RONNIE TEUFEL: I can kind of recall being in Gold’s Gym in Santa Monica the week before the Mr A or the National BB Championshps when a few of the top competitors were prepping for the contest and discussing who else would be coming into Santa Monica to enter and win the title… (Whatever that title was at that time!)
The most talked about individual was Ronnie Teufel who was expected to arrive at Gold’s a few days before the contest .... and a few of the Gold’s member were determined to give him a bad time when he showed up.
So two or three days before the contest Ron did show up and was prepared for a final workout at Gold’s but within ten minutes after he came into the gym, he left and stood outside the window looking in with a sad look on his face.
You gotta realize that Ron was a young kid back then and one of the favorites to win the overall, so he had no idea of the hostility he would be meeting his first night in what would soon become the Mecca.
I stepped outside to say “Howdy“ but he simply said something like, “They hate me in there!”.
And then he left and returned for his final precontest workout when the gym was relatively empty an there was no one in there to harrass him just because he was a young competitor from someplace back east with the potential to win the overall.
I forget how Ron placed that year but the day after the contest we held a meeting at the SM Civic Auditorium and Ron was present and it was too early for the meeting so we had a decent conversation outside and somehow the subject of HAWAII entered the conversation and Ronnie said, "Where’s Hawaii?” and I pointed out to the Pacific ocean in a westerly direction and Ronnie looked … and said , “I can’t see it!”.
That was the good kid that I’ve long remembered and we stayed in contact a few times for about a year or so discussing his training and plans via tape recordings which I’ve lost long ago.
Ronnie is another bodybuilder who passéd away way too early at the age of 49 but I have forgotten the details of his early dimise.
1975 TEEN AMERICA (AAU)
1975 TEEN MR. USA / 1ST SHORT CLASS (AAU)
1977 MR. AMERICA / 1ST SHORT CLASS (AAU)
1978 MR. CALIFORNIA (AAU)
1978 MR. USA OVERALL WINNER (AAU)
1979 MR. AMERICA / 1ST SHORT CLASS (AAU)
1980 IFBB MR. INTERNATIONAL / 2ND LIGHT HEAVY WEIGHTS
1981 IFBB WASHINGTON GRAND PRIX / 5TH PLACE
1982 IFBB NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS / 7TH PLACE
For more info on someone whom I remember as a great young competitor and hard trainer, go here ....>>>>
http://www.ronteufel.com/