My lifting career didn't really start until I took a weight training class my freshman year of college.  I weighed 148 pounds soaking wet.  The strength gains came very naturally to me and soon after so did some size.  In the first year, 2 semesters of weight training at Amarillo College, I had gained over 10 pounds of muscle.  That is especially impressive to me and other old timers, because this was way before creatine, protein powders, MRPs and the vast improvements in nutritional knowledge.  I then attended the University of Oklahoma and was asked to try out for the Sooner Powerlifting team.  I was pretty clueless then and didn't even know what a below-parallel squat meant.  It didn't take long to figure out powerlifting was a very specialized sport and there was more to learn than meets the eye.  It was new challenge and I excelled.  I made the Varsity for the Sooners and had increased my body weight to 173 pound and competed in the 165 pound class.  In my first meet, I set 2 collegiate records and placed 3rd.  Later that year, I went on to a national contest and placed 4th, which was very disappointing for me.  Even though these other good lifters were beating me, I couldn't understand why, because I looked like a bodybuilder, I thought "bad idea" that I would just naturally be stronger.  Back to the drawing board!!  I made myself train differently and heavier and learned to eat better.  I became obsessed with powerfifting and would win first place in over 70 meets over a 12 year period.  During that time, I was always asked if I competed in bodybuilding and I always had to say no, but was flattered that my competitors agreed I would do well. 

    I knew about as much about bodybuilding as I did about powerlifting, when I got started.  That was in 1984.  I won my class and the Overall in my first show dieting - what I thought was a diet - for 3 weeks and I cheated on having some pizza, Wednesday before the show!!!  How stupid was that.  Looking back, I was very lucky and got away with it only because I hadn't really bulked up yet and only had to lose 6-7 pounds for the show.  But, after any diet, that is when most bodybuilders LEARN how to eat in BULK and really GROW!!  Being an exhibitionist, I was HOOKED on bodybuilding, after that first show, and competed 3 more times in 4 months.  I won 3 more Overall titles but was devastated when I didn't win the Overall in the 5th contest.  Again, that challenged me to improve and learn more about the sport regarding nutrition, rest, overtraining - which I was really good at - and supplementation. I still incorporated a great deal of power movements resulting in added thickness and size over the next year.  When I won the Texas Overall title again in 1986, I was 12 pounds heavier and much harder.  Over the next 10 years, I competed in both powerfifting and body building and won several National and World titles.