An Interview With Pro Bodybuilding Great Boyer Coe.

[drtbear1967]

An Interview With Pro Bodybuilding Great Boyer Coe.
By David Robson


In the following interview Boyer discusses his life in bodybuilding and gives his insightful and accurate thoughts on many of its major events, from the controversial 1980 and 1981 Mr. Olympia's through to the ill-fated WBBF.


Boyer Coe has carved his name into the bodybuilding history books in more ways than one. Along with being one of bodybuilding's top champions of the 70's and 80's, he also achieved recognition as one of its most consistent and preserving. Having competed in four separate eras (the '60's, '70's, '80's and '90's), Boyer, who turns 61 in August, has posed-off against most major champions and has himself won a good haul of titles (15 professional and 11 amateur).
Born on August 18, 1946, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Boyer's first introduction to weights came at age 14, where, undecided as to what he would do with his sporting future, decided to see how far the iron game would take him. After five years of training he won the 1965 AAU Mr. Texas, followed in 1966 by winning the AAU Teen Mr. America title. He had found his calling.

One man who was to have an enduring influence on Boyer's life is Red Lerille, owner of the first serious gym Boyer trained at and a past Mr. America winner himself. Under Red's guidance, Boyer, from his early college days through to his peak as an IFBB champion, became one of the better-known and most popular competitors of his time. Ever since he lifted is first weight Boyer has maintained a bond with the sport that would form a major part of his life. From owning a health food store and running a gym (in New Orleans) to prototyping exercise equipment and co-hosting a fitness program on ESPN, Boyer has, in one way or another, maintained links with the fitness community.

In 1994 Boyer competed at his all time best bodyweight of 224 pounds, at 5'9", to place third in the Masters Mr. Olympia. Today he is in the gym every morning at 5.00, and maintains good conditioning and size. For anyone interested in bodybuilding's history, one man we should all know of is Boyer Coe, one of its hardest working pioneers.

In the following interview Boyer discusses his life in bodybuilding and gives his insightful and accurate thoughts on many of its major events, from the controversial 1980 and 1981 Mr. Olympia's through to the ill-fated WBBF.

[ Q ] What are you doing today, both training and career-wise?

• For the past several years I have been in the insurance business, insuring classic and exotic cars. My brother-in-law started this business. When he became ill, I began helping him. When he passed away three-years-ago, I took over to keep his business going.
  Prior to that I have always been involved in the fitness industry: everything from owning a health food store to prototyping exercise equipment to co-hosting a fitness show on ESPN.
  

[ Q ] You had a very long bodybuilding career, from the mid-sixties through to the mid-nineties. What kept you in the sport so long?

• Bodybuilding has always been a personal journey for me, I was simply interested in seeing how hard I could push myself, challenge myself, to see how much I was able to improve. The contests were nothing more to me than a goal to attempt to measure my progress - sometimes I was able to make really good progress, other times it was not as good as I would have liked.
  

[ Q ] You have also won your share of pro contests. What was it about your look that the judges liked?

• I do not have a clue; honestly I never thought my physique was all that good. Bodybuilding is purely subjective by nature. Judges will always have their bias. I trained hard, did my best to be in top condition; always did what I could to improve. After that it was out of my hands.
  What I counted on the most were several people who were always honest with me about my condition. A couple of times I was fortunate enough to win a contest, but if they told me I did not look as good compared to last time out, then I knew I had not really done my job and had to be better the next time out. The judge's opinion never really mattered to me.

[ Q ] But clearly you were one of the best in your era and you did make a great contribution to bodybuilding.

• The funny thing is, the contests, as I said, were never a motivating factor for me. I never cared that much, but naturally, at the same time, wanted to win and do well. I was never fortunate to have a contract and I am very happy that the guys today are getting these big contracts, but I would like to think that I was one of the pioneers that led to that. As a competitor I always had a full-time job so going to the contests and winning was not all that important to me because at least I had a job to fall back on. And to be quite honest I never had any respect for any of the judges. If they placed me first, fine. If they didn't I just took it and went about my business because I figured those guys did not know what it was like.
  It kind of reminds me of a movie I always liked called The Natural, starring Robert Redford. There is a scene with Robert Duvall, who acted the part of a sportswriter who wanted to control baseball. I always remember Robert Redford asking Robert Duvall's character, "You know, did you ever play baseball?" And he said no, he never did.
  
