantum (59-1 ¾, 1956) of Manhattan having thrown farther.

The carnival in 1958 attracted a crowd of 43,618 to Franklin Field, which the New York Times said was "the largest crowd ever to see a track meet in the East." The competition back then was held in the stadium infield.

Shine was a three-time IC4A champion, winning shotput titles outdoors in 1958, indoors in 1959 and outdoors in 1959. He also captured five titles in the Heptagonal/Ivy League Championships – three indoors (only the second athlete to win three times indoors) and two outdoors.

Shine also distinguished himself at the 1959 AAU National Indoor meet in Madison Square Garden, finishing runner-up to Olympian Parry O'Brien in the shotput. According to the New York Times, he had been "nursing a lame throwing shoulder most of the season," but still managed a throw of 55-11 ½ good for second place behind Jim Marchiony of Manhattan.

"During that period, Carl and John Haines (Penn's top sprinter) were the two top athletes on the track team, and together they represented the university very well in at-large NCAA and USA/AAU competitions," said Josh Seeherman EAS '01, a former member of the Quakers' track team.

Shine was the 1959 recipient of Penn's Class of 1915 Award presented annually to the member of the senior class who "most closely approaches the ideal University of Pennsylvania athlete." The award was based on "outstanding athletic, academic and leadership qualities."

He also received the Cane Award, presented to the outstanding senior "elected by his classmates for exceptional service and leadership within the university community," as well as the General Alumni Society Award of Merit.

After receiving his degree from Penn, Shine attended graduate school at MIT. He was believed to have considered trying out for the 1960 U.S. Olympic track and field team but felt he needed to devote all of his time to his school studies. He reportedly went on to work in the digital industry.

During Penn's illustrious track and field history, Shine was one of the four NCAA champions representing the Quakers in the weight throws – shotput, discuss, javelin and hammer – ranging from 1932 (Grant McDougal, hammer) to 2003 (Brian Chaput, javelin) to 2015 (Sam Mattis, discus).

After graduating from Penn, Shine earned an advanced degree in electrical engineering from MIT and went on to a successful career at Digital Computing in East Fishkill, N.Y. He also received two graduate degrees in metallurgy – a Ph. D from Penn and a M.S. from MIT.

Shine was an exceptional track and field athlete at Newton High School in Newton, Mass., where he won seven Class A state championships in the 1950s. He entered the Massachusetts State Track Coaches Association Hall of Fame posthumously in 2019. Shine's brother accepted the induction in his honor.