Central City Gym :
One day while me and Harris were training at the "Y" we met this kid named Roger in a blue bandana and red tank top who told us he was from Connecticut and that he would soon be opening a gym here in the city of Springfied.
We looked at each other and were both thinking this guy`s full of shit !!
But not ,long after that,true to his word, Roger did indeed open up a new gym right in the seedy pimp and hooker infested part of downtown Springfield.
This really,freaked us out and once we saw the place we knew that was where we`d be training from now on.
Pretty big building,tons of dumbells and Olympic sets lots of heavy duty Jubinville training equipment............ some of which we never saw before in person..............we were pumped to get started.
After hearing the news and checking out the gym,most of the guys who were anybody at the YMCA soon joined Rogers gym and the "Y" became a veritable ghost town.
Somehow I felt disloyal like a traitor abandoning an old friend or something but that feeling didn`t last very long once we got busy training at Rogers.
Roger called the gym Central City Gym,I didn`t like it much, but who cared,it was new and fresh...........and most of all,we needed a new atmosphere after training for so long at that old dungeon of a YMCA day after boring day..........you guys know how it gets sometimes.
To make the story more concise,I` m going to skip over the non-esential bullshit and tell you that Roger moved the gym on two more occasions.........both same downtown Springfield but to slghtly better conditions and he always got new and better training equipment which kept things fresh and exciting as far as getting bored or stale went.
We all pitched in to help him make the moves.The second location was just for a short stay on a second floor office type building,the third location was down into the Italian/Puerto Rican area we called The South End.
Lots of real Italian gangsters and their families and lots of poor Puerto Ricans moving drugs and doing crime.
Just like neighborhood !!
Well it was at this,the South End location where I met a teen age kid named Jeff King,another kid named Rich Roy,then there was a huge Black kid from Boston called Arthur "Artie" Prince,Chris Aceto,LarryTyler,Rick Sampson ( NOW thats a true bodybyuulinding name huh ) LOL
and a bunch of other great guys who along with the old "Y" crew would soon make that little gym into more than just a gym..................it would become the East Coast Mecca of bodybuilding............
.......much like Diamond Gym was in Jersey and Tom Minichiellos Mid-City Heath Club was in NYC.
There was another locally well known bodybuilder training there who was a former hockey player and a good one too.........Pat Hayes,I knew Pat from the old YMCA and he had a killer physique...........the best build in town easy other than Dave Mass of course who had since moved out to become a trainer to the stars in Venice Beach California;
Pat Hayes was the big fish in the small pond now since Dave Mass cut out.
Me and Pat were always cool for years and during his workouts,he would stay high from smoking Pot............his fucking eyes would be so bloodshot it was insane and he was always fucking baked and I mean all the time...........never saw him straight in my life..... just reminded you of Sean Penn in Fast Times At Ridgemont High or some shit.......he was a stoner,but he looked fucking awesome.
Well those guys and a few others unmentioned because I`d be typing for years, formed the nucleus of our gym.
Harris had joined the Marine Corps and I was training with this kid named Glen Clark.............good kid............great arms and shoulders,great quads and calves,but the most patheticlly weird torso you had ever seen.
Weird side story bout how I met Glen..............it was strange!!
Well as I mentioned,Harris joined the Marines and the rest of our little United Nations type crew of guys along with myself kept up the tradition of training had,but nobody trained with more intensity than I did.
One day this kid walks up to me and introduces himself to me and says he wants to train with me he knew Harris was gone.............says it would be a true fucking honor to train with me.
I felt like Marlon fucking Brando in the Godfather or some shit............I thought he was gonna genuflect and kiss my ring or something............. but I told him yes that he could train with me but we weren`t gonna fuck round...............it was balls to the walls or nothing at all .
One more tiny sidenote,Pat Hayes hated Glen Clarks guts for some reason........it appeared that they both grew up in the same neighborhood of town....................
an area called Sixteen Acres.
OK now that you know he cast of most of the characters..............
. most of these guys who were training hard were starting to compete and kick ass on stage but first, we are going to move Central City Gym to it`s last location............than
k God because moving that gym was a pain in the ass.
We all got together and moved the gym into the Forest Park area of town at a busy intersection everyone called The "X" !!
Got to skip over a lot but we can come back to all that because we live on this fucking board so we know we aren`t going anywhere too exciting................
................I`m not anyway........unfortunat
ely !!
There are things now that were happening that I cannot talk about......I did one other time online when I had a forum of my own and caught a ration of shit about it so lets just say that things went a little South and this guy named Rick Britt who was a serious powerlifter was opening up a new gym directly across the "X" from Central City Gym............I mean right across the street.
Rick owned a window cleaning company as well as a tanning salon that he and his wife owned together..........now he would own a gym.
First it was tiny little place, but due to those other circumstances I can`t talk about,we all went over and started training at Ricks gym which caused him to end up buying this whole huge building that went all around the corner and down the street a bit........place was huge, and had all glass in the front..........in the winter it was so steamed up from all the animals training that you couldn`t even see through the glass.
At first called it The Springfield Barbell Club,then not long afterwards he called it Big Daddys Gym and that gym became even better than Central City Gym.......we were voted best hardcore gym in the county for 2 years in a row and we had some guys there that were winning big National and Intentional level contests.