  So if you never participated in bodybuilding, if you never went through the effort of working out and dieting, how the h*ll would you know what it is like to be up onstage? Those guys sit there in judgement of you. I remember standing there and looking down offstage and the judges are laughing and joking and looking around.
  
  They are not paying attention to you. And way back in the IFBB, the way you got to be a judge was to first be distributor for Weider food supplements. Then all of a sudden you showed up as an official. Well many of those guys didn't know anything about judging.
  
  The thing that mattered to me was what a few of my close friends said. They would be brutally honest and tell me if I looked good or not. It didn't matter if I won a contest or not. Sometimes when I actually won a contest they would say, "You know you looked like sh!t, you didn't look anywhere near as good as you did last time."
  
  And I knew that they were telling me the truth. I remember back in 1967, a guy who helped me tremendously and who has been my inspiration in life, Red Lerille, the 1960 Mr. America, tried to teach me how to hit a side chest pose. And after two or three weeks he said, "Forget it, just don't hit the chest pose, it just don't look worth a d@mn, you just don't know how to do it."

So I went 1967 Mr. America and I decided to take his advice and did not do a chest pose. Finally they tell me that I have to hit the side chest pose. I said, "Well, I don't know how to do it." The guy said, "You have to hit the chest pose anyway." So I hit the chest pose.

• In those days you won best body parts. Well I was always fortunate enough to win best arms but on this occasion I also won best chest (laughs). But Red still didn't think my chest pose was right. It probably wasn't right but it was good enough to win the best chest award (laughs). And I had other guys like that who would tell me the truth. If they told me I had made improvements from the last contest that was all the satisfaction needed.
  

[ Q ] So you did after all have a good chest to go with your good arms?

• Yes (laughs). To tell you the truth Dave I was never that satisfied. I would always look at Sergio Oliva's physique and think that that is what I wanted to look like, but I also had enough intelligence to know that I just didn't have his genetics.
  

[ Q ] Having competed against some of the greatest champions of all time, who stands out as being the consummate professional? Who among your fellow competitors did you admire most and why?

• There were so many: Bill Pearl and Sergio Oliva inspired me so much. The guys that I competed against and became friends with included Mike Mentzer, Frank Zane, Ed Corney, Dave Draper, Danny Padilla, Ken Waller, Roy Callander, Chris Dickerson, Johnny Fuller, Dennis Tinerino and Albert Beckles, just to name a few.
  

[ Q ] I have a photo of you standing alongside Arnold on the same stage back in the late 1960's. You competed against him at one point in your early years?

• I first met Arnold at the 1969 AAU Mr. America in Chicago. He was there with Sergio Oliva. I didn't compete against him the first time I met him but the first time we were onstage together was in 1969. I won the NABBA Amateur Mr. Universe and he won the professional.

Then the next year we competed together at the 1970 Professional Mr. Universe in London. The following day we flew back from London to Columbus Ohio and competed in the Mr. World. This was the first time that Arnold met Jim Lorimer. It was also the first time that Arnold beat Sergio.

[ Q ] What was Arnold like to compete against. What can you tell me about his personality backstage and on the posing platform?

• I never really paid any attention to anyone backstage, so I can't recall how he or anyone acted. About the only thing I can remember, after the 1970 Mr. World in Columbus was that Arnold kept saying over and over, "I can't believe I beat Sergio."
  

[ Q ] What other recollections do you have of Arnold?

• I always got along okay with Arnold. I never had any problems with him, but I understood his need to be always in the spotlight. And I never felt I needed to do that. I just wanted to go about my business. Nothing wrong with that, we were just different in that sense.
  I think, later on, he began to believe that he was a little more important than he actually was though. People have asked me a thousand times, "Why did Arnold go back to the Olympia and compete again?"
  I have no idea and even if you ask him today he probably couldn't even tell you why in the h*ll he ever did that. I think now he is mature enough to look back and say that it was a mistake. It certainly didn't help his popularity.

