Joe Roark's IronHistoryArchives.com
The HUGE library of Iron History compiled by Joe Roark.
Welcome to Iron History with Joe Roark!
Joe Roark has been studying the iron game since 1957, and by 1970 began a systematic gathering of information on index cards. By the time his first computer was acquired, there were several hundred thousand references to be typed into it.
For a few years he published his own newsletter called MuscleSearch: The Roark Report. By 1992 he was appointed as the IFBB Men's Bodybuilding Historian, and began writing about history for FLEX in his column Factoids. For ten years he contributed to Iron Game History from the U of Texas at Austin. Recently he also began writing All Our Yesterdays for FLEX.
His passion has always been the period between 1880 and 1920, with particular emphasis on the oldtime strongmen of that era. Joe will be offering bits of history for Cyberpump once per week, and the text will be relevant to the dates of the calendar for those events of yesteryear relevant to the coming week.
In this column, readers will also be able to ask Joe questions or comment on his posts. Note: The comments are solely for interaction between Joe and the readers only -- not reader to reader.
11/26/2004: A letter from Pudgy & Les Stockton to Joe Roark July 11, 1993
Friday, November 26, 2004
Posted by TheEditor @ 09:20 AM CST
11/19/2004: Letter from John Grimek to Joe Roark May 16, 1985
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Posted by TheEditor @ 08:59 PM CST
11/12/2004: Letter from Peary Rader to Joe Roark Sep. 10, 1968
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Posted by TheEditor @ 09:07 PM CST
11/5/2004: Letter from Pudgy Stockton
Thursday, November 4, 2004
About two decades ago I began a corrspondence with Pudgy Stockton and her husband Les Stockton. The ongoing letters/phone calls/and thoughts have been ultra-rewarding for me with these two splendid old time physical culturists.
Some years ago, Les began organizing his papers on their connnections to bodybuilding and lifting, and he sent me copies of many papers as he organized them. Occasionally, in the coming months, I will be sharing newspaper clippings and photos with you as a recurring ingredient to this site.
We begin this week with a letter from Pudgy to me from 1985.
Posted by TheEditor @ 08:53 PM CST
