Q+A: BILL KAZMAIER, FORMER WORLD’S STRONGEST MAN

Monday, May 14, 2007 | 7:07 a.m.

Quick facts about Philippi Sports Institute, the state-of-the-art athletic training center owned and operated by former UNLV strength and conditioning coach Mark Philippi:

Location: 6640 S. Tenaya Way, Suite 100, Las Vegas.

Phone: 731-1774.

On the web: philippisportsinstitute.com

Clients: Shawn Marion, Phoenix Suns; Jason Giambi, New York Yankees; Montell Griffin, former light heavyweight boxing champion; Lori Harrigan, former gold-medal winning Olympic softball pitcher.

Even at age 53 and a quarter-century removed from competing in powerlifting and strongman competitions, Bill Kazmaier is an imposing physical specimen.

Six-foot-three, 320 pounds, with granite blocks for biceps and oak trunks for thighs. Think the Incredible Hulk, only without the green skin and tattered trousers.

The first thought you have upon meeting the man is that he would look good in a flannel shirt, a thick 5 o'clock shadow and an axe in his hand - and it just so happens that he once was a lumberjack, before he became in demand as a public speaker.

Some guys toss around nickels as if they were manhole covers. Kazmaier tosses manhole covers around as if they were nickels.

He was the World's Strongest Man - not once, not twice, but three times.

During a weekend appearance at the Philippi Sports Institute, the new training center owned and operated by former UNLV strength coach Mark Philippi, Kazmaier shook my hand and nearly made it disappear. Then he began our conversation by saying "So I was pulling a bus for some kids the other day when "

The cool thing is he wasn't trying to impress anybody. He was just stating a fact.

You were crowned the World's Strongest Man in 1980, '81 and '82 but before that, were you the World's Strongest Kid as well?

Through a prayer, I was given super-human strength. When I was 10 years old I could press my own body weight over my head. I was bigger, faster, stronger. But I should have grown up in Chicago instead of southeastern Wisconsin, where I was a big fish in a little pond. We did Punt, Pass and Kick, I could throw the football farther and I could kick it better. But we had a quarterback and he was going to play and we had a kicker and he wasn't going to play anywhere else.

Still, you were good enough to play Big Ten football at Wisconsin in the 1970s.

I tried. I was an all-state fullback in high school. I had the 100-yard dash record and the shot-put record. But they wanted me to play tackle at Wisconsin.

You played against the late Mike Webster, the NFL Hall of Famer, in practice. What was that like?

I hit Mike Webster in a 3-on-1 drill. I thought somebody hit me in the head with a baseball bat. I did not want to play in the line. He would knock down a nose guard, knock down a linebacker and would be chasing a defensive back on every single play. And after the game he was in the weight room, doing 410 on the bench.

While he would go on to become teammates with Terry Bradshaw and Mean Joe Greene, you joined the likes of Scott Steiner and Lex Luger as a professional wrestler. Was that a good experience?

Not really. It's really not a good sport or good people. You try to get into your locker and it's 10minutes before the match and somebody has cut off your lock and put some somebody else's stuff in and one of your boots is hanging from the ceiling. They're just mean people. "Mankind" kicked me square in the throat and then ran. He said "Man, I just slipped." But it was for real. It's an avenue to make money but it demeans everything we do.

You also were the strength coach at Auburn. Did you ever have Bo Jackson or Charles Barkley in your weight room?

No, but those guys were around. I had Stephen Davis. He was so lazy. He was very nonreceptive to weight training. He finally learned a work ethic when he got into the NFL.

OK, you mentioned that you were pulling a bus - not Jerome Bettis, but a real one - for some kids the other day. What's the craziest thing you've done in terms of lifting?

Pick up kids with my baby finger and hold them in the air for 10 seconds. Problem is, I ruined my shoulder doing that. Two surgeries in the last three months. Not good. People ask me to move a piano and I say it's cheaper for you to hire a moving company. There's really a science to lifting, moving, working and I'm a man who really doesn't do physical work. That's in my past.

So why should a guy - or girl - train at the Philippi Sports Institute when there's a Gold's Gym or a 24-Hour Fitness just down the street?

All the way from young kids to professional athletes, you want to shoot for the stars. You want to soar with the eagles and stay away from chickens and turkeys. So you don't go into a Gold's Gym or a fitness center. Here, you get specific training for your sport. Those guys, they want big guns, big arms. And they want a date. Here, Mark is going to increase their strength, the ability to apply that strength in their sport, their agility, their speed now we're talking about individual components to make a better, higher-level athlete.