Your Past BB Idols, and how are they today?

[Old-Time-Lifter]

I recently got back into lifting (I used to powerlift never have done BB) and a few months back I started to wonder what ever happened to one of my all time favorite Bodybuilders Mike Mentzer. Well, I googled him and it was with surprisingly profound saddness that I learned both he and his brother Ray had passed on.

http://www.mikementzer.com/

I always admired him and used to have one of his books. I still have one of his 'Heavy Duty' tank tops somewhere. I resolve to get back into good enough shape to 'deserve' to wear that shirt again.

May Mike's memory live as long as those of us who admired him, and hopefully beyond.

With that who did you admire and do you know what they are up to today? Any recent pictures?

[Jimislash]

I recently got back into lifting (I used to powerlift never have done BB) and a few months back I started to wonder what ever happened to one of my all time favorite Bodybuilders Mike Mentzer. Well, I googled him and it was with surprisingly profound saddness that I learned both he and his brother Ray had passed on.

http://www.mikementzer.com/

I always admired him and used to have one of his books. I still have on of his 'Heavy Duty' tank tops somewhere. I resolve to get back into good enough shape to 'deserve' to wear that shirt again.

May Mike's memory live as long as those of us who admired him, and hopefully beyond.

With that who did you admire and do you know what they are up to today? Any recent pictures?

My idol since I was a kid was Steve Reeves. Sadly, he died several years ago. I was able to meet him and talk to him a little in Hawaii a few years back. He was an awesome person and very kind to me and this crazy lady fan who was all over him.

I liked Mike Mentzer as well. I got into his Heavy Duty book back in the early 90's. I had a chance to talk to him on the phone a couple of times to ask him questions about his HD and HD 2 books. Each time he answered the phone I was very surprised that I was speaking to him and not one of his flunkies.

[djflex]

I was always a fan of Franco columbo....have not seen any recent pics altough I have looked around. I loved watching his feats of strngth as well as his dedication to bodybuilding

[johnnyironboard]

He is no bodybuilder but this is the guy that got me started lifting weights. A lot of what I am today is because of him- We really thought he was going to die a few years ago.


http://www.saljournal.com/sports/story/coaching101708

Coaching, not cancer



South's Dunham cannot tell you the type of cancer he fought, but his coaching resume speaks for itself

By HUEY COUNTS Jr.

Salina Journal

Don't talk to Dave Dunham about quitting. He hates that word.

Talk to Dave Dunham about football. He loves that word.

After having to fight for his life less than five years ago after being diagnosed with a rare cancer, Dunham never said never to a return to coaching football.

So about the time he started feeling well enough to think about holding a clipboard again, he caught wind of the head coaching change at Salina South, a place where he had spent seven seasons working under Ken Stonebraker.

Stonebraker was slipping into the school's athletic director's jacket, and Chip Sherman was taking over the reins of the football program.

"I knew about the change coming here," said Dunham, who as a head coach at Scott City High School won Class 4A state championships in 1988, 1990 and 1991. "I loved Stoney, but when they introduced me to Chip I thought, 'I could work for that guy.' But I didn't know if I could work."

Dunham's hesitancy came from still feeling the effects of recovering from a 16-hour surgical procedure done at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., in August 2004 to remove cancer from the left side of his head and the extensive follow-up radiation and chemotherapy treatments.

He cannot remember the name of the cancer, just that the doctors at the prestigious clinic had only seen its strain three other times in adults; that it is typically a type that is found in children.

"I had a cancer that was rare as hell," he said. "It was in my sinuses. I had sinus problems all my life and never thought about it. The cancer had filled every crevice in the left side of my head.

"It was just about to take my left eye and move into my brain, and that's when we caught it, I felt a lump in a lymph node."

He said the doctors removed 31 lymph nodes, half of which were infected, and just a single membrane separated the cancer from his eye. The radiation and chemo pretty much fried his senses of taste and smell, and he has trouble generating saliva.

"I have to drink a heck of a lot of liquid," he said.

Road to recovery

After returning home, the 62-year-old Dunham said it was about year of recovery before he finally felt well enough to start exercising, working to regain his strength. He had to step down as the head coach at Bennington High School after two seasons.

"I had no stamina or balance whatsoever," he said. "I would fall. And I couldn't stand heat or cold."

So when he decided to join Sherman's staff as defensive coordinator earlier this year, he used the team's summer workouts as a trial run.

"I got to know these kids, got to know the coaches," he said. "Then again, I'd already worked with some of the coaches, coached against some of the coaches when they were players, and coached against some of them as coaches. So that's been fun."

During Dunham's first go round at South, Chris Barkley joined the staff after a successful run as the head coach at Ell-Saline High School, mainly to work alongside and learn from Dunham.

