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July 29, 2010, 04:29:21 pm |
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V I S I T I R O N A G E . U S
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Author
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Topic: The 60's Chicago Muscle (Read 13752 times)
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Terry Strand
Olympia Level
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Posts: 1658
Old School...
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Russ Knipp and Joe Puleo at our 2004 Reunion!
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Terry Strand
Olympia Level
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Posts: 1658
Old School...
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Bill Seno
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greekmuscle
Olympia Level
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Gender: 
Posts: 1636
Natural Born Ironager
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Mr. Capallupo very interesting stories! Keep them coming please! Can you tell us please the basic nutrition guidelines Mr. Zale taught you? Thank you  Norm - Taught me what was healthy to eat. Some examples were egg whites, amino acids, brewer's yeast, vitamin C, what was high in carbs and what was easy for the body to digest. Thus, I changed my eating habits to lean proteins, lower carbs and dumping processed refined foods. I use to eat American cheese until I was taught that American cheese is processed....So I ate only the natural cheddar. So by eating correctly, I obtained the appropirate protein to build muscle and by eliminating the junk foods (simple carbs), my physique took on a more defined look. Norm was a head of time with regards to diets and nutrition. Today, almost everyone has the knowledge at hand. The one special thing that he taught me was how to read the labels. Thus I was educated in my food selections. He said, "the protein should be the highest content and the carbs should be the lowest....If it had sugar in the ingredient's, do not eat it." Thanks, Frank
Thank you!
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live for something, or die for nothing
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Robert Forbes
Olympia Level
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Posts: 2279
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Frank,
You're sort of our missing link as we all try to reassemble the story of Chicago muscle men, contests, and history. I've approached some of our other iron brethren, but either they don't use the internet, or don't type....so I guess it'll be up to us guys to flesh out the the "Golden Age of Chicago Iron" with memories, stories, photos, and nostalgia.
I would say it all began with Reeves winning the Mr. A here in 1947, through Irvin Johnson [a.k.a. Rheo H. Blair], Klein, Kleiner, Bill Seno, the 1964 Mr. A at Lane Tech, Bob Gajda, Sergio beating the pants off Arnold, Shutz, Clyde, Kutzer, Zale, Crockett, Eugene Korycki, Gruber, Larry Scott's trip to pose down at Duncan with Oliva, Artman, Dr. Paul Joseph, Lou Hopfe, and dozens of others who also belong on this list. Probably ended with the 1969 Mr. A at DePaul, Gajda's leaving Duncan, and the final death knell was the rise of powerlifting and the elimination of the clean and press by the 1972 Olympics. Maybe we can count Tim Belknap and Lance Dreher as the grand finale as distant suburbanites in Rockford, IL, who dominated the Mr. A and Mr. U contests a week apart in the early 80's.
Below is Sergio with Bill Pearl in October, 2004, at the Reunion of Chicago Iron Banquet....Ed Coan and Ernie Frantz were also there and 175 other muscleheads from back in the day!
It's sad to see the transformation in Sergio's physique from that 2004 picture to now. In only 4 or 5 years Sergio has gone from being in very good shape to looking frail now. I could be wrong but in that 2004 photo Sergio looks like his old self, pretty well built.
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Robert Forbes
Olympia Level
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Posts: 2279
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More Chicago 60's muscle:
Me circa 1966 lifting in an AAU Olympic meet, representing the Ravenswood YMCA Team here in Chicago.
Managed to win the middleweight class with this feeble 265 pound C&J. Senior in high school at the time, I think.
Looking extremely GQ and stylish in my blue Richard Simmons workout trunks and gray street socks.
Competed in Olympic lifting, Power lifting, and Physique...now you can't even find an Olympic contest to enter!
Nice old picture Terry - Some of future stories, I write about the bodybuilding shows in Chicago during the 60's. Most bodybuilders including my self, along with Sergio, Gadja, Smeja and Seno, were Olympic lifters at the morning show and then put on the posing trunks and oiled up for the evening physique show. I held the Illinois novice record for the 148 lbs. class a C&J 255 lbs. at the age of 18. Frank
Given that Sergio was still competing in Olympic Lifting, how would he pump up for his bodybuilding show later that day Frank?