I believe Roger sold Central City and moved to Florida.,Central City was now the ghost town except for the fact that there was a big huge monstrous Samoan kid who still trained there.
I gotta try to set the stage here a little it........although this kid is gonna sound he looked like and he looked like one too a serious cartoon characher,I swear to you this is how he looked and how he lifted.
WERE TALKING BIG HERE!!
This guy had to be round 6 foot 6 inches tall,weighing over 300 pounds easy,bodyfat percentage similar to a guy a few weeks out from a contest.........huge everywhre but what truly stood out on the guy were his deltoids.........they didn`t look like the ften talked bout cannonball delt look,they looked like basketballs....seriously huge delts which made him look even more impressive as he had a pretty small waist and a bodybuilders body but he trained mostly as a powerlifter............j
ust a big strong and very quiet kid no one really seemed to ever get to know really well, but we all knew him just from training in the 2 gyms here.
His name was Bill Tolliver......if you want to,you can call him "Big" Bill Tolliver................
...it wouldn`t even be a fitting title but he seemed to be needed to be called something else because this fuckers physique was off the chain and almost godlike........he was that big and impressive looking.
SORRY BOUT THE TYPING KEYBOARD IS FUCKING UP
OK,here`s where we begin a short saga which almost ended permanantly for Bill Tolliver unfortuntely for him............but he go lucky.,...............real fucking lucky!!
Lets call it a Monday.......who the fuck knows but it sounds OK.
So it`s a Monday even though it isn`t and Bill Tolliver has a big squatting session scheduled for that "Monday" !!
One problem,it was gonna be for a new PR and their was nobody over at Central City sill left that was capable of giving him a spot.
So he strides across he street and tells another really big guy........Walt Garwacki and his buddy John Longo that he needs a spot on squats.........not a problem Big Bill..............not a problem.
I actually witnessed what was about to happen next.....I honestly hope I can describe it well enough for you guys to dig the enormity of just what is gonna happen in a few sets time.
KEYBOARD AGAIN....SORRY GUYS.
Anyway Tolliver warms up with various poundages and soon until after all the increasing increments over time are made he had just done a 700 pound squat like it was a fucking toy Tonka truck he was lifting.
So now he throws on 760 pounds........never squatted this much but since he`s go a few big dudes for spotting and a whole gym full of like minded psychos screaming at him he figured what the fuck....................
........time to SQUAT.
Bar is loaded onto a normal power rack.........old school shit no step type rack or cage just steel bars with holes in it for pins, bolted into the floor, and bolted with a few pieces of steel at the top right into the gym wall....................
.just in case !!
OK Tolliver shoulders the bar after chalking his sweatshirt,the bar itself,and his hands...............the gym is silent except for the occasional word of encouragment shouted out by someone......he walks the bar out,remember now,he is just facing the rack...............not in a cage..........has big Walt Garwacki and John Longo on either side of him and Big Daddy himself Rick Britt behind him.
He has no problem walking backwards at all.........in fact it looked light,he gets set,takes in a huge gulp of air,drops ass and slowly and controlled lowers himself down then blows the weight out of the hole like it was a fucking rocket..................
.....no problem at all...........looked like he could do a lot more and if I knew him jus tthe little bit that I did,he more than likely was.
Here`s where this shit gets sticky !!
As he is walking the wight back to return it to the pins on the outside of the power rack,he has no problem,the guys are walking in with him just in case doing some good spotting.
Once he starts to return the weight to the rack itself,he begins to look a bit weird.
He gets the right side of the bar onto the pin no problem................t
hen as he gets set to return the left side of the bar to the opposite pin in the rack,his finger gets caught between the pin and the bar with...... 760 fucking pounds on it.................no clue how he fucked this up but it is what it is.
He starts to panic as his finger is getting crushed which in turn causes him to lose the left side of the heavily loaded barbell.................
.......the right side is racked on the pin per normal but now he drops the left side which in turn strarts to make the right side "pull" itself if you will towards the floor...................
.his finger is literally fucking mangled,he turns to walk away while looking at his mangled mitt....................
..while he is walking away just as you or I would do..............just a normal pace walking away from the power rack with our back turned away from it.,the whole 760 pounds is falling and it tears those 2 pieces of iron that I mentioned earlier right out of the upper wall....................
.............then as it falls forward it rips the fucking power rack right out of the floor...................
....mind you Big Bill sees none of this he`s casually stepping away still worried about his finger.
All of a sudden that power rack came down with the force of that 760 pound barbell yanking on it ...........it was moving and there was no stopping it now..............it crashed down and sounded like a fucking explosion just missing Tollivers head..................he was still just slowly walking away oblivious to what was happening with the iron rack with 760 pounds pulling on it......................
.......reminded me of a giant mouse trap snapping closed a a high rate of speed with lots of power...............if he had taken just one step less while walking,that rack which came down hard trust me, would have squashed him like the proverbial bug on a windshield.
As it was, after it hit the floor,years of chalk dust floated up and into the air like a fucking nuclear mushroom cloud !!
Never saw anything like it before or since.............Big Bill Tolliver almost did his last squat that day............. and it was by mere inches that he didn`t get turned into Big Squished Tolliver.
That`s all she wrote,.............sorry about my almost brand fucking new computer fucking up but I promise not to smash this one like I did the last 3 I had on here.