[ Q ] He did say a short while back that he was training for a movie at the time and decided to take advantage of the shape he had achieved.

• You see that was his first big break, the Conan movies, and chances are had I not voiced an opinion at the 1980 Mr. Olympia I would have had a small part in the first of these movies. I remember I had a gym and was living in New Orleans at the time and he came into town for the big Muhammad Ali/Leon Spinks fight that was on at the Superdome.
  
  Arnold let me know he had arrived and we got together and had a great weekend and every time he would come to town we would spend time together. There is so much speculation about what happened at the 1980 Mr. Olympia and I think this is wrong.
  Everybody talks about the big confrontation between Arnold and Mike Mentzer. It never really happened like that. What happened was before the 1980 Olympia we (the contestants) decided to change the rules governing this show. We all got together and voted to change the weight classes.

• I kept telling Ben Weider that having two weight classes was really not fair. What happens if the guy in the under-200-pound class, for example, places second in that class? And what if he was in fact better than the guy who wins the over-200-pound class?
  Instead of just having an overall winner, why not have one winner but then have second, third and fourth and so on and eliminate the weight classes. So everyone said yes that made sense, and all the competitors agreed to it. So when we got to Australia we just assumed that that was the way it was going to be. Then the night before, Bill Pearl told me that Arnold was trying to change the rules.
  I said, "We can't change the rules, we have already voted on them." But I think Arnold's reasoning was if he only had one guy to beat and it was a guy in the under-200-pound class, he knew he could appear bigger and more dominant. But if he competed in the show and there were no weight classes, where you had six or seven guys in the contest who were actually better than he was, which is actually what happened, the result is really going to look more controversial.
  
  Therefore I think it was a smart move on his part to try to re-introduce the weight classes. So we all took a vote that night again. I think there were 24 guys in the contest and 23 guys voted no to weight classes. Only one voted in favor. So what happened was the next day at the meeting everybody was complaining and I said, "Look, there is only one guy who wants the weight classes. Why not give him an opportunity to voice his opinion."
  
  And I went to stand up to turn the floor over to Arnold. Well Arnold wasn't expecting that and he didn't know what to say. So the only thing he could come back with was the most idiotic statement I have ever heard in my life: "Why don't you quit acting like a boy and act like a man."
  That had nothing to do with what I was trying to do, which was to give him the opportunity to speak. Well by that time Mike Mentzer had become short tempered and he jumped up and tried to defend me. I didn't need anybody to defend me. And that is what most people think happened, that there was a big confrontation between Mike and Arnold. But that wasn't the case at all.
  
  And I want to remind you that even though Mike was in incredible condition and ended up placing fourth, he never, ever claimed that he should have won the Mr. Olympia contest. All he ever said was that it was unfair for Arnold to win.
  
  And I think everybody else who was a contestant in that contest, with the possible exception of Tom Platz, who idolized Arnold and wanted to be like him, didn't think Arnold deserved to win. There were a lot of good guys in that show, probably four or five who could have won.
  

[ Q ] There is also talk of Arnold badmouthing Mike Mentzer backstage.

• Yes, you see that is what happened also. When Arnold came back to me with his statement after I offered him the opportunity to speak, Mike jumped in. Well, Arnold did not know what to say. He wasn't expecting that.
  
  People don't realize that Arnold was sitting down and Mike was standing over him. And if there had of been any kind of fight, Mike would have knocked Arnold's head off - it was just the way they were positioned. The guy that prevented it from escalating, by stepping in between them, was Bill Pearl.
  
  And yes, Arnold did try to ridicule Mike. He said, "Everybody knows the reason you didn't win the 1979 Mr. Olympia was because your belly was too big." Which of course was certainly not the case but was probably the best Arnold could do at the time.
  I think Arnold today would probably look back and regret having said that and would have realized all these many years later, that it (the situation) certainly was not that important.

[ Q ] Judging from the DVD coverage of the show and various reports, there seemed to be a lot of upset competitors after the 1980 Olympia.

• Yes there were. That was the most upset I have ever seen people in a contest. However, I knew right afterwards what the result would be the following year. I was smart enough to see the handwriting on the wall based on the way people were acting, that Franco was going to enter and win.
  