"At that time, I had aspirations to go to a bigger school (than Ell-Saline) to become a head coach, but I didn't feel I had a strong enough background defensively," Barkley said. "I had seen his teams at Scott City and was very impressed."

The early years

Dunham's resume is quite impressive. A native Nebraskan, he spent eight years as an assistant under Nebraska Hall of Fame coach Bill James at Bellevue High School before becoming a head coach at McCook High School, where his teams finished second in state twice in 10 years. He recalls those years under James as the ones that laid the foundation for who he is as a coach.

"More than anything else, he showed me that in coaching, you always want to have great kids and great assistants, but it's your work ethic as a coach that does this," he said. "I have never considered myself anything special as a thinker, but I can outwork the next guy."

After nine seasons at Scott City, and having two runner-up state finishes to go with three titles, he resigned, ready to move on to the next challenge, hopefully at a larger school. He ended up at Guymon (Okla.) High School for two seasons, then realized he was tired of being a head coach.

"I wanted to be a coordinator, and I wanted to work with good people in a good system," he said. "And as a coordinator you concentrate on just football and just what you do."

This was prior to the 1997 football season, and Randy Dreiling, then a South assistant, had announced he was moving to take the head coaching position at Hutchinson High School. Dreiling recommended his friend, Dunham, as his replacement.

"Coach Dunham has forgotten more about football than I will ever know," said Dreiling, who has coached Hutchinson to four Class 6A championships. "He has a passion for both football and strength training that has probably never been matched in Kansas. Some guys are good at one or the other. He excels at both."

Dunham says his cancer is in remission. He still has those days where his energy level isn't 100 percent, and some evenings he takes off his coach's cap a little earlier than usual. But his coaching philosophy has not changed, not in the least.

Said Barkley, "If there's a definition of 'old school' then that's Dave. He doesn't beat around the bush, and he expects things to get done. He is intense, he's very demanding and he has high expectations for the kids and he has no problem letting them know if they don't meet those expectations."

And he won't quit helping those same players reach those expectations.

[uncleroman]

i used to record the lee haney workout on my vhs and study it. i dont have a clue where he is now. but would love to see some then and now shots of these dudes.

[Old-Time-Lifter]

Somewhere I saw a picture of Franco? He didn't look too good.......

Wonder what happened to Boyer Coe?? Guess I'll have to google him.........

[DAVEZILLA]

well the BB that got me interested in lifting weights was Lou Ferrigno, when he played the Incredible Hulk I just remember watching that show as a kid and just wanted to look like that

[gbg]

[Do_Somethin]

My favourite? Nasser El Sonbaty. I have an autographed picture of him to. Also a video vhs that I haven't watched in a very long time since I don't have a vcr just dvd player.

http://www.hugenasserelsonbaty.com/

[GuyJin]

My personal favourite was always Steve Reeves. Of all the bodybuilders past and present, famous or not-so-famous, he had the ultimate shape and look that I've always tried to attain. (An impossible task). Although he passed on a number of years ago, his shape and his work ethic in the gym have stayed with me.

Along with John Grimek (also gone now) they were two of the few champs who aged impressively and retained a good deal of their size and shape as they entered their senior years. While I never had the opportunity to meet either of them or know what they were really like as people, they remain icons of the sport to me, if no one else.

[dungeonmistress]

kaye baxter-wick, deceased
pudgy stockton - don't know
franco columbu
frank zane
steve reeves
sergio oliva

[Old-Time-Lifter]

Sergio Oliva was just plain incredible. He was a high rep guy which I always found amazing......... kinda the opposite of Mentzer.

[oldsuperman]

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[Husky Bob]

As a kid, watching Steve Reeves/Reg Park as Hercules.

But didn't start lifting seriously until my late teens (late 70's) and was inspired by Arnold, Zane, and Mentzer the most I would say.

[wide lats]

Arnold was my idol although he had stopped competing and was in the films when i started training. I liked Eddie robinson, as for what hes doing now well hes on this site sometimes i got ignored off him so totally went off him, theres lots of idols like mentzer, Arnold was the man though.

[jugglingfreak]

Arnold and Big Lou were my idols since I saw "Pumping Iron" when I was 7..

[Marius_Ursus]

My idol since I was a kid was Steve Reeves. Sadly, he died several years ago. I was able to meet him and talk to him a little in Hawaii a few years back. He was an awesome person and very kind to me and this crazy lady fan who was all over him.

I liked Mike Mentzer as well. I got into his Heavy Duty book back in the early 90's. I had a chance to talk to him on the phone a couple of times to ask him questions about his HD and HD 2 books. Each time he answered the phone I was very surprised that I was speaking to him and not one of his flunkies.

Me too. Steve Reeves and Mike Mentzer were the only body builders whose advice I adopted and refined to fit my goals. I loved both of their writing and wisdom.

