My buddy Dave Mastorakis aka "Dave Mass' was the youngest kid who ever entered in the IFBB Mr. America the year when Dave Draper won....he was fifteen years old at the time and was a thick kid.
Anyway he saw Mike Mentzer and was impressed so became his pen pals with him....no internet back then obviously.
He ended up training with the Mike and Ray oon thereafter.....Dave and Ray made meager progress while Mike grew like a weed....then after some questioning he admitted to them that he was on gear......all three had superior genetics to begin with.
Then they all started using roids....took up Arthur Jones methods and the ret is history,but they all built their initial size by using volume with big weights.
This was told to me by Dace himself when we were hanging out in Masachusettes who couldn`t get over the fact that Mike tried to rob banks with just a note, drank piss, and ran around LA naked on top of parked cars.
in case nobody knows who Dave is.....he competed and beat some legends and is a helluva` guy but got robbed a lot of times IMO:
David Mastorakis
1965
Mr East Coast - IFBB, Teen Short, 5th
1968
Teen Mr America - AAU, 13th
1974
Mr America - IFBB, Short, 3rd
1975
Mr East Coast - IFBB, Short, 1st
Mr North America - AAU, Short, 1st
Mr USA - IFBB, Short, 5th
1976
Mr America - IFBB, Short, 3rd
1977
Mr America - IFBB, LightWeight, 3rd
Mr International - IFBB, MiddleWeight, 4th
Mr USA - IFBB, MiddleWeight, 2nd
1978
Mr America - AAU, Short, 7th
Junior Mr America - AAU, Short, 1st
1979
Mr Atlantic Coast - AAU, Overall Winner
Junior Mr America - AAU, Short, 3rd
1982
Nationals - NPC, Light-HeavyWeight, 15th
USA Championships - NPC, Light-HeavyWeight, 14th
Magazines
1979 October Vol 16, Num 5 Muscular Development