Worth a look re Lee Moran...

[tommywishbone]

Steve Wilson indeed. Big deadlifter and a big total as well. I think he pulled low 800's. One of the 30 or so to ever break the 800 pound mark. Lots of muscle. I remember that picture as well... it was a 3 photo sequence I think... where his bicep detaches. Great pics indeed.

[tommywishbone]

Tommy....did u ever see ken patera compete ?
Loved him when he did the pro wrestling thing!
Saw this match once where he entered the ring first....finally his opponent enters the ring
165 pounds ....limping with an ace bandage on his knee....
Patera yells over'GOT A BAD WHEEL BOY'??
Needless to say he gave the guy the beating from hell...thru him over the top rope....too funny

I saw him wrestle back in Charlotte, NC. in the 80's.  Never saw him compete in olympic lifting in person. He was the real thing in the gym... extremely strong. Pretty good wrestling trash-talker too. Not as good as The Nature Boy-Rick Flair, but pretty good none-the-less.

[brianX]

I thought Fred Hatfield was the first man to squat 1000 lb?

[tommywishbone]

weight    kilos                wgt class                                                        body weight

 1014.1 (460.0)  *3.93X  275 (125)  Fred Hatfield  US/42 3/23/87  460.0 kg. @ 117.0 kg. Honolulu, Hawaii USPF/APF/WPC

Hatfields lift was in 1987. I know for sure Lee's was in 1984 and Dave Waddingtons was prior to Lee's. Hatfield was much lighter and I think his squat is still pound-for-pound one of the best ever.

[crownshep]

Look at what he squatted at under 200lbs.

[crownshep]

Tommy,do you remember this guy as well.

[Figo]

Get outta here, foreigner who can't speak english.

Funny how you're named Joey Tito, and calling the dude a foreigner. You got some Aryan ancestry or something?

[Hedgehog]

cs- I'm not positive of my facts but I'm pretty sure that Waddington did it first in competition, but his lift was done in front of non-cardholding judges. IE. judges that were not USPF world record qualified judges. Lee's big lift was done in front of card holding qualified judges and was therefore given official world status. I Think.

I do remember at the time, that when Waddington hit his 1000+ lift, a lot of people did not think that he had "hit depth", gone down low enough for the lift to pass. In all photos I have ever seen of the lift, it does not appear that he hit depth, but the photos are not always the entire story so...

Lee's big lift was super deep and absolutely official. I don't think Lee ever had a squat disqualified on depth. He either hit depth, came up and racked the weight, or he dumped the weight or did not come up. His technique was the exact same everytime.

You posted some great pictures. Thanks

-Tom

Great explanation.

Sadly, these lifts are pissed on by todays quarter squatting tools of the WPO.

If you ever watch Andy Bolton or Chuck Vogelpohl "squat", it rapidly becomes evident that they are taking away from the feats accomplished by guys like Lee Moran.

Here's a clip of Mike Miller doing a "squat":
http://www.irongame.com/videos/20060430/MikeMiller2005December17thAPFNYStateMeet1100lbSQSHW.wmv

YIP
Zack

[onlyme]

Tommy,do you remember this guy as well.

Fely is from Hawaii.  I used to emcee the World Record Breakers that Gus Rethwisch put on here.  Before my time in the early to mid 80's his show would have an audience of over 5,000 people.  It was unreal.  Once he lost the sponsorship from Budweiser it went downhill.  It was a fun show though.  I remember one year my friend to squat 1013.  He came forward and fell off the srage right in front me.  He was really lucky the bar came down just on the edge of the stage.  I'll never forget Jesse Jackson at about 168 pounds or so squatting 680 or soemthing close to that.  He used to take the weight and then spread his legs really far apart where he was almost doing the splits when he squatted.  He dumped the first attempt becasue both his ankles turned in.  He tapped them for the next attempt and did it.  He was awesome.  Allot fo strong guys in Hawaii.

[tommywishbone]

Great explanation.

Sadly, these lifts are pissed on by todays quarter squatting tools of the WPO.

If you ever watch Andy Bolton or Chuck Vogelpohl "squat", it rapidly becomes evident that they are taking away from the feats accomplished by guys like Lee Moran.

Here's a clip of Mike Miller doing a "squat":
http://www.irongame.com/videos/20060430/MikeMiller2005December17thAPFNYStateMeet1100lbSQSHW.wmv

YIP
Zack

Agreed Zack. The current guys don't have to walk out with the weight, which is huge. It's such a massive advantage, it's not even the same lift hardly. The video you linked was a deep 1/4 squat in my opinion. It would have gotten three red lights (disqualified) instantly years ago. But times change so...   Miller is still a big strong dude.... but he ain't Lee Moran strong.

[tommywishbone]

Tommy,do you remember this guy as well.

Absolutely. Fely was a very popular lifter. There were, and always have been, several excellent Hawiian powerlifters. Big strong guys.

