SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
part 1
By Bob Hoffman
Originator of the Official Mr. Universe Contest
The Author has done More for Bodybuilding and Physique Contests than any Man in the World yet there are People who Disparage his Efforts.
JOE WEIDER calls me The Bodybuilder's Arch Foe! This should qualify him for first prize in the Liar's Club. (There is such a club in Burlington, Illinois, and they give a prize each year to the best liar.) Joe consistently misrepresents me in his form of journalism. Let me tell you something of the Mr. Universe contests to prove my long time interest in bodybuilding and the proof of the sport--the physique contests.
The first Mr. Universe contest was held as part of the World's Weightlifting Championships which were held in Philadelphia in 1947.
Up to 1947 we had had eight official AAU Mr. America contests held in conjunction with the Senior National Weightlifting Championships and I thought it only fitting and proper that a physique contest should be part of the world's championships and thus the 1947 contest was the first international physique contest.
In 1950 the first Mr. Universe contest was held under the sanction of the FIHC (Federation International Halterophile et Culture) which was the governing body of the World's Weightlifting Championships. The last official contest under the sanction of the FIHC was in 1966.
The 1968 Olympic Games were held in Mexico and there are some people in high places in the lifting world who are against physique contests, consequently there was no physique contest at the Games. This was odd for physique contests are a very important part of the Spanish language edition of Strength & Health and Muscular Development.
The majority of members of FIHC who were against physique contests, had the letter C removed from the name. (Culture is a French abbreviation for physical culture.) Actually the C had been there for 50 years but is now no longer a part of the name of the International Weightlifting Federation.
Quoting from John Grimek's article Our First Mr. Universe--Steve Stanko in the December 1947 Strength & Health:
"How this contest came into being is rather interesting and credit should be given to the man who suggested it. In Paris last year (1946) at the world's championships, Bob Hoffman, then coach of the victorious world's championship team then as now ( In Weider's magazine appeared the statement that Bob Hoffman had never coached a winning international weightlifting team!) suggested that such a contest be made part of the world's championships, pointing out the unusual success of our Mr. America events. He felt that such an addition would stimulate interest, not only in this country but the world over. Most of the representatives attending the conference were agreeable. . . "
A problem was to know what to call such a title. I suggested Mr. Universe. Afterwards I realized that the universe is a very big place with some stars being thousands of light-years away from the earth. But there are nearer planets and we might have a visitor from Mars, 30-feet tall. No one from Mars came but, few as such competitions were, we did have representatives from 13 countries and the first contest was a notable success.
The foreign entries were mostly lifters who took part in the lifting championships. They had great physiques but hardly as good as those who specialize in exercises to improve various parts of their bodies as did the American entrants. Therefore, a preponderance of the contestants were America's leading physique stars.
The nine finalists in the first Mr. Universe contest were Rene Leger, Mr. Canada of 1947; Jules Bacon, Mr. America of 1943; Eric Pederson, America's Most Muscular Man in 1947; Joe Lauriano of Hawaii, third in the 1947 Mr. America contest and John Farbotnik, fourth in the '47 Mr. America. (Quoting from a Weider article in essence, he said that the top bodybuilders who were dissatisfied with AAU treatment, joined the IFBB, International Federation of Body Builders, his own private organization. Weider further stated that many were dissatisfied with the fact that they did not win the AAU Mr. America title.)
Every AAU contest includes 10 to 20 men who would make good Mr. Americas. After the first Mr. America contest in Amsterdam, New York, in 1938, I said that these contests break people's hearts. There are so many good men, they train so hard and long to win, but only one man can win.
Some drop out. Some go on to win later as John Farbotnik did. It took John four tries to win. I took him to Paris in 1950 as an official member of the American team and he won the Mr. Universe title.
When Steve Stanko won the Mr. Universe title in '47, he had some terrific competition. There was Juhani Vellamo of Finland who had a magnificent physique; Keval Daly of British Guiana and George Eiferman of Philadelphia. George won the Mr. America crown the following year. All in all, there was just about as fine a list of competitors as you could find anywhere. Four of them later won the Mr. America title. When a man enters a Weider contest he is barred forever from the AAU and the FIHC, as his organization is an outlaw organization. There must be rules and Weider's organization does not follow the rules of the governing bodies. We have lost a good many weightlifters and physique men to the Weider organization and this has made it difficult for American competition.
Every man who has appeared in a Weider contest is barred from any future AAU competition. This is America's loss in weightlifting, powerlifting and physique contests Weider thought up three titles: Mr. America, which he can no longer use; Mr. Universe, a title which anyone can now use and Mr. Olympic. They were stopped completely from using the Mr. Olympic title as that is the property of the American Olympic Committee. Weider then called it Mr. Olympia and Sergio Oliva has won that title three times. I wonder how others who are striving for this title feel about that?
Winners of the official AAU Mr. America title can be crowned only once and then they move aside for someone else to win the next year, while men like Oliva and Schwarzenegger can go on for a long time winning Weider titles to the frustration of many others.
When a man enters a Weider contest he cannot go back into AAU competition and win again. He drops out of the picture like Mike Ferraro of Buffalo who won so many AAU titles but not the AAU Mr. America, so he tried Weider and has not been heard of since. He is through--finished.
