Memory Lane

[Bigtex]

Back when the 220 was a new weight class, all the reigning Stars were in other weight classes. Jim Cash is the first name I learned @ 220. (similar memory about the then-new 275 weight class; Larry Kennedy was the first "name" there that I remember). Pretty sure this was all around the time 198 was all Pacifico, 242 was Doug Young, and Kaz was the next great Super.

(there was no 308 back when I became a fan)

Mike Bridges ... HE was "all that" around that time too. His fame came from being the guy who toppled legends like Crain + Gaugler @ 165, and from gh abuse gossip discussing the size of his forehead. What I'll always remember most was how he described PL-style Squats as looking like Grandma easing herself back onto a chair ... as opposed to how OLs and BBs did Squats

I know most all of those guy personally. Larry Pacifico and Cash were from the same town. I know RIcky Dale Crain very well as he hated John Inzer. Met Bridges and Kaz, Ted Arcedi. I did not get along at all with Ed Coan. Fred Hatfield was a very close friend of mine for years and got me a job writing for Muscle and Fitness when he was Editor. How about this one Gus Rethwisch talk about having a huge fall out with an individual. I still won't talk to Gus to this day.

 

[rawdeal]

I know most all of those guy personally. Larry Pacifico and Cash were from the same town. I know RIcky Dale Crain very well as he hated John Inzer. Met Bridges and Kaz, Ted Arcedi. I did not get along at all with Ed Coan. Fred Hatfield was a very close friend of mine for years and got me a job writing for Muscle and Fitness when he was Editor. How about this one Gus Rethwisch talk about having a huge fall out with an individual. I still won't talk to Gus to this day.

Quite a crowd you've rubbed elbows with there. Lol, when you mentioned the Hawaii Meet up in post #8, Gus was who I thought of right off, was that one of his Meets? I have hazy memories of him being a Super who was close but not quite top level but who at least could share a platform with the very top guys, whose best lift was the Deadlift, and who used to promote a big Hawaii Meet every year for a while.

Not sure Arcidi is a 100% consensus or not, but he was most peoples' pick as the first 700lb Bencher back when all Benches were done raw. This was when I was still reading about Pat Casey's first 600 and Jim Williams' miss at 700, and those numbers were like what the 4 Minute Mile must have seemed like to ppl decades earlier. Arcidi went into pro wrestling cause it paid better than Benching, but also ran his own mail order supps company for a while, before the Internet, think he called it RCD Supplements or something like that, which my young brain thought was pretty clever. I ordered a "multi pack" vitamin-mineral product from him where you got a handful of caps + tabs in a plastic envelope x 30 or 60, or however many days you'd ordered for. A relatively small amount of the tabs were slightly crushed in transit, I never said a word, just took the fragments anyway, I was too star-struck. HE musta heard bad batch complaints from some ppl, however, and tracked everybody who'd ordered down by phone a week or so later offering free replacements ... impressed the hell outta me. Soft New England voice didn't match the image at all, it was kinda like getting a phone call from your favorite MLB, NFL, or NBA player apologizing for spelling his name wrong on an autographed picture you'd bought .....

 

[Bigtex]

Quite a crowd you've rubbed elbows with there. Lol, when you mentioned the Hawaii Meet up in post #8, Gus was who I thought of right off, was that one of his Meets? I have hazy memories of him being a Super who was close but not quite top level but who at least could share a platform with the very top guys, whose best lift was the Deadlift, and who used to promote a big Hawaii Meet every year for a while.

Not sure Arcidi is a 100% consensus or not, but he was most peoples' pick as the first 700lb Bencher back when all Benches were done raw. This was when I was still reading about Pat Casey's first 600 and Jim Williams' miss at 700, and those numbers were like what the 4 Minute Mile must have seemed like to ppl decades earlier. Arcidi went into pro wrestling cause it paid better than Benching, but also ran his own mail order supps company for a while, before the Internet, think he called it RCD Supplements or something like that, which my young brain thought was pretty clever. I ordered a "multi pack" vitamin-mineral product from him where you got a handful of caps + tabs in a plastic envelope x 30 or 60, or however many days you'd ordered for. A relatively small amount of the tabs were slightly crushed in transit, I never said a word, just took the fragments anyway, I was too star-struck. HE musta heard bad batch complaints from some ppl, however, and tracked everybody who'd ordered down by phone a week or so later offering free replacements ... impressed the hell outta me. Soft New England voice didn't match the image at all, it was kinda like getting a phone call from your favorite MLB, NFL, or NBA player apologizing for spelling his name wrong on an autographed picture you'd bought .....

Yes that was one of Gus' meets. Imagine this....Fred Hatfield was there too and squatted 1000. He actually had them move the squat racks when he got under the weight so he didn't have to walk it out (see below). Later Fred also criticized those who use the Monolift. I liked Fred but he was one of the sports biggest critics of equipment aside from Ed Coan. Talk about sour grapes.

I set a world record in one of Gus's meets and two years later he took it from me and wanted me to set it again and be drug tested. I had already retired from lifting and told him to go fuck himself. We got into a huge shouting match. Especially was pissed after Ryan Kennelly was his poster child and Gus himself hid the fact Ryan tested positive. He was known for charging for testing and dumping the results in the dumpster on the way out of town. Gus has tried to make peace a couple of times through Tiny Meeker but I have no intention of talking to him nor do I care about my record there.

 

[TheChosen1]

I was a big fan of Clark during the 90s. Before internet, I was a subscriber of about 4 different magazines (none of the Weider wacky favoritism mags). I can't recall which of the mags posted a segment of Anthony Clark and, I swear, they did him NO justice. Granted, Anthony Clark was a huge guy but he was a major ass kicker in the powerlifting community. The magazines posted pics of him sitting on a bench in his gym and growling over a bbq pit as steaks and chicken were being cooked. All and all, the photographer made him look like some tub of lawd that knows nothing about lifting, only eating. IMO, it was a bodybuilding/powerlifting/fitness magazine that should have presented their subject as such.

R.I.P AC. You was a bad ass!

 

[IronSoul]

Man this is so cool. It’s not often we get to experience shit and memories like this. I miss the old days bro. Thanks for the post


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[Madrokaleb]

great memories, guys!