Ray was 295 in 1986. He was HUGE. HIs legs and arms were just unreal. And, Podda was a nut and an asshole at the same time
This has been a fantastic thread to read. Took me a few days to read it from begining to end and I enjoyed every page.
I always thought Ray sort of took a back seat to Mike's popularity. From a lot of things I read later on, I am led to believe Ray was bigger than Mike and one of the strongest bodybuilders at Golds. 296 lbs back in 1986 was unbelievable. I started competing in 84 (midwest) and we had just gone through all the smaller Olympia winner years.... Zane, Dickerson, Columbo, Samir (but ripped) and leading into the mass years of Haney.
Somewhere in the begining someone asked about a low budget movie made about a bodybuilder who travels to the Mecca, lives in his van, and meets a girl. For some reason I remember that damn movie and I think the bodybuilder was Tim Kimber (or something like that)? Wasn't he also an owner/employee of Golds in the early 80's?
I only made 2 treks to Golds. The first was with my dad when I was 15 (77' 78'?)and he took a photo of me in front of the windows. It's the same windows of the photo of Ron Tueful and girlfriend. I think that was the 2nd Golds gym location? I met Charles Glass (thought he was Robbie, he laughed), Mike Menzer was there with those sick viens and huge arms. About 3 years later I made the trip with friends and Golds was at the 3rd location. All I remember was big overhead garage doors in the back. This time (80' or 81') I met Bill Grant (he signed my Pumping Iron book) and a ton of HUGE guys I didn't know. Some of them sent me over to World Gym and told me the champs often train at both. Remember, we didn't have computers back then and the only info we got was from muscle mags!! I walked down to World and got Ferrigno's autograph after he finished. This was the World Gym that was upstairs and the windows looked out onto the street. Tiny parking garage under it where Ferrigno parked. All we ever dreamed about was getting big and moving to the Mecca to train. Only one guy ever left our humble midwest gym. He packed up his crap and his wife one day and said I'm gone there is nothing for me here. He went west to Golds and we only got letters or phone calls from him on occasion. His name was Bob Sears and until this thread I never knew what happened to him. I'm glad to hear he lived his dream and someone even compared him to Arnold. I'm also sad to hear he fell on hard times, I thought he and his wife would be together til the end. I've been trying to get ahold of our old training partners to update them on Bob and any further would be appreciated. Sorry to ramble on needlessly but I really want to thank the guys that started and kept this thread going.....Only, Sunt, 619 and all the others. Bodybuilding was A small family compared to some sports and full of unique people in the 70's and 80's.
Thanks again !
