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Notice in the photo with six pictures how massive Oliva's spinal lumbar muscles are down at his lower back just above his trunks. There was no Christmas tree like Samir Banout, Platz, etc., had ten years later, but that was because of entirely different lower back genetics, and because Oliva had been doing heavy Olympic lifting besides merely bodybuilding for a decade before the photo.
Also great point about DeCola v. Val V.'s placing in the year before Val V. won. Don't see how Jerry Daniels beat Gajda and Oliva one year earlier to take the Mr. A. He was big, smooth and 'not ready for prime time'. IMHO. Gajda was ripped to the bone, strong, conditioned, a judo black belt self defense instructor recently out of the Air Force, and a very helpful guy to all us kids in the gym. Sergio could hardly speak English, and that, fair or unfair, was why he didn't win the Mr. A., and went to Weider. It would have been like a beautiful Cuban woman winning the Miss America....who couldn't speak English!
By the way, Sergio jokes that he still can't speak English...more like 'Spanglish'.
Here's a photo of Bob Gajda holding his '66 Mr. A. trophy and Most Muscular trophy and leaning on the trunk of Bill Seno's old Chevy in York, Pa.
Three years later Bill picked me up in this same old Chevy on the way to the 1969 Mr. A contest held at DePaul U. here in Chicago! It was, in my book, the end of the Chicago Golden Age of Muscle. Duncan Y weightroom closed, Gajda and Seno essentially retired from bodybuilding, and guys started to focus more on marriage, occupations, and raising their families.
Ah, memories.