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STRONG Life Podcast BONUS - IRON Roots
Iron Roots Ep 21: Jan Dellinger Pt 5 — York Barbell Equipment, Ken Patera, Bob Backlund, Bob Hoffman
Jan Dellinger worked under Bob Hoffman at York Barbell for around 25 years. He shared an office with John Grimek. He is the last living man who can tell these stories firsthand.
That is why I built IRON Roots. I wanted to sit across from the men who lived this history before it disappears. Jan is not reading you a Wikipedia page. He was IN the room.
Part 5 of this 7 part series gets into the York Barbell equipment itself, the machines and plates that built champions for decades. Then we go deep on Ken Patera.
Most people know Patera from his WWF run. Intercontinental Champion. That legendary Texas death match with Bob Backlund. What most people do not know is what Patera did before he ever laced up wrestling boots.
Patera was the first American to Clean and Jerk 500 lbs. He is still only one of a few rare Americans to ever Clean and Jerk 500 lbs. He competed at the 1972 Munich Olympics as a legit threat to the Soviet legend Vasily Alekseyev.
Patera was not a wrestling gimmick. Ken is a man who was one of the strongest humans alive, full stop, before he ever became a character on TV.
This episode connects the dots. York Barbell built the equipment. York Barbell built the culture. And that culture fed directly into the athletes who went on to become legends in other arenas, including pro wrestling.
Bob Hoffman built something most people alive today do not understand the scale of. Jan Dellinger is the man who can still explain it.
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Enjoy the show!
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This series I did with Jan Dellinger / IRON Roots is exactly why I wrote IRON Journeys II. If episodes like this one with Jan Dellinger get you fired UP, IRON Journeys goes even deeper. Old school lifters, forgotten equipment, the men who built this Iron Game before it got soft and corporate.
