Post by Tim Wescott on Mar 22, 2004 20:52:09 GMT -5
One of the strongest men of all time! 
A Biography of Paul Anderson:
The following is only the true account of his beginning in weightlifting found on the internet. We should all give a special thank you to Mr. Anderson's brother in law, Mr. Julius M. Johnson, for giving us the truth. Thank you, sir.
Paul Anderson was born October 17, 1932, in Toccoa, Georgia. Many accounts of Paul Anderson erroneously claim that he began lifting weights at Furman University which he attended for a year. According to Paul's brother in law, Mr. Julius M. Johnson, Mr. Anderson began weightlifting in his house where they had a 25 pound set of dumbbells and some old Strength and Health magazines while he was at Toccoa High School, not at Furman. He really began his weight training in the Johnson backyard where he developed his own training methods and techniques. By the time he reached Furman, he had already added over 100 pounds to his bodyweight and was making lifts that were close to the existing American records.
The reason he started to lift weights was very simple. When Paul started High School he wanted to play football, but was not large enough. So, Mr. Johnson gave him the dumbells and the magazines. He snatched them up right away and soon was scouring the junk yards looking for heavier weights to lift. In High School, he became first-team blocking back on the football team. He entered Furman University on a football scholarship. When he visited their gym, he saw and they saw how strong he already was. It was there that the idea of becoming a "strongman" entered his mind. It was at Furman that he began to try the Olympic lifts.
He left Furman after that one year and lived with his parents in Elizabethtown, Tennessee. He met Bob Peeples, a great lifter in his own right, and a devotee of the squat. So, in his early years, he trained mainly on the squat. This was a wise choice, for it gave him the basic strength to demolish all the official Olympic lifting records and many unofficial power records as well. Peeples recognized Paul's potential greatness and began to promote him and introduced him around weightlifting circles.
The rest is history. He squatted 900 while still an amateur and later did a legendary 1200 pounds for two reps as a pro. In all fairness, it must be said that there is some question if the 1200 went past parallel. But the 900, done without wraps or squat suits of any kind, was all the way down. Mr. Anderson's most impressive feat was the jerk press. Using a drive of the legs and then pressing the weight out, Paul made an incredible 565! To this day, this lift has never been duplicated. In 1955, he traveled as a Goodwill Ambassador from the United States to the Soviet Union. While there, his lifting surpassed many world records. Later that year, he won the World Championships. In his prime, he probably had the heaviest hip and thigh structure of any lifter in history. I am told that when he trained down to 330 pounds for the 1956 Olympics and actually had cuts in his thighs. He brought home the gold medal from the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. To date, he was the last American to win a gold medal in the Super Heavyweight Division. On June 12,1957, he lifted a total of 6,270 pounds in a backlift, which was listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the greatest weight lifted by a human being. A great granite marker commemorating this great feat lies in front of his old house in Toccoa. He overhead pressed 400 pounds. He bench pressed 627 pounds. These were all done before there were world records. That's why we hardly ever hear of them, until now.
Towards the end of his life, Paul used to laugh about all the "legends" being told about him. One that he particularly enjoyed was a story that he had been seen pushing a bulldozer up the side of a mountain! There were so many things written about him, many of them based on little fact, that he came in the end to ignore them. Paul passed away in 1994 after a life-long bout with kidney disease.
A Biography of Paul Anderson:
The following is only the true account of his beginning in weightlifting found on the internet. We should all give a special thank you to Mr. Anderson's brother in law, Mr. Julius M. Johnson, for giving us the truth. Thank you, sir.
Paul Anderson was born October 17, 1932, in Toccoa, Georgia. Many accounts of Paul Anderson erroneously claim that he began lifting weights at Furman University which he attended for a year. According to Paul's brother in law, Mr. Julius M. Johnson, Mr. Anderson began weightlifting in his house where they had a 25 pound set of dumbbells and some old Strength and Health magazines while he was at Toccoa High School, not at Furman. He really began his weight training in the Johnson backyard where he developed his own training methods and techniques. By the time he reached Furman, he had already added over 100 pounds to his bodyweight and was making lifts that were close to the existing American records.
The reason he started to lift weights was very simple. When Paul started High School he wanted to play football, but was not large enough. So, Mr. Johnson gave him the dumbells and the magazines. He snatched them up right away and soon was scouring the junk yards looking for heavier weights to lift. In High School, he became first-team blocking back on the football team. He entered Furman University on a football scholarship. When he visited their gym, he saw and they saw how strong he already was. It was there that the idea of becoming a "strongman" entered his mind. It was at Furman that he began to try the Olympic lifts.
He left Furman after that one year and lived with his parents in Elizabethtown, Tennessee. He met Bob Peeples, a great lifter in his own right, and a devotee of the squat. So, in his early years, he trained mainly on the squat. This was a wise choice, for it gave him the basic strength to demolish all the official Olympic lifting records and many unofficial power records as well. Peeples recognized Paul's potential greatness and began to promote him and introduced him around weightlifting circles.
The rest is history. He squatted 900 while still an amateur and later did a legendary 1200 pounds for two reps as a pro. In all fairness, it must be said that there is some question if the 1200 went past parallel. But the 900, done without wraps or squat suits of any kind, was all the way down. Mr. Anderson's most impressive feat was the jerk press. Using a drive of the legs and then pressing the weight out, Paul made an incredible 565! To this day, this lift has never been duplicated. In 1955, he traveled as a Goodwill Ambassador from the United States to the Soviet Union. While there, his lifting surpassed many world records. Later that year, he won the World Championships. In his prime, he probably had the heaviest hip and thigh structure of any lifter in history. I am told that when he trained down to 330 pounds for the 1956 Olympics and actually had cuts in his thighs. He brought home the gold medal from the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. To date, he was the last American to win a gold medal in the Super Heavyweight Division. On June 12,1957, he lifted a total of 6,270 pounds in a backlift, which was listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the greatest weight lifted by a human being. A great granite marker commemorating this great feat lies in front of his old house in Toccoa. He overhead pressed 400 pounds. He bench pressed 627 pounds. These were all done before there were world records. That's why we hardly ever hear of them, until now.
Towards the end of his life, Paul used to laugh about all the "legends" being told about him. One that he particularly enjoyed was a story that he had been seen pushing a bulldozer up the side of a mountain! There were so many things written about him, many of them based on little fact, that he came in the end to ignore them. Paul passed away in 1994 after a life-long bout with kidney disease.
