Wes, you got three right. Good going! I won't tell you which ones yet cause I might mess it up for the others who may want to give it a try.
WAS ANYONE AT THE FOLLOWING EVENT?
Back in the early 70's, there was an IFBB contest promoted in Tiajuana. Since it was right across the boarder in one of TJ.'s finer hotels, a lot of California fans drove down to watch.
It must have been an amateur event because Bob Birdsong won the overall that year, and deservedly so. He was in the best shape of his short career in that contest.
But Bob is not the subject of this story, so let's skip over to the back of the room where Sergio Oliva is sitting on a table yelling at Joe Weider who was right up front sitting with the officials and Arnold and Franco flanking both his sides.
Whenever there was a lull in the contest, Sergio would break the silence with an odd sounding voice ........ "I'm here in the back challenging Arnold to get up there on that stage with me today!"
He was all business and dead serious and the front table did their best to ignore the voice coming from the back.
So this went on for an hour or so ........ strange voice from a bodybuilder already well known in the back and complete avoidance from the table up front.
Finally something had to be done to shut him up so Joe Weider stood up and addressed the crowd but not directly to the strange voice in the back.
"Arnold is not going to accept a challenge today!" followed by some flimsey excuse of some sort or another.
So, as any crowd usually does whenever Joe Weider takes the floor to speak, the fans started booing and hissing and making Joe take his seat more quickly than he usually does.
So, what happens next??!
Franco hops up to quiet the crowd and announces that he will accept Sergio;s challange, but that didn't seem to satisfy too many people and definitely not Sergio.
But when everyone saw that Arnold was not going to give in, the crown offered one more major "booooooo" and gradually quieted down to see if this would be agreeable with Sergio.
Sergio was pissed but with a few unkind words directed at Joe and Arnold he eventually agreed to meet Franco up there on that stage whenever Franco felt he was ready, Sergio would just stay where he was and would go on stage whenever Franco was willing to be annihilated by The Myth.
So the crowd settled back and waited. while the rest of the show went on.
About an hour later, Franco and Arnold went backstage to pump up while Sergio waited patiently.
And then Franco was ready and came on stage looking far less than his best but ready to give his best for his faithful sidekick.
From the back Sergio yelled something like, "Are you ready"" and slowly walked up the aisle while removing his shirt revealing a contest ready form prepared to do battle against anyone willing to accept the challenge. Today it would be Franco, Second best would have to do!
All eyes stayed on Sergio those next few minutes. He was definitely unbelieveable and unbeatable even if Franco had been his best.
And many felt that Arnold and Joe had made a wise decision. Sergio would have made him look damn bad as well!
I don't recall seeing Arnold in the room after that humbling experience.
In fact I think Weider took a short-cut too.
After that contest we headed into town to visit the local pharmacies to load up on gear but everyone was out of everything they had because "There must be some major bodybuilding contest in town! Come back next week, Come back next week!
So we crossed the boarder empty handed but with a pretty good story to tell the guys in the gym who didn't come to TJ town that weekend.