This next story needs a bit of background before I get to the point.
Most of us have heard of Jubinville weightlifting equipment,well Ed Jubinville also used to put on free bodybuilding contests...........three per year, at the Mt. Park Amusement Center a poor mans Six Flags located in Holyoke Mass,a neighboring small city not too far from where I lived in Springfield.......this was in the early to mid 1970`s and Ed put these on at his own expense.....everything was free.
Chances are if you have a piece of equipment that Ed made,it still works today.......it was great stuff,but I digress.
Me and my training partner Ray Harris would take the bus to all these contests ever since we found out about them......after the bus dropped us off at the last stop we still had to walk about two miles but we didn`t care......we were psyched !!
This one was the 1974 Mr. East Coast contest,and when we finally got there we were in for a mindfuck to put it mildly.
As the pavillion got packed with what seemed like a couple thousand people, we saw a guy named Warren Fredericks who was absoulutely huge sitting on the edge of the stage in a sweatsuit......he was a monster!!
Then we heard a lot of noise a bit behind us and here was a big crowd of people all milling around his huge guy who towered over the crowd wearing a pair of sunglasses.
This beast went up on the stage(all of this and the above,was long before the actual contest began) and he stepped on the small posing dais which had a black screen behind it and one lightbulb hanging overhead....he seemed to be testing the dais to see if it would hold his enormous weight.
Rumor tells it that he was going to compete in the contest......his name was Lou Ferrigno someone we had never heard of since we didn`t get Dan Luries magazine in our area as of yet,and he wasn`t very well known yet except in New York City.
Rumor also has it that once he heard that some guy named Leon Brown was entering the contest he backed out from competing !!
This brings us to the main topic of the story...........Leon Brown !!
Once the contest finally got under was there was a ton of people in attendance even Mike Katz was there as head judge and guest poser.
OK,from here on in I`ll sum up what happened so as not to bore you any further.
There was a lot of great physiques in the contest but when Leon Brown came out to do his posing routine, the crowd went wild....including us.........I had never seen anyone look like this guy did up to his point in my life........he was damn near perfectly proportioned and ripped to the bone!!
Back in those days they would give out trophies for best bodyparts,best poser,and most muscular..........once Leon came out to get his overall trophy after winning his height class, which he handily won with ease,Ed told him to just stay on stage as he won all the best bodypart awards, as well as best poser, and most muscular.
The crowd went nuts!!
After seeing this,Leon was a big inspiration to me and Harris and fueled our workouts.
Some of the pics taken of Leon that day made it into the book version of Pumping Iron which came out before the movie of the same name,such as the two below.
Flash forward to the year 2000 and I was competing in the Masters Nationals in Pittsburgh Pa.,I looked across the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel which was the contest venue, and I saw Leon Brown leaning against a wall.....I walked/flew over to him just to shake his hand and after introducing myself,I mentioned the contest all those years ago at Mt. Park and his face lit up.....he said those were great days, almost as great as training with Arnold and the crew in Venice California where he would go almost every summer to train at Golds Gym.
He was very personable, and a real nice guy, and it was awesome to meet one of my early idols.
Excerpt from when I completed with Leon:
2000 Masters Nationals - NPC
MiddleWeight
1 Robert Caltabiano
2 Gregory DeNardo Sr
3 Curtis Bradham
4 Elias Raymundo
5 Barry Everingham
6 James Williams (3)
7 Chuck Grandstaff
8
Leon Brown 9 Terry Walker
10 Glen Parker
11 David Seager
12 Noel Coughlin
13 Robert Jackson
LightWeight
1 Humberto Lopez
2 Paul Hernandez
3 James Hemminger
4
Tim Wescott5 Stephen Brigham
Masters 50+ LightWeight
1 Robert Caltabiano
2
Leon Brown3 Chuck Grandstaff
4 Dave Tuttle
5 James Little
6 Dennis Zitto
7 Robert Coy
8 James Hemminger
9 Jerry Hogevoll
10 Glen Parker
11 David Seager
12 Mike Tolbert
13 Joe Mautino
14 Mickey Glenn
15 Wayne Stroothoff
Contest History:
Leon Brown1966
Mr Eastern America - IFBB, Teen Short, 2nd
1968
Pro Mr America - WBBG, 4th
Mr International - WBBG, 6th
North American Championships - IFBB, Medium, 1st
1969
Mr New York City - WBBG, Short, 1st
Mr Venice Beach, Winner
Mr World - WBBG, 5th
1970
Mr America - IFBB, Short, 2nd
Mr California - IFBB, Winner
Mr East Coast - AAU, Short, 1st
Mr Western America - IFBB, Winner
1971
Pro Mr America - WBBG, 4th
Mr USA - IFBB, Short, 2nd
1972
Mr America - IFBB, Short, 2nd
Mr East Coast - IFBB, Winner
1973
Mr America - IFBB, Most Muscular, 1st
Mr America - IFBB, Short, 1st
1974
Mr America - IFBB, Short, 2nd
Mr Eastern America - IFBB, Winner
1978
Mr USA - IFBB, Short, 3rd
1979
Mr International - IFBB, LightWeight, 2nd
1981
Mr USA - AAU, MiddleWeight, 5th
1982
Mr America - AAU, Short, 5th
1984
Junior USA - NPC, Overall Winner
Junior USA - NPC, MiddleWeight, 1st
1986
Nationals - NPC, MiddleWeight, 5th
1987
Nationals - NPC, MiddleWeight, 2nd
1988
Masters USA - NPC, Overall Winner
Masters USA - NPC, MiddleWeight, 1st
Nationals - NPC, MiddleWeight, 6th
1989
USA Championships - NPC, MiddleWeight, Did not place
2000
Masters Nationals - NPC, Masters 50+ LightWeight, 2nd
Masters Nationals - NPC, MiddleWeight, 8th
2002
Olympia - Masters - IFBB, 26th
2003
Night of Champions - IFBB, Did not place
Olympia - Masters - IFBB, 17th
2006
Masters Pro World - IFBB, Did not place
More boring shit to come.....stay tuned!!