I held onto their magazine columns for years after they passed away.

I still have Reeves' frequency and diet advice memorized.

Damn...I'm gonna have to bust out a couple of Hercules movies in his honor.

[BuckSpin]

While now I can really appreciate the amazing symmetry & balance of a peak condition Frank Zane, back in the "day" there was only one guy who made my jaw drop....Sergio "The Myth" Oliva.

Here he is from the 84' Olympia. Lord knows how old he is in this. Definitely well in his 40s. IMHO any discussions about the greatest triceps ever start & end with him.

Every time I watch this I just get j-a-c-k-e-d up....great routine/music! Move any spillables from near your keyboards:

[phikappa]

Remember Danny Padilla?

[Marius_Ursus]

Remember Danny Padilla?

So very strange...something about his head looks wrong, like it's too small for his body. o_o

[dungeonmistress]

anyone remember "mr thighs" tom platz? whatever happened to him? and what about larry scott - didn't he invent the preacher bench or am i once again confusing person with what they are famous for?

[IR45N]

Two that always impressed me were Jussup Wilcoscz for his hard muscular build and Mike Katz in Pumping Iron for his amazing chest. Don't know where/how they are today.

Going way back, there was a teen BB'er; a Ron Teufel (I think he has passed away) and Mike Quinn and ? Shane Demora (?) back in the '80s.

[Old-Time-Lifter]

anyone remember "mr thighs" tom platz? whatever happened to him? and what about larry scott - didn't he invent the preacher bench or am i once again confusing person with what they are famous for?

Platz was absolutely incredible....... he was big all over, but them thighs!

I always liked Larry Scott (yes he came up with preacher curls) too, preacher curls used to be very uncomfortable for me, but now I've gotten to really like them and have recently incorporated them into my workout. But I do them with dumbells, a barbell is still uncomfortable to me anyways. But Scott had some great, great guns.......

[Bo_Flecks]

I got to see Mike Mentzer give a siminar at the 1983 North Carolina State Powerlifting Championships. I really remember two things vividly about what he said that day.

First, he said that he never trained abs. He said that his abs got all of the work they needed through his squat routines.

Secondly, he had some obvious venom for Arnold Schwarzenegger. I read later that he felt he should have won the 1980 Olympia and blamed Arnold for the loss.

I really enjoyed his presentation that day, but was never able to make any of his "heavy duty" training method really work for me.

[johnnyironboard]

I got to see Mike Mentzer give a siminar at the 1983 North Carolina State Powerlifting Championships. I really remember two things vividly about what he said that day.

First, he said that he never trained abs. He said that his abs got all of the work they needed through his squat routines.

Secondly, he had some obvious venom for Arnold Schwarzenegger. I read later that he felt he should have won the 1980 Olympia and blamed Arnold for the loss.

I really enjoyed his presentation that day, but was never able to make any of his "heavy duty" training method really work for me.

he was a thinker for sure. I went to one of his seminars around the same time. "you can train hard or you can train long but you can't do both"

[joed]

While now I can really appreciate the amazing symmetry & balance of a peak condition Frank Zane, back in the "day" there was only one guy who made my jaw drop....Sergio "The Myth" Oliva.

Here he is from the 84' Olympia. Lord knows how old he is in this. Definitely well in his 40s. IMHO any discussions about the greatest triceps ever start & end with him...

24 years later...




Guess who's my fav bodybuilder:



Trick question of course, both are.

[dungeonmistress]

my favorite female bb of all time would have to be cory everson. IMO she had it all. I know she split from jeff a long time ago and married a dr of some sort I think.

[Old-Time-Lifter]

Lisa Lyon, she was the first and one of the best.

[dungeonmistress]

Lisa Lyon, she was the first and one of the best.

there's a pic of lisa in the ladies locker room at my gym. from pumping iron, the ladies, i believe. oh remember rachel mclish? she was another pioneer of the sport.

[OutOfStep]

Tom Platz - I have his picture on my fridge. Those legs!!

Arnold - I grew up watching his movies and Pumping Iron blew my mind the first time I saw it. I also read Education of a Bodybuilder when I joined my first gym and it had a big impact on me.

Skip La Cour - His size and thickness really opened my eyes to what was possible as a natural athlete. His writing has had a tremendous impact on my life.

Dorian Yates - Yates circa 93 & 94 was unbelievable and would blow Cutler and any of these new cats right off the stage. His book Blood and Guts was another big influence on me and my approach in the gym.

Larry Scott - Awesome. I learned a lot of different ways to tweak exercises from reading the column he used to have in Muscle and Fitness.

A lot of others whose physiques I've admired: Frank Zane, Robby Robinson, Lee Priest, Steve Reeves, Lee Labrada, Shawn Ray.