Your First Bodybuilder

[JG1]

Juan Marquez, early 90s. I was about 15-16 yrs old. We trained at the same gym. I used to pick his brain about steroids when I was 18ish. He was pretty honest about it.

[JohnnyStyles]

I remember my first magazine . . . it had Mike O'Hearn ....Dave Palumbo . . . Lee Priest . . . and Jay Cutler . . . yup. . . . . and right at the end a guy named Wheeler. lol

[Curt James]

What was the first time you saw a real live bodybuilder in person? Where were you? How old were you? How did it affect you?

Mike, as the OP, are you going to answer the questions, too? :-)

[Curt James]

Mike Mentzer

Mike Francious

S

Mike Francois

I met Ron Love back in 85

Ronnie Coleman

Ben White

Chris Cormier

branch and trish warren

Mike Quinn

[Curt James]

Boyer Cole

Boyer Coe

Strydom

Strydom (snip) watermellon sized calves

S

PJ braun

Lex Luger

Juan Marquez

[Curt James]

I remember my first magazine . . . it had Mike O'Hearn ....Dave Palumbo . . . Lee Priest . . . and Jay Cutler . . . yup. . . . . and right at the end a guy named Wheeler. lol

I saw Vince Taylor in '97

[hifrommike65]

I was surprised at the direction the answers on this thread took. I didn't really mean "name" bodybuilder; I really did mean the first actual bodybuilder you ever saw (I mean not in a picture or on TV). In my case, I was in a pancake restaurant in July 1969 (just turned 14 y.o.) on a vacation stopover with my family & two bodybuilders were there eating as well. I had never seen anyone in real life built that way & was kind of shocked that such people actually existed outside of magazines, books & gladiator films. I was aware of competitive bodybuilders because I had gotten a Sears weight set for my birthday that year & had also gotten a couple of training paperbacks that had pix of Leroy Colbert, Reg Park & Steve Reeves. I can date this meal almost exactly, because men landed on the moon for the first time when I was in St. Louis.

In the spirit of the other responses, I can say the first "name" bodybuilder I ever met was Kyle Norris, who had just gotten national qualification in 1986 when I joined his gym in Knoxville, Tennessee. He later went on to win the Junior Nationals in 1989, & last competed nationally in 1992.

[cook]

To answer your question correctly the first bodybuilder I ever saw was a guy named Keith Underwood.I was in Arlington Texas and walked into the Arlington Athletic Club and it was full of powerlifters including one world champion but Keith looked different than the big guys.He was in shape and training for the Mr. Texas and I think he might have came in third or so.He never won a national title but he was very impressive looking.