  I even told people a year in advance that Franco was going to win the 1981 Mr. Olympia. I guess it got back to Franco and he even called me and said, "Why did you say that." I said that it was obvious he was going to win and that I was not going to the contest.
  
  If Arnold had of been honest to me and said he needed to win the contest because it would have helped him in his movie I would have stayed home; I wouldn't have gone ten thousand miles and stayed two weeks down there in Australia.

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[ Q ] And of course Franco did go on to win the 1981 Mr. Olympia.

• Yes he did and from what I can gather it was even more controversial than the 1980 contest. The only difference between the 1980 and the 1981 Mr. Olympia was very little was written about the 1981, then and ever since. And although CBS owned the rights and paid the money, they did not even bother to show up and film it; CBS has never covered bodybuilding again since 1980.
  I know the controversy rages on about the 1980 Mr. Olympia, propagated especially by people who were never there. I will just say this again: yes, Mike Mentzer was very upset, but nowhere did he ever say that he thought he should have won the 1980 Mr. Olympia. All he ever said was that Arnold was an unworthy winner and he was correct. There could have been several worthy winners, as Arnold was far from his best.

[ Q ] At the 1980 Olympia how did the competitors react upon hearing the result?

• Well there was no confrontation onstage. The only person that took his trophy and smashed it to pieces offstage was Frank Zane.
  

[ Q ] The 1980 Mr. Olympia must be the most talked about in the history of professional bodybuilding.

• Yes people still talk about it and the sad thing is none of those people were there and 90 percent of them weren't even born when the contest took place.
  Most people are correct in saying though, that Arnold should not have won. I will give him credit for one thing though: he already knew the outcome before he ever set foot in Australia. After the 1980 Olympia I said that would have never happened had the contest been held in the USA, but I was wrong.
  It happened the very next year. Chris Dickerson, Danny Padilla, Tom Platz and Roy Callander were all in outstanding shape; anyone of them would have been a great winner that year. People have asked me many times, would the outcome of the 1981 Olympia been the same if Mike Mentzer, Frank Zane, Albert Beckles and myself had entered?
  I do think the outcome would have been the same - fortunately we chose to stay out of it. Really just as controversial was the 1972 Mr. Olympia Contest held in Essen, Germany.
  

[ Q ] And since you were at the 1980 Mr. Olympia we now have a clearer version of what took place.

• Well you can put it out there and I'm telling you the truth as I was there and part of it. But I'm of the opinion that you cannot change people's minds. Once people's minds are made up, even if what they believe is wrong and false, if that is what they believe, that is what they will believe to be the truth.

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[ Q ] You mentioned some controversy concerning the CBS television studios filming of the 1980 Olympia.

• Yes. CBS had been contracted for two years to film the 1980 and 1981 Olympia's. They spent a considerable amount of money sending an entire crew to Sydney to film the event; they were down there for 10 days. The gentleman in charge was Sherman Egan, who I am sure is long retired by now.
  
  Anyway, after everything was said and done, Sherm met with myself, Frank Zane and Mike Mentzer and just wanted to let us know that CBS could never show this. Even an untrained eye could see that Arnold did not deserve to win. The film was never even edited.
  Later in 1980, I happened to be in New York on business and went to meet with Mr. Egan and he was kind enough to show me the raw footage then - to my knowledge, the only people that ever saw it were the people present with me that Saturday afternoon: Chris Dickerson, Wayne Demilia, his then wife Karen.
  
  The reason there was never a film of the 1981 Olympia is because, although CBS paid for the rights, they never bothered to send a film crew to cover it. After 1980, CBS has never covered bodybuilding contests again. Paul Graham, who organized the 1980 Olympia, was a close friend of Arnold's. So it was a showcase.
  
  If you remember, I don't think there was a single interview after the Olympia by any contestant other than Tom Platz. Everyone else refused to have anything to do with the video.

[ Q ] You mentioned a while back the 1972 Mr. Olympia and hinted at it as being as controversial as the 1980 and 1981 versions. Should Sergio have beaten Arnold at he 1972 Olympia?