I've read that Sergio would basically do a complete workout before showtime, is this what happened even back then?
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Terry Strand
Olympia Level
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Posts: 1658
Old School...
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Bill Seno.
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Terry Strand
Olympia Level
Offline
Posts: 1658
Old School...
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Bill beating Sergio [he did it twice in his career]....this photo from 64 Mr. A. Frankie, I, and some guy named John Carl Grimek were there.
Bill competing in powerlifting....check out the squat!
No suit.
Bar on neck.
Feet together.
No gear.
I believe he cleaned this weight, pressed it, and then squatted it. Or maybe he tipped the bar on end and got under it....don't recall.
Just kidding, he used racks but ya gotta love those raw lifting days.
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 seno4.jpg (4.83 KB, 102x149 - viewed 621 times.)
SENO2.jpg (2.79 KB, 107x74 - viewed 607 times.)
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Terry Strand
Olympia Level
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Posts: 1658
Old School...
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More Chicago muscle....This photo was taken not long ago out at Bob Gajda's Health Plus Rehab Clinic. I think we used a Brownie Box Camera with flash powder. I thought I'd pass it on. It's me on the left, Bruce Hart, longtime lifter who started probably before anybody and knows Chicago lifting history cold. Then there's Bill Busby on the right who in his prime deadlifted 800 in training with straps. With 55 years training experience each for Bob and Bruce, and 45 years each for Bill and I, we're just coming up on a grand total of 200 years hanging around the various Hernia Factories of Chicagoland. And we're all still searchin' for that elusive perfect routine!
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Mike Neff
World Level
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Posts: 42
Natural Born Ironager
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As a youngster who stumbled into the Leaning Tower Y basement in 1974, I love the stories. Those were heady days indeed.
I was fortunate enough to have been in the gym when all the "names" came to town; Arnold, Frank Zane..
I was also able to train at the same time as Rock Stonewall and Dave Dupree, great inspiration.
Keep up the great stories, I've come full circle and train in my basement gym now at age 49.
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Terry Strand
Olympia Level
Offline
Posts: 1658
Old School...
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Here's Phil Smeja, 62, winning John Hansen's Natural ABA Contest in Romeoville a couple years ago. Phil had an AAU Teenage World Record in the Clean and Press, ran track and field at Lane Tech, and was a CYO Golden Glove boxing champion! He typifies the best of Chicago muscle from the sixties.
Phil is still is a working roofer, has hands like hams, and came from the old York 'be as strong as you look' school of thought....which was later replaced by some of the baby oil, health club, pumped and preened academy attended by the early IFBB West Coast crowd.
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SMEJA.jpg (58.41 KB, 640x827 - viewed 827 times.)
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Terry Strand
Olympia Level
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Posts: 1658
Old School...
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Really vintage....my autograph that Bill Seno signed for me on the back of the ticket stub of a Duncan Y meet. He was embarrased, I think, because he never thought of himself as a celebrity, but winning the Mr. America Most Muscular title and setting a world record in the bench press made him Gordie Howe, Ernie Banks, and Arnold Palmer in my book.
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Joe
Olympia Level
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Posts: 1242
Slow and steady
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Terry:
Is this the same Phil:
Philip Smeja
1964
Junior Mr America - AAU, 7th
Teen Mr America - AAU, Most Muscular, 4th
Teen Mr America - AAU, 2nd
1967
Mr America - AAU, 12th
Is the photo of him a contest stage photo?
Thanks
Joe
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Terry Strand
Olympia Level
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Posts: 1658
Old School...
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Yup, that's Phil. And the photo was taken onstage during the contest....and here's Bob Gajda, Bill Seno, and I at that sameABA contest a year or two ago promoted by John Hansen.
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Terry Strand
Olympia Level
Offline
Posts: 1658
Old School...
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Sergio, Ed Coan, Bob Gajda, Bill Seno, Mike Karchut, Russ Knipp, Joe Puleo, Bill Pearl, me, Ernie Franz, Phil Smeja, etc..
Where's Waldo?
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Terry Strand
Olympia Level
Offline
Posts: 1658
Old School...
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Mr. America, Mr. USA, Mr. Universe Bob Gajda clowning around with Mr. Myth, Sergio.
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