Then there was Ray Shaeffer of Michigan City, Indiana. He won the Mr. America title in 1956 but he was beaten at the official Mr. Universe contest at Virginia Beach by Steve Klisanin, Mr. America of 1955. We sent Shaeffer to London, England, for NABBA's (National Amateur Body Building Association) version of the Mr. Universe contest. Weider made his usual stink about that. He wanted to know why we sent Shaeffer to London instead of Klissanin. Klissanin had already won the FIHC Mr. Universe title so why disqualify him by sending him to an unsanctioned meet in London?
Shaeffer, whose trip to London was paid for by the York Barbell Club, won the NABBA Mr. Universe title. Weider propositioned him and he lined up with his organization but he and Weider did not get along. He tried to get back in our good graces but as he was barred from AAU contests, we could not possibly place him. He has not been heard from since.
We were riding high in international weightlifting at this time as well as in international physique contests. Six Americans had defeated a ten-man Russian team at the world's championships in Paris in 1946. In the 1947 championships we had a full team, 12 men, and won first and second in every class! That was our greatest team--Richard Tom, Emerick Ishikawa, Pete George, Tony Terlazzo, Frank Spellman, Stan Stanczyk, John Terpak, Harold Sakata, Norbert Schemansky and John Davis. Terpak captained the team and won the lightheavy title. Stanko won the physique title.
It makes me wonder to this day, how we could spend such vast sums of money in international weightlifting and international physique contests, not to consider the expenditure of time and neglect of our business during our best men's absence.
We first started in international competition in Paris in 1937. I wanted the world's championships in the United States and Gord Venables proposed my bid in Paris as I was absent. It was decided that the 1939 championships be held at the World's Fair in New York City. (The 1938 contest had already been awarded to Vienna.) The contest was to be in September and things were going smoothly--September 1st--World War II started!
I remember, at the Berlin Olympics in 1936, I was bragging about the fact that on some days we did $100 business. If we did $100 business every day (which we didn't) we would have a $36,500 business annually. Our business had grown by 1939 when I offered $10,000 for the championships but nevertheless, $10,000 was a lot of money to our small organization. I believe this well illustrates the dedication I have always had to all phases of the strength sport--weightlifting, powerlifting and physique contests.
In Paris in 1946 I made a bid for 1947 world's championships. The following is from Gord Venables' report in the November 1947 Strength & Health: "When Bob Hoffman made his bid for the United States to obtain this great championship, he offered $10,000 to apply toward the travel expenses of the visiting teams and officials. This was the amount he had offered for the championships of 1939 which were not held owing to the start of the second world war, so Hoffman offered to give all the visiting weightlifters and officials seven full days of lodging and seven full days of meals. The offer was accepted."
I offered $10,000, the same amount as in '39, for the 1947 world's championships but it cost a great deal more. The officials of the FIHC said it was their understanding and that it appeared in the minutes of the meeting that the $10,000 Bob Hoffman had put up was earmarked for the expenses of the European athletes and officials only.
This did not coincide with my offer but I agreed that it be used for the Europeans only if the Russians came. I alloted another $2,500 for the Egyptian team and to help men from other countries come here.
This last offer took in a lot of territory. I included three Koreans, who came here early and spent their time living and training in Muscletown. It included men from the Scandinavian countries; the British team and teams from central and South America.
Most of the readers of Muscular Development and Strength & Health were not even born at these times about which I write. Others were still in diapers so I don't believe it is amiss to relate some of these facts of the glorious past of American weightlifting and physique competition.
The November 1947 issue of S&H had the results of the world championships and the Mr. Universe contest. It included 50 pages of which 34 dealt with weightlifting and the Mr. Universe contest. Presently there are 90 pages in S&H and I have asked our editors to try to confine weightlifting to not more than half the magazine but this would still be 45 pages. Muscular Development is not as large as S&H in number of pages and it is devoted to muscle developing, physique contests and powerlifting. Taking our two magazines together, we have more weightlifting, physique photos and powerlifting than any other magazines in the world.
This I believe shows anyone who says that I and the AAU do all in our power to discourage youth from being bodybuilders and that we are trying to eliminate bodybuilding altogether or that we are at "war" with powerlifting and that I am the "bodybuilder's arch foe," is an unmitigated, vicious and malicious lie!
With our background and our efforts to do everything humanly possible to continue to build up our tri-sport--bodybuilding, weightlifting and powerlifting, how could anyone possibly believe the diatribe that Weider writes about me? (To refresh your memory, diatribe means a bitter, abusive criticism or denunciation.)
PHOTO CAPTIONS
- Winner of the first official Mr. Universe contest - Steve Stanko of the York Barbell Club. Contest was in Philadelphia, 1947.
- Bill March of the York Barbell Club, winner of the last official Mr. Universe contest. Contest was in Tehran, Iran, 1966.
- Lineup of the finalists in the first Mr. Universe contest. L. to R: Leger, Bacon, Hilligen, Lauriano, Farbotnik, Stanko, Vellano, Daly, and Eiferman.