Another quiz?

[Al Myers]

Tom, That’s quite a quiz!!! After the difficulty people had answering my last quiz – this one seems impossible!! But then I got thinking – maybe you are trying to “stump” me??? So I’m going to give you MY answers first before anyone else responds.

Question #1 – This was too easy – none other than Ed Zercher I. I knew this answer before I even looked it up. Ed was in his early 80’s when he first competed in the USAWA. He was born on 8-19-1907 (I did have to look that up).

Question #2 – The first part of the question was really easy. Art Montini is the oldest current member (he was born on 10-11-27).

Now the second part of the question (oldest past member still alive) is the tough one and I’m going to have to take a guess. My answer is none other than the man of many talents – Jack Lano (born 4-17-22).

How’d I do??? Al

[Tom Ryan]

Al,

Well, Ed Zercher I is the obvious answer to the first question and that was also my guess. Unfortunately, that is NOT the correct answer. There is someone else who has been a USAWA member who was born before Ed. I don’t know if he ever competed in a USAWA meet (as of course Ed did) but that wasn’t part of the question. This person did compete in powerlifting at a very advanced age.

You may have the correct answer to the second question. Jack is certainly a good guess. There are several former USAWA members who were born before Jack, however, so the question is whether or not they are still alive. I’ll have to do some checking.

Incidentally, when Terry Todd called me several weeks ago, he told me an interesting story about Jack Lano and Jack Hughes. (For anyone not familiar with Jack Hughes, he was Senior National Olympic lifting champion in 1953 in the 123-lb. class — apparently the only lifter entered in that class — and has long been involved in weightlifting administration. Terry said he is now 90 years old.) Terry told me that when he was in Los Angeles (presumably somewhat recently), he was riding in a car with the two Jacks and Lano was driving. He said that their car came so close to clipping the side mirrors on cars on their right (which may have been parked, not sure about that) that he flinched multiple times. He told me that he was never so glad to get out of a car! So maybe Art Montini can still drive a car safely at a very advanced age, but there are other old lifters who are quite “suspect”.

Tom

[Al Myers]

You ARE trying to stump me Tom!!!! I’m not ready to say “I’m right and you’re wrong” just quite yet. Interestingly, I do have a complete members roster from 1994 that lists ALL of the members from 1988 to 1994 that had registered at least once (a total of 204). Zercher was the oldest listed. But the possibility of someone joining after that date that was older than 87 (in 1994) does exist. I will keep after the research!!! Al

[Tom Ryan]

Yes, 204 is the count, Al. We presumably have the same list but you are overlooking someone. Look at that list again.

Tom

[Al Myers]

I CAN’T BELIEVE I MISSED IT!!!

I know who you are talking about now – a lifter who was a legend for competing at an elderly age. I won’t give the answer yet as I’m hoping that someone else may want to try to answer this very difficult quiz. That was a great question Tom! Al PS I was thinking for a moment that you might try to pass off one of John Grimek’s many birthdays as the correct answer!!!! (but to my knowledge Grimek never paid membership dues to the USAWA).

[Denny Habecker]

I’m not sure, but I think Jim Messer lifted in the USAWA when he was in his late 80’s back in the early 1990’s.

[Tom Ryan]

[b]Quote from liftingliar on February 20, 2011, 19:32[/b]
I’m not sure, but I think Jim Messer lifted in the USAWA when he was in his late 80’s back in the early 1990’s.

Denny,

I think I read that somewhere once but Jim is not listed as having been a member as of 2/25/94 and he died in June, 1994 at the age of 88, so there is only a small window of time in which he could have become a member. He was involved in the USAWA as an announcer at times, however, and I recall that he split that duty with Dave Mayor at the 1989 World Championships in Plymouth Meeting.

Jim might have lifted as an extra lifter of sorts in some meet but it seems unlikely that he was ever a USAWA member.

Tom

[Al Myers]

Tom, Denny is correct on this. I checked the USAWA record list and Jim Messer is listed as having set one USAWA record. On 10-31-1992 he is listed with setting a record in the 85 age group, 75 kg class with a 170# heels together deadlift. This was set at a meet in Valley Forge. That is all that is listed. My collection of Strength Journals is limited during the 90’s and I can’t find the specific meet results. Whether he was a member is questionable – back then non-members often got recorded in the meet results, and thus the record list. The method of confirming memberships was not as good as we have it now. I would say since he was NOT listed in Bills master membership list from 1994 that he was not a member. But then again, Bill commented at the top of this list that not all members were listed if he did not have a current address for them. So that raises doubts! I also wonder if anyone has a birthdate for Jim Messer. Al

