porky little keg
MuscleHead
- May 21, 2011
- 1,225
- 647
Bonus memories for you young folk: PLUSA did PL mostly but had other strength sports as well. A monster named Cleve Dean was the absolute king of wrist wrestling for a short while back in the late 70's - early 80's(?) A naturally strong pig farmer from rural USA, 6'8" tall, well up into the 400's in weight, he was "clocked" one time @ 465lbs. Some conjecture at the time of what he could do in PL, although he was said to be a stranger to the weights, and strapped with back troubles. PLUSA ran a pic of him lumbering away from the camera, cited the 465 bodyweight, said Cleve was gonna drop the 3 lbs, and enter both the 220lb and 242lb class in the next contest.
Same time period, either early PLUSA or original Iron Man, can't remember, Dennis Wright owned the 181lb class in the USA. Could never catch the great English lifter Ron Collins due to a weak deadlift, but his subtotals crushed all but Collins for a while. Writing in one of those mags, Terry Todd, who kinda pioneered "erudite" in musclehead articles, observed that "Dennis' nemesis is the deadlift" (it's better if you say it out loud).
Little gems from little known magazines that were hard to find on newstands, you pretty much had to stumble on one somewhere, and then subscribe.
Cleve was a monster for sure! If you get a free 90 minutes get on youtube and check out the 1979 worlds strongest man contest..... Cleve, Kaz, and Don Reinhount (sp?) all MONSTERS!