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USAWA Strength Journal

The USAWA Strength Journal published its last issue (Volume XX, No 6) on October 19, 2009.  This was produced by Bill Clark, the founder of USAWA and a driving force of strength sports in the Midwest.  The notes in the journal include correspondence with Tommy Kono, Vic Boff, Bill Starr and many others.

I received a treasure trove of back issues from a friend
  • 2009 Volume XX (6 issues) 
  • 2008 Volume XIX (7 issues)
  • 2007 Volume XVIII (7 issues)
  • 2006 Volume XVII (8 issues)
  • 2005 Volume XVI (9 issues)
  • 2004 Volume XV (8 issues)
  • 2003 Volume XIV (9 issues)
  • 2002 Volume XIII (8 issues)
As I perused this decade of All-Round Weightlifting history, I was immediately impressed by the discipline and effort required to collect content, compile results (typed or handwritten), add commentary and finally copy and distribute.  Coming up with a thoughtful, curated update today is hard enough.

The content is primarily:
  • Meet results
  • Personal tidbits on athletes
  • Upcoming evnets
  • Calls for membership and journal donation money
  • Thank you for those who have made contributions
  • Calls to support other strength organizations - BSA, AOBS, other journals
  • Strength related newspaper clippings
  • USAWA membership form and drug waiver
This would create a 10-20 sheet 2 sided stamped newsletter that would have been well beyond first class postage in weight.  I went through the (62) issues over a few days and made some content notes on each one.  I was specifically looking for IAWA/USAWA annual meeting minutes, but did not find anything earth shattering.  I quickly glanced through the results and athlete stories as few are still competing today.

The beginnings of drug testing was interesting.  Announcing the updated rule books and patches got repetitive.

Western Australia was very active during these years.  Steve Schmidt was busy teeth lifting and setting repetition records.  Kevin Fulton was hosting Super Grip with Captains of Crush Grippers and the IronMind Rolling Thunder.

The Association of Oldetime Barbell & Strongmen and the British Strength Athletes Guild were prominent.  As were some contemporary publications.

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