Dan-O:
I'm not sure whether Eddie won his first-ever contest or not, but I trained with Eddie, along with a guy named Dennis McDuffy, in early 1983 for the Mr.Gulfcoast contest. Eddie competed in the Teenage division, Dennis and I in the Novice. Eddie had just gotten back from a Christmas visit to Ohio and trained only 4 or 5 weeks for the show. His tanning consisted of applying a coat of bronzer that he had purchased at Maas Brothers the morning of the contest. But Eddie did not win, he was third; the teenage winner was Gary Beachum, I think. However, Eddie clearly had the most potential and was already the best proportioned athlete on stage that day, including the Open and Novice classes.
By 1984 Eddie had gained about 50 additional pounds of muscle and was on his way.