http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20090621/SPORTS0103/906210365/1007/RSS02Jim Rockell was a cross country and track athlete at Franklin High School, Class of 1968.
How he came to be a competitive bodybuilder, successful gym owner, promoter, revered bodybuilding official and judge — with friends around the country, including a certain seven-time Mr. Olympia and California governor named "Arnold" — is pretty simple: He began pumping iron.
"When you graduate high school at 129 pounds and you're 6-feet tall and headed to college, you look to be a little bigger, so I started lifting weights," said Rockell, a Spencerport resident. "I gained 100 pounds in a year."
Rockell's days as a competitive bodybuilder ended a long time ago. But for more than 30 years, he's been helping others chase their dreams and change their lives.
After a short stint putting his history and science education degrees from Bucknell and Geneseo to use as a city schoolteacher, Rockell followed his heart.
He opened a gym in 1977 on Lyell Avenue for him and his buddies that would put Rochester on the bodybuilding map.
"We were training at the YMCA in a small little weight room," Rockell, 59, recalled. "Guys were dribbling basketballs while we were trying to bench press. There were other gyms in Rochester going back to the 1920s but we wanted a serious gym."
It was called Samson's.
"It was a small storefront but it was the place to be if you wanted to be into bodybuilding," said Bob Cicherillo, 43, who walked into Samson's in 1980 as a Greece Athena football player and walked out owning 21 teenage crowns.
He'd go on to earn his pro card, capture the International Federation of Bodybuilders Masters Pro world title, star on American Gladiators, and make movies.
"It was a different world back then," said Cicherillo, who has settled in Florida where he hosts a popular bodybuilding radio show. "Training was in hard-core gyms diametrically different than today's spas. They were exactly what you think of: grubby, dirty, guys sweating and pumping iron."
Four locations and 33 years later, Rockell's gym is still going strong, located the past dozen years on West Ridge Road under the name The Rockell's Family Fitness Center and Powerhouse Gym
It's not grubby. It's bright and clean with a friendly, expert staff. But it's still the place to be for serious bodybuilders, a growing legion of competitive female body sculptors and a never-ending line of Average Joes looking to get in shape.
"It's like a family," Rockell said of the true reward of being in the muscle/fitness business.
It's a high-energy business that keeps a person looking and feeling young.
Rockell, a karate black belt, still runs or lifts 90 minutes a day, a routine that pleases his wife, Alicia, and daughter, Lara. Both are nurses. Another daughter, Candice, is a doctoral student at Old Dominion. The Rockells will be married 31 years next month.
Aside from managing his business complex, Jim devotes time to the National Physique Committee, the amateur arm of the professional IFBB, as its vice president, general secretary and a judge since 1983.
He works around 25 bodybuilding shows a year across the country, including the prestigious Mr. Olympia and the Arnold Classic. The latter is named for Arnold Schwarzenegger, a longtime friend who attended Rockell's 50th birthday party.
While he has judged the likes of Lee Haney, Dorian Yates and Ronnie Coleman, men who captured a combined 22 Mr. Olympia crowns, Rockell never forgets his roots. The show dearest to his heart that he promotes 24/7 is the competition to crown Mr. Rochester. The 55th edition of the NPC Rochester Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure and Bikini Championships is Saturday at the Riverside Convention Center.
At 46 consecutive years, the event is the oldest continuously held bodybuilding show in America. The last 31 have been under Rockell's direction.
"If Jim wasn't there, I'm not so sure we're celebrating 55 years," said Cicherillo, who will make a guest appearance.
Indeed, without Rockell's passion, Rochester's bodybuilding and powerlifting history would be half as rich.
In 2004, he established a hall of fame to recognize the city's top muscle men, a group that now includes Carl Lonobile, Peter Grymkowski, Danny Padilla, John Wensich, Vince Peterson, Cicherillo, the late Frank Siracuse and contributor Jon Paddock.
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Grymkowski was Mr. America, Mr. World Pro and creator of the Gold's Gym empire. Padilla captured Mr. America and Mr. Universe titles. Other Samson's alumni who earned coveted pro cards were George Farah and Anthony Finocchiaro.
The barbell that connects them is Rockell. To everyone, "Rock" is more than a gym owner. He's a mentor. A friend.
"I learned a lot from Jim over the years, not just bodybuilding, but life related," Cicherillo said. "He's always done things with integrity. You trust him. It's not always what you want to hear, but it's the truth."
As a judge, Rockell tactfully critiques and encourages all the competitors. The smart ones listen. He likes eye contact, showmanship, and a symmetrical physique.
"Muscle packed on muscle, it's distortion," he said.
As for performance-enhancing drugs, that specter that haunts not just bodybuilding but all sports today, Rockell is glad that the NPC randomly tests its athletes. As a competitor, he never took steroids because for him the health risks far outweighed the benefits, he said. More bodybuilders today are reaching their goals through advances in nutrition and training methods, not syringes. But nobody is naïve.
"Somehow, society has to come to grips with this issue," said Rockell, a huge Yankees fan who has followed the steroid scandal in baseball closely. "It's science vs. morality. I always tell people, 'If you're asking me, I'd shy from it. You don't need it. And is it worth it? Are you going to be that one in 8,000 that becomes a pro?'"
Rockell's love of family, friends and fitness converge in his gym.
Plaques honor his deceased parents, Thomas and Annette, "my motivation and strength."
A giant blackboard listing "Current Members Lift Records" hangs on a wall. They are written in 30-year-old chalk never erased as a tribute to Siracuse, a world-ranked powerlifter who died of a heart attack in 1979 at age 28.
Siracuse has an eternal 540 bench, 415 incline press, 810 squat and 600 dead lift; Rockell a 500 squat and 605 dead lift. Rockell has added a bench press contest in Siracuse's name to his Mr. Rochester show.
"Frank was more than a strongman," he said. "He was a true friend who would always lend a hand."
The same can be said of Jim Rockell.
A teacher whose gym became his classroom.
