This was a letter to Joe Weider from Leroy Colbert. Leroy stated that he thought Dave was just a fat boy who could not win the Mr. America. Dave at this point had the rep of being too fat. Leroy recently won the Mr. Universe contest and stated that Draper looked great and was cut and deserved to win the Mr. America Crown. Leroy went on to state that within two years Dave Draper would be the greatest bodybuilder ever.

As usual Dick Tyler wrote a great article on Dave Draper winning the 1965 Mr. America Tile. Dave had won Mr. New Jersey when Joe Weider began publicising heavily in the Weider mags. It was contest time and Draper was going to have to face off against some pretty good competition including Chet Yorton.

Dave Draper won the contest and here are the results of the show: For Best Arms-Dave Draper; Best Chest-Tommy Aybar; Best Back-Chet Yorton; Best Abdominals (who else) Zabo Koszewski; and Best Legs went to chet Yorton. Chet Yorton also won the Most Muscular Man in America title. And of course Dave Draper won the title and is still going strong 45 years later. That’s what I call Big Muscles Forever!

The sub headline read, He’s 18 and added 40 pounds of muscle to his body in a few short months-5 and a half inches to his arms…12 inches to his chest-to become one of America’s best built youths.

The article written by Leroy Colbert projected that Roman Austin might be the next Larry Scott, which didn’t happen. The article concentrated on Roman’s training routine. Here is Austin’s routine which seems extensive:

Monday-Wednesday-Friday morning routine for arms, shoulders and back.

Arms: Super Set-Barbell curl for 4X 10 along with the Dumbbell Triceps Press for 4 X 12. This was followed with a curling bench dumbbell curl for 4 X 12.

Shoulders: Barbell Press for 4 X 10 reps.

Back: Close grip chins for 5 X 12 reps along with Bent Over rowing for 5 X 10 reps.

Monday-Wednesday-Friday evening, Austin worked his arms, shoulders and back again.

Arms: (Tri-Set)-Alternate dumbbell curls for 4 X 10, then work lying triceps press for 4 X 10 and then the final part of the tri-set was lying dumbbell curls for 4 X 10.

Shoulders: Shoulders were worked with wide angle dumbbell presses for 4 X 15 reps.

Back: Wide grip bent over rowing for 4 X 12 reps. Follow this with triangle chinning bomber chins for 4 X 15.

Austins Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday morning routines for his chest, thighs, calves and abdomen were as follows:

Chest-Incline bench press for 4 X 10 reps followed by the flat bench dumbbell press for 4 X 10 reps.

Thighs-Full squats for 8 X 10 reps.

Calves: Rise on toes 6 X 30 reps.

Abdomen, hanging leg raise for 6 X 50 reps.

His Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday evening routine for his chest, thighs, calves and abdominals were as follows:

Chest-Incline dumbbell press for 4 X 12 followed by the bench press for 8 X 10 declining to 4 reps as the weight increases.

Thighs-Leg curls for 4 X 10 reps followed by leg extensions for 6 X 15 reps.

Calves-Rise on toes for 8 X 40 reps.

The entire routine comprised 21 exercises. Austin looked good in his photos but never quite followed in the footsteps of Larry Scott.

This issue of Mr. America starts out with some jabs at the AAU and an article on Crash Weight gain imposters. Anyway, there was also a good article, Will Bodybuilding’s Top 10 be seen in the 1966 Mr. Olympia. Here are some Mr. Universe Standings from that previous contest.

1). Larry Scott

2). Reg Park

3). Harold Poole

4). Jack Delinger

5). Freddy Ortiz

6). Steve Reeves

7). Clarence Ross

8). Leo Robert

9). Leroy Colbert

10). Rick Wayne

According to the magazine here was how the voting was going so far for the 10 best bodybuilders of all time.

1). Reg Park

2). Steve Reeves

3). Larry Scott

4). Clarence Ross

5). Bill Pearl

6). Jack Delinger

7). John Grimek

8). Harold Poole

9). Freddy Ortiz

10). tie- Don Howarth, Leo Robert, Marvin Eder and Lou Degni

Others mentioned in the voting were Lynn Lyman, Floyd Page, Ed Theriault, Tom Sansone, jean Charles ST. Mars, Malcolm Brenner, Jimmy Payne, Rick Wayne and Eugene Sandow.

This month, due to a computer glitch, I will be going farther back in time than I thought. But what a great issue to do it with. On the cover in 1966 was the then 44 Mr. “Abs” Zabo Koszewski. Stay tuned to the first and maybe only pre-Arnold muscle mag I am going to write about.

That’s all folks for this issue. Buy this one on ebay if you can find it. See you next issue.

This department starts out with a photo of Frank Zane and Dave Draper spotting for Arnold with a 295 pound behind the neck press. Arnold was asked what his favorite bicep exercise was? He responded that without a doubt it was the one arm concentration curl. Arnold said it isolated the bicep and built a supreme peak. Arnold does five sets of 10 to 12 repetitions. He then recommended his book, “Building Massive Arms.”

Arnold was also asked if bodybuilders were strong? He said he wasn’t the strongest or weakest guy out there. He does curls with 100 pound dumbells, bent arm pullovers with 350, bench presses with 405 for six reps and calf raises with over 1,000 pounds. Not bad!

Arnold also gave advice about knee injuries and the origin of his training. Arnold designs his own workout routines but uses Weider training principles.

The usual political schtick from Ben Weider. An interesting note was that the 1974 IFBB Mr. Universe Contest and World Championships would be aired on ABC’s Wide World of Sports in January.

If you are a weightlifting historian you will like the pictorial report. Some famous weightlifting names include David Rigert, Valentin Christov, Vasili Alexeev, Gerd Bonk and Serge Reding. A formidable lineup indeed!

This was a short column where Larry Scott gave some advice on deltoid development and how to get more definition.