[nycbull]

he was a real original

[Gym Rat]

i=ULEzhpIXAhmLtKV0

[BB]

Hahaha who is the spotter behind him? Funny looking fellow 

Glasses dude was an ex British powerlifter named Brian Smith, who later did some judging and was widely known as the best show/platform manager in the business. He wore the sun glasses so the photo flashes, and Tv lights wouldn't distract him. I miss seeing those pics of him, he used to be at every major contest.

A bit of his biography - https://www.kidderminstershuttle.co.uk/news/3942546.ex-weightlifting-champion-dies/ .

Brian doing his thing -

.

[Van_Bilderass]

Thanks BB, i learned more about him later on, he used to be a fixture.

This OP was from 2006 and geared lifters doing shallow squats were on top. Now gear has been done away with almost completely, raw rules and geared lifters aren't even discussed, and shallow squats are almost always called out by judges. Some of the geared lifters got half of their load from the double ply suits and 2.5 meter wraps, so calculate how someone geared did 1000lbs, what he was good for by himself, it's ridiculous. The bench too, probably more than half is gear contribution nowadays, some of them are benching more than 1200lbs lol.
So I think the sport has went in a great direction. Everyone complained about gear for a long time but it still surprised that it disappeared almost over night. And all the raw lifters dismissed Westside and conjugate training, no one uses it that I know of. So it seems it was all built around gear, not a great legacy for Louie Simmons.

[BB]

So I think the sport has went in a great direction. Everyone complained about gear for a long time but it still surprised that it disappeared almost over night. And all the raw lifters dismissed Westside and conjugate training, no one uses it that I know of. So it seems it was all built around gear, not a great legacy for Louie Simmons.

I think with Louie, he's in the "hate" phase of remembrance, much like Mentzer was for a few years. He's gone now so it's easier to pick him apart, but I think it will swing back a little bit as the years go by. We're never going back or advancing suited lifting again. I think it was fully realized during that era, there is simply not much more you can do with it.

What I do think Louie will be remembered fondly for is - 1) The Reverse Hyper development, there is still interest in it and a decent amount of people that feel helped by it. 2) The introduction of chain weight. This is one of those things that even his detractors like, and admit it has value. 3) The need for variation sometimes, and 4) Simply the man's inquisitive nature.

The funny thing is, if Westside had fizzled out a decade or so earlier, it probably wouldn't be seeing as much backlash. If he just pushed a little into the raw arena, a lot of the attacks would be blunted, as there were a lot of those guys that would've did fine raw. That push for bragging rights, and Louie just getting old, and he, himself, not wanting to come out of the suit occasionally, left the door open for what's happening now.

[Van_Bilderass]

I think with Louie, he's in the "hate" phase of remembrance, much like Mentzer was for a few years. He's gone now so it's easier to pick him apart, but I think it will swing back a little bit as the years go by. We're never going back or advancing suited lifting again. I think it was fully realized during that era, there is simply not much more you can do with it.

What I do think Louie will be remembered fondly for is - 1) The Reverse Hyper development, there is still interest in it and a decent amount of people that feel helped by it. 2) The introduction of chain weight. This is one of those things that even his detractors like, and admit it has value. 3) The need for variation sometimes, and 4) Simply the man's inquisitive nature.

The funny thing is, if Westside had fizzled out a decade or so earlier, it probably wouldn't be seeing as much backlash. If he just pushed a little into the raw arena, a lot of the attacks would be blunted, as there were a lot of those guys that would've did fine raw. That push for bragging rights, and Louie just getting old, and he, himself, not wanting to come out of the suit occasionally, left the door open for what's happening now.

I realise your post was a while ago but Greg Panora went on to do good numbers raw, however he did not use conjugate really from what I've seen. He was shitty at start squatting raw, it was a completely new thing. A lot of the suired lifters had remarkaby small thighs yet squatted 1K plus.

You make some good points as always.

[Gym Rat]

I realise your post was a while ago but Greg Panora went on to do good numbers raw, however he did not use conjugate really from what I've seen. He was shitty at start squatting raw, it was a completely new thing. A lot of the suired lifters had remarkaby small thighs yet squatted 1K plus.

You make some good points as always.

He trains here in our local gym every so often. (Moved close by (from Maine).
Still very strong. Uses 4+ plates for benching, etc. (raw).

[Van_Bilderass]

He trains here in our local gym every so often. (Moved close by (from Maine).
Still very strong. Uses 4+ plates for benching, etc. (raw).

I have social phobia but I might still attempt to chat him up for the stories. Competing on LSD, Adderall and pain killers coming straight from a party. Now on IG he downs 600mg THC bottles.

[ProudVirgin69]

So I think the sport has went in a great direction. Everyone complained about gear for a long time but it still surprised that it disappeared almost over night. And all the raw lifters dismissed Westside and conjugate training, no one uses it that I know of. So it seems it was all built around gear, not a great legacy for Louie Simmons.

I know we’ve talked about this before but it still blows me away to read.  I stopped being interested in powerlifting in like 2012 but at that point I was sure the future of the sport was more and more gear

What about geared lifting being “safer”?  I remember injury prevention was a big selling point