NPC ASSOCIATION WITH IFBB ..... How it Came About.
Many years ago …. Around 1980 or so …. I attended a meeting in the Santa Monica City Auditorium on the Sunday morning following the previous night’s promotion of the Mr America Contest.
The meeting was held to determine if the bodybuilding organization we were all a part of would like to become associated with the IFBB.
Both Ben and Joe attended to make a formal proposal. The Hofman (York) representatives were also present. So was Dan Lurie and just about every other individual or company who had a vested interest.
Ben WEIDER, formally attired in a blue blaiser, grey slacks, an d an appropriate necktie was the only one to stand before all who were present and make a proposal.
His proposal was, “The IFBB would recognize the NPC as the US governing body for amateur competitive bodybuilders and amateur contests, if the NPC would recognize the IFBB as the world governing body for professional bodybuilders and as the governing body for ALL amateur bodybuilding events outside of the US.
(If agreed to, the IFBB would not have any jurisdiction over US amateur events.)
A major battle followed that proposal but finally a vote was taken and the agreement was reached in accordance with Mr Ben Weider’s proposal.
Needless to say that there were other sanctioning bodies, but they were less well known and most of us in the USA would even today have difficulty naming any of hte winners of such contests. (Some exceptions apply of course.)
I should also state that those organizations have never been officially recognized by the IFBB nor the NPC.
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Second post submitted shortly after ,,,,,,,
As I mentioned earlier we (about 60 bodybuilders, magazine publishers, photographers, and state and national NPC officials) gathered together in a formal meeting under the watchful eye of a gentleman who was knowledgeable about Robert’s Rules of Order regarding formal meetings such as this.
His familiarity with Robert’s Rules of Order assured one and all that this meeting would be conducted legally and ‘above-board’ and in a democratic manner’.
‘Dictatorship’ type of proceedings never did occur. Nor was it mentioned or even ‘thunk-of'’ by anyone in attendance ….. not even among the antagonists. (And there were quite a few antagonists who wanted nothing to do with the IFBB.
You must understand that our only concern at this meeting was for amateur bodybuilding competitions within the USA and a possible future relationship with the IFBB.
So at the proper time in this proper meeting, Ben arose and made the offer as described in an earlier post.
The floor was given the opportunity to ask questions (there were many), to discuss Ben’s proposal openly (very heated arguments got underway), and then vote on the proposal.
The votes were tallied while parties from all sides observed and made sure that the count was precisely correct.
This was not a secret agenda nor a secret vote.
Ben and his IFBB won that afternoon and shook hands with about 70% of those in attendance while the other 30% left the auditorium in disgust …. the York group and Dan Louri (spelling) and his associates among others.
Back then there was only one ‘International’ bodybuilding organization that appeared to be working on the behalf of the competitors and attempting to give them the recognition that each competitor felt he deserved. (The ladies were not involved just yet. That would occur a few years later.)
That ‘International’ organization just so happened to be the IFBB. Others existed but were relatively unknown and for the most part were non-active within the US. (Help on this, Joe?)
None of them took the step to do any organizational work within the US similar to the efforts of Ben and Joe Weider. (I give Ben most of the credit in this regards.)
It helped a bit that the IFBB had a magazine and every kid who ever saw the inside of a gym would die to get his picture in a national magazine.
So that magazine was another selling point that encouraged the NPC to join up with the IFBB.
Here comes a THE RUMOR DEPARTMENT !!!!…… RUMOR AHEAD!!!!
Back then the IFBB made numerous claims that it had IFBB representatives within the world’s major countries which supported his claim that the IFBB was an international organization.
But many in the audience accused Ben of being mistaken because many of those ‘representatives’ were merely post office boxes and nothing more..
I can’t say much more about the international part of the IFBB but I will say that at one time not too long ago, Ben was successful in convincing the IOC that the IFBB was a world-wide international organization.
And I don’t recall any other bodybuilding organization objecting to his claim.
I personally know that you had to put up the good fight back then to make any bodybuilding organization a reality when the public wants to fight it an tear it apart, but Joe and Ben fought long and hard for many years.
Some 'organizations' still exist today, but none that I am aware of have reached the heights of the IFBB, due to the fact that Ben and Joe fought with the world to make it what it is today … a multi million dollar enterprise that offers a few good men (and ladies) opportunities that they never would have had if it wasn’t due to the hard work and life-dedication of these two brothers from Canada
Someone correct me if any of the above is incorrect. But please … ONLY CORRECT ME IF YOU SAW IT WITH YOUR OWN TWO EYEBALLS.
