John Terilli won a 'Best in Australia' contest that Paul Graham promoted in conjunction with the Mr Olympia contest in Sydney. Graeme Lancefield was second and some felt he should have won.A week after the show I had an exhibit in my gym of photos from the 1980 Olympia and Best in Australia. There were a few photos of John there. I had some shots of Bev Francis who createda sensation when she posed at the Olympia. She literally eclipsed any Ms Olympia in the muscles department but sadly, was never allowed to win that title. John came along and I talked to him when he looked at his photos. I told him that Bev had better calves than he did. For some strange reason he never bought any of those photos! In 1983 he came to my gym and I helped him with his poses and routine. It was too late before the NABBA Universe in London for him to return to do more posing. As it turned out he lost theoverall title to John Brown who was known for his posing. Anyway, years later I received a package from John. He was living in New York so I had lost contact with him. He sent me a beautiful8 X 10 colour photo. He signed it with the following words:"To Vince thanks for the help & coaching along with the Insults which helped the most. Mr Universe, John Terilli"John sort of summed me up in that message. I think he wrote a letter with the photo explaining that all his mates in New York tell him how great he looks. That was nice but they never pointedout John's weak points. That 'insult' about his calves made him do something about it and improved his physique. So I am proud of helping John in his career.I am into photography and a large part of it is editing photos. So I removed all the imperfections and distractions even filled in a missing part. I present to Getbiggers probably the best photo ever of the Aussie champion.
Thanks for sharing. I would be interested to see more pics especially of Bev. Cory was the reigning Ms Olympia and It was the right choice by the judges because she represented it well and attracted alot of women to pick up weights and build muscle to look like her. I was one of them.
Lol
John won his class in 1982,not 83,when he beat Ian Dowe and Vince Brown,but then lost the overall to John Brown.I always felt his placings should have been higher when he moved over to the IFBB,he had a classy physique.
I always thought John Terilli was under rated, dude had a classic physique.
