What was the deal with Cleve Dean?
He looks like just a big fat guy but evidently he was very strong.
Yeah, as mentioned, it was one of those "farmer strong" things. He relatively wasn't that good at weightlifting things, but was good at odd strength related things. At the 79 WSM he did pretty well at the truck pull, fridge carry, vertical weight pull, and bar bend. Some of them, like the vertical and truck pull, his massive weight helped, because he'd lean in. He was #450ish during that year, and just massive. He spent a lot of time at #400 plus pounds, and it hurt him later in life, died somewhat early and had joint problems.
At around 6:30ish, you can see how massive he was, especially in the hands and wrists -
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