I met Pat Arnold, owner of the supplement company ErgoPharm, through Dan Duchaine who thought very highly of Pat and we have been friendly ever since. Pat is credited with introducing the first andro products to the market, as well as producing the non detectable steroids that Victor Conte (see below) gave to the various athletes he worked with. Pat s a brilliant man, and in his area of expertise, he s leagues past everyone else. He got the short end of the stick in the Balco scandal but has rebounded well and seems to have taken the experience in stride. Pat s problem is he s too nice and too honest, and was naive in many respects about how fast people in the industry will throw you under the bus when the SHTF, and will scatter like roaches leaving you holding the bag. Pat is no longer the naive genius he was when I met him, which is a good thing in my view. Pat is one of the good guys in an industry full of con artists and scum bags.
The Admiral Bob Kennedy:
Bob is the founder and owner of the well known magazines Musclemag International, Oxygen, and others. I was invited to have lunch with him when I first started writing for MMI at the Ms. Olympia in NY City many moons ago. He said he liked my stuff and encouraged me to keep writing. Someone gave him the nickname The Admiral but he hated that, so I tried to write that into every article and column I could! I used to tease him about the Admiral thing when I saw him at the MMI booth at the shows, which is probably why he seemed to avoid me! At least he continued to publish my many articles and monthly column over the years...
Victor catch me if you can Conte:
I met Victor when he was brand new to the bodybuilding/fitness industry well before anyone else knew who he was. I was doing consulting work for a company at the time. As it was my job to look at new products, I got a call from someone in the company, who said,
Will, there s some guy named Victor Conte contacting us who has this ZMA product he wants to pitch to us.
So, I booked a flight for the meeting to hear Victor pitch ZMA and give the company my opinion on the product. My first impression of him was he was clearly a smart person, but also a slick salesman who had developed a great story for ZMA minus what I considered solid support for the effects he claimed. Still, as bodybuilding type supplements go, it was better than most, as it actually had some data to support the concept.
Of course, Victor later became famous for his involvement in the various steroid scandals and his association with steroid using athletes in professional baseball, Olympic track and field, etc. He did several months in Club Fed for that.******
I haven t seen Victor since he was released from jail, but I have had many a drink or dinner with him at various shows/conferences, prior to that. He s a charming person and quite smart, but perhaps more of a salesman than a guru type. Regardless, Victor is one of those people who always lands on his feet. He s more famous than ever now, and is having the last laugh considering the amount of public money used to try and take him down. I suspect that s just fine with him...
Lee Mr. Nice Guy Haney
8 time Mr. Olympia Lee Haney is probably the nicest person in all of bodybuilding. A devout Christian and I believe a minister Lee is one of the few highly religious people I can talk religion with and not want to strangle them. He and I used to both have a contract with the same company, so we would often have breakfast together, and have interesting talks about the nature of God and such. I appreciated his rare ability to lead by example as a Christian, vs. trying to convert me or convince me it was the only right/correct way to be a complete and decent human being.
Lee Class Act Labrada
Lee was regarded as one of the most symmetrical pro bodybuilders back in the day and currently runs his own successful supplement company, Labrada Nutrition. Lee is a class act all the way. He s one of the more honest and professional supplement company owners, and is a stickler for producing high quality products. He s always been friendly and professional with me, although I have had limited personal time with him. His booth is always on my short list of places to stop by at the shows to say hello to Lee and his crew.
Joe Weider
Joe really is the founder of bodybuilding as we know it today, even if he did have a habit of taking credit for things he didn t invent... He founded the IFBB, owned magazines such as Muscle & Fitness and Flex, and created the supplement company Weider Nutrition. He was always pretty friendly to me, but since I was only an occasional freelance writer for his mags, I didn t have much contact with him over the years.
Conclusion
These are just a few of the people and experiences that I recall from over the years I ve been involved in the industry. Many more come to mind, but I ll save those for another time. I hope you enjoyed my short walk down memory lane as much as I enjoyed turning on the time machine and jotting some of my history down on paper.
Author Resource:-
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