• Again, it is my opinion and everybody has got his or her own opinion. Honestly to me, and everybody has a view of what they think the ideal physique should be, Sergio Oliva's physique in 1972 was the best I have ever seen of anybody even to date. If I could pick anybody's physique that I would like to look like it would be Sergio Oliva's physique at the 1972 Olympia.
  Now that doesn't mean that Arnold was not smarter and a lot more cunning in the way that he did it (beat Sergio) but I thought that Sergio was clearly superior from a physical standpoint.
  

[ Q ] What qualities did Sergio have that made him superior in your view?

• Well the true meaning of an outstanding physique is big broad shoulders and a narrow waist and hips and Sergio had that. I think Sergio was unique and he was probably the most genetically gifted bodybuilder that ever was. Not only did he have tremendous mass but also he had little bitty hips and little bitty knees and little bitty ankles, which actually accentuated all the full muscle bellies. Then he had enormous wrists and elbows, which made his arms appear even bigger.
  
  And no one had more phenomenal forearms than Sergio Oliva. The first time I met Sergio Oliva in person was in 1966 and we competed together in the A.A.U. Junior Mr. America in San Jose California, which he won. Now at the time he weighed only 197 pounds - I was standing right next to him when he weighed-in - and they measured his waist at 27 inches. Each of his thighs was 29 inches.

[ Q ] So the 1972 Mr. Olympia is open to debate as far as you are concerned?

• I think so because it actually all started earlier. It started in 1971 and it wasn't Arnold that began it. I think it was Rick Wayne writing for Weider's magazines saying that everyone was afraid to compete against Arnold. And that is when Bill Pearl announced that he would compete against anyone and everyone at the 1971 NABBA Mr. Universe. And prior to that Arnold had always competed in the NABBA Universe. To me that was the Oscar of bodybuilding.
  I mean you had the Mr. Olympia but the NABBA universe had so much history. You look back and John Grimek won that contest along with Steve Reeves and Reg Park and it was an honor just to go to that contest and be part of it. So I remember when Bill (Pearl) entered and then you had the falling out he had with Arthur Jones, and that is when Jones hired Sergio Oliva because he wanted him to beat Bill Pearl and make Pearl look bad.

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• I know that Arthur knows how to make people look big but he never understood all the conditioning aspects needed to compete at the Mr. Olympia. And while I fully agree that Sergio Oliva was genetically gifted, in the 1971 Mr. NABBA Mr. Universe contest, on that day, Bill Pearl was the better man.
  I think if Arnold had been competitive enough he would have entered but I don't think Joe Weider could even afford to take that chance. That is why all of a sudden they changed the rules and no one in the IFBB could go to the NABBA Universe anymore. Then we had the 1972 Mr. Olympia where Arnold beat Sergio. Interesting.
  

[ Q ] What was it like competing in the 70's? Could you provide some interesting stories from that era?

• You might say this was the start of professional bodybuilding. And let me make one thing crystal clear. There would never have been professional bodybuilding as we know it today without Wayne DeMillia. He worked his @ss off getting sponsors and fighting the Weiders every step of the way to make it work.
  
  Everyone else gets the glory, but it was Wayne and the people he put together that made it work. And what they did to Wayne in the end was extremely wrong. I have always said, there were only two people who could write the real book on bodybuilding. Sadly one has passed on, that was Artie Zeller. The other person is Wayne DeMillia.

[ Q ] So Wayne Demilia was really that instrumental in making the IFBB as big as it had become?

• Without a doubt: People don't really understand that. Not to take anything away from Joe Weider, because with all of his faults at least he had a passion for bodybuilding. But had it not been for Wayne Demilia, professional bodybuilding, as we know if today, would never have come about.
  In the beginning you only had one professional contest a year and that was the Mr. Olympia. Then the next pro contest was the Night of Champions that Wayne Demilia started. From there he developed all of the Grand Prix's, all the overseas tours and he was the one who went out and was capable of getting all of the sponsorships.
  
  And when the Mr. Olympia was at its peak - the last year it was held at the Mandalay Bay Theatre in Las Vegas - where they made the most money, it was Wayne who did all the work. All Ben and Joe really had to do was show up and collect their piece of the money. Wayne was the one who did all the work and made the show money.
  