[Joe Garcia]

Don’t know how many are still alive but here are some that were members:

Tomalonis, Ed 1/18/1918
Mason, Roy 1/23/1918
Decker, Bill 8/1/1919
Eberhardinger, Paul 3/9/1920
Ziegler, Otto 7/19/1921
Skeete, Harrison 10/1/1921
Schubert, John 11/9/1921
Stark, Robert 4/9/1923
Monahan, Rex 10/2/1924
Prechtel, Howard 2/16/1925
Cox, Bob 4/22/1925
Ridgeway, Norm 2/27/1927
Turgeon, Armand 3/14/1927

BTW since John Vernacchio trained under Messer, he might know.

[Tom Ryan]

Al,

Jim Messer was born on 10/19/05. So his USAWA membership seems questionable. He was a leading weightlifting official for decades and Bill must have had considerable interaction with him at AAU Weightlifting meetings long before the USAWA was formed, so I would be surprised if Bill didn’t have an address for him. And of course it would have been easy to look up his address — if one had a computer.

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

[b]Quote from joegarcia on February 21, 2011, 17:00[/b]

Joe,

I’ve entered the date of death below for each person I was able to locate info. I believe Armand Turgeon is still alive but I don’t know about the others for whom I couldn’t find any info. Some would be extremely old if they are still alive.

Tom
———————————————————-
Don’t know how many are still alive but here are some that were members:

Tomalonis, Ed 1/18/1918 [b]5/10/95[/b]
Mason, Roy 1/23/1918 [b]5/2/05[/b]
Decker, Bill 8/1/1919
Eberhardinger, Paul 3/9/1920
Ziegler, Otto 7/19/1921
Skeete, Harrison 10/1/1921 [b]4/5/08[/b]
Schubert, John 11/9/1921
Stark, Robert 4/9/1923 [b]11/28/93[/b]
Monahan, Rex 10/2/1924 [b]1/19/09[/b]
Prechtel, Howard 2/16/1925 [b]11/9/10[/b]
Cox, Bob 4/22/1925 [b]5/8/09[/b]
Ridgeway, Norm 2/27/1927
Turgeon, Armand 3/14/1927

BTW since John Vernacchio trained under Messer, he might know.

[Al Myers]

I much appreciate everyone’s response on this topic. Alot of good info was presented. I plan to summarize this in a Daily News Story so it will be saved on our website for future reference.

But – are we in agreement that Henri Soudieres (born 8-5-06) has the oldest birthdate of any past USAWA member? Or should it be Jim Messer?

Do we agree that Jack Lano is the oldest living past/present USAWA member?

Without question, Art is the oldest current USAWA member.

Thanks. Al

[Tom Ryan]

[b]Quote from dinoman on February 23, 2011, 08:43[/b]
I much appreciate everyone’s response on this topic. Alot of good info was presented. I plan to summarize this in a Daily News Story so it will be saved on our website for future reference.

But – are we in agreement that Henri Soudieres (born 8-5-06) has the oldest birthdate of any past USAWA member? Or should it be Jim Messer?

Do we agree that Jack Lano is the oldest living past/present USAWA member?

Without question, Art is the oldest current USAWA member.

Thanks. Al

Yes, this was indeed interesting, Al. I think we have to say that Henri has the oldest birthdate unless someone comes forth with evidence that Messer was a member. Did Messer compete in any other meet in addition to the one in which he set a record? Perhaps he got inspired by watching everyone else and decided to try his hand at a lift — a spur-of-the-moment thing without him being a member.

I will take your word for the “without question” being without question, Al, but not so fast in anointing Lano.

I did discover that Gene Harmath (12/16/04), John Roche (4/3/98), and Toivo W. Gustafson (2/16/97) are all deceased.

But I found phone numbers for John Schubert and Otto Ziegler. They are both legends … although maybe not in Al’s mind since he listed the Ziegler Clean as #4 on his list of the 10 worst lifts!

I searched the Cleveland newspaper obituary archives for Schubert but he isn’t listed there. He had a health club in Cleveland for decades. I called a number I found for it but discovered that the number had been disconnected. Anyone want to call his home number (actually I found two) and ask him if he is still alive? Ditto for Ottomar H. Ziegler? Scott Schmidt (if he is still at the same address) lives only 10 miles or so from where Schubert lived, so it would be helpful if we could get him to chime in.

I also could not verify that Ed Tomalonis or Bill Decker is deceased.

Tom

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