St. Louis is a town that has always been good to me.

An e-mail from a good friend, actually a very good friend, got me to thinking (yes I do think now and then) about a meet that was so very special in many ways. The meet was the USAPL 2005 Bench Press Nationals in St. Louis, Missouri.
This was my third bench nationals. I took a silver in my first in Newark, New Jersey and joined the bomb squad in my second in Killen, Texas. I met a lot of great lifters and some legends as well in those two meets. I knew who was who in and around my age and weight class and how much they had lifted in the past.
Going into St. Louis I had a greater respect for the national platform then previously exhibited. During warm ups in the back room Kevin Hutchinson told me his crew had not shown up and he needed someone to help him with his shirt. I invited him to park his stuff with mine and assured him I would get the help we needed. At the same time Fred Dini was looking for moral support and someone to team with for assistance.
Now let me explain. Kevin “Hutch” Hutchinson was and is a world class benchpresser. I have never actually lifted head to head with him because he is a few years younger than me and usually lifts in a different weight class. I however, always considered him the competition to beat. I have never beat him in a bench press contest. Fred Dini on the other hand had set a world record on the world platform and was one of my bench press heroes. I was going head to head against Fred that day. I was intimidated. Fred said he was really hurting. He told me his shoulders were so bad that he couldn’t bench over 135 without a shirt. I was honored to just be hanging with these two guys. I don’t believe anything the competition says before lifting because they don’t often tell the truth.
Hutch lifted in the flight ahead of Fred and I. Cliff Tallman and I helped him into his shirt and Cliff tried to latch his belt. Hutch is laying on the floor and Cliff keeps pulling on the lever but the latch wouldn’t close. Kevin is starting to show some anxiety at this point. From my angle I could see that the two leather ends were butted against each other instead of overlapped. I reached down and slipped the one end over the other and Cliff locked the lever. Hutch went out a made an easy 408 opener. He then took an incredible 100+ pound jump to 513, and couldn’t quite lock out. He went out for his third attempt and nailed it. One thing I have learned about Hutch over the past 5 years, he does not give up. Adversity seems to make him much stronger.
Fred opened before me with a 352 and made the lift. I was having problems with my feet kicking out from under me because my fat butt was raising me off the bench a little further than I was used to on the bench at my gym. Because of this I had called for the foot blocks. This turned out to be a bad decision. I was all out of position and missed the groove completely causing me to double pump my opening 429. As I was leaving the platform Regina hackney asked me “What was that”. So now I was a lift behind. Fred took a 50 pound jump to 403 on his second lift but missed. I had the blocks removed on my next lift and smoked the repeat at 429. Fred repeated the 403 but missed again. I called for a 468 which would be a National and American record. Kevin and Fred both jacked me up to the max in the back room. I went out, set up tight, took the hand off, and blew it off my chest. The bar stopped and I knew my right arm was not locked out tight but I new if I locked it I would draw red lights. I just held it like a rock and got the rack command. The judges showed two whites and one red it was a good lift. The National meet record still stands today but will probably be blown away by Frank Beeler next year when he turns 55.
I shared the medal platform with my hero Fred Dini. He really was telling the truth about his shoulders. As far as I know that was his last bench meet.
Later that night the legendary John Blackmon came up to me and congratulated me for besting his old record which had been on the books since 1999.The biggest prize of the day was having shared the platform with and made the friendship of Hutch, Fred Dini and John Blackmon.