[ Q ] Many feel Wayne was mistreated.

• I don't really know. I have heard so many different stories, but I think the culprit in the whole thing was this guy, David Pecker, who purchased Weider publications and then also wanted to purchase the IFBB. I am not sure if he could legally do that but he purchased a large enough portion of it, then wanted the money.
  
  In some way or another he got Wayne kicked out of the whole organization. And ever since then the magazines have failed and David Pecker has become about 1.6 billion dollars in debt. If the people to whom all the money is owed want their money back that will be the end of the magazines and there won't be a Mr. Olympia anymore.
  

[ Q ] You also talked about Art Zeller being influential in bodybuilding. Just how significant is he within the annals of bodybuilding history?

• He was a fantastic photographer and he knew everybody. Unfortunately for me, out of all the photographers I worked with over the years I never had a chance to work with Artie Zeller. By the time I came along he wasn't really working for Weider and then he got sick and eventually died of pancreatic cancer.
  
  Although I was a friend of his, I never had a single photograph taken by him. Besides he had known bodybuilders from back in New York, way before it even got popular on the West Coast. He trained with guys like Marvin Eder, who were incredibly strong and he had a lot of great stories about those guys. I always enjoyed listening to him.
  

[ Q ] Art was also himself a bodybuilder.

• That is correct, he even competed in bodybuilding.
  

[ Q ] When you placed third at the 1994 Masters Mr. Olympia you looked truly awesome. Why did you decide to make a comeback?

• I would have to say you're wrong. I had always continued to train hard, so there was no comeback ever planned. Once again, my goal was to see if it was possible for me, at 48, to go past my best condition ever. I honestly have to say, that was my best all-time condition.
  I was extremely pleased with the condition I achieved. Coming in third in the judge's opinion does not matter to me one bit. Funny story about this contest: since there was only $25,000 involved as prize money and no one was really doing it for the money, I suggested that, whomever the winner might be, why not give all the prize money to the him.
  
  Robby was very upset by this and wanted the prize money broken down. As we were the eventual winner in the end, I believe he only received $10,000; he talked himself out of $15,000. Later I heard that Louie complained so much that he did not win that Joe gave him $25,000 to keep him quiet, but I don't know if that is actually true.
  

[ Q ] To compete in both the 1994 and 1995 Masters, what changes did you have to make to your training and diet programs? How did they differ from the ones you used in the 70's and early 80's?

• Not much difference. I simply trained hard and put forth the effort. In 1994 I was right on the money. In 1995 I was way off, no question about it.
  

[ Q ] Interestingly you are known among other things for your split biceps. Have you always had this, or did you train for it?

• Purely genetics. I remember I was about 16 when I realized I could make my biceps split while doing a pose. I was so proud. That evening, I told my Dad that I could make my biceps split and that no other bodybuilder could do that. He sat, watched me for a minute, and then said, "Let me see if I can do that." He rolled up his shirtsleeve and sure enough he could do the same thing. So it was purely genetic.

[ Q ] One common characteristic of older bodybuilders is the youthful appearance they maintain. What do you do to stall the aging process?

• Again, I would have to say genetics; that along with always training hard on a regular basis, a good diet, and a positive outlook. I always like to use the quote by the great baseball player, Satchel Paige. "How old would you be, if you didn't know how old you were?" I never think about age.
  

[ Q ] Describe the type of training and diet strategies you now use to keep in shape?

• Consistency. I have been training close to 46 years. I love to workout; you have to if you are in the gym every morning at 5 A.M.
  
  [ Q ] Thank you for this interview Boyer, your insights have been great. Is there anyone you would like to thank for helping you throughout your career?
  
  
• Yes, I will always be indebted to my parents, both now deceased, for giving me the greatest gift: life, and for teaching me to always believe in myself and always to do the right thing. Also big thanks would go to Ken Guilbeaux who believed in me from the very beginning and gave me good advice.
  
  To Bill Pearl and Sergio Oliva for inspiration. And especially to Red Lerille, who has been my inspiration in not only bodybuilding but also life. A man I am truly proud to call a friend.