Latest / The Platform: a Michigan High School Powerlifting Association Podcast / Tim Furno, MHSPLA Founder, Millington HS Pt 1 | The Platform Episode 11
Transcript
- Chris Whittaker: Welcome to the platform where the stories weigh a ton. This is where some of the MHS PLA's best tell real stories about what it takes to build themselves and their programs under the bar. I'm your co-host, Chris Whitaker, and I'm coming to you live to record from beautiful Alpina, Michigan. Hopefully you all are enjoying the MHSA dead week this week, getting away, getting a chance to recharge your batteries a little bit. but before we get to this week's episode, part one of two parts that'll be released this week, please if you're enjoying the show, give us a follow on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, like, share. All those things really help to build more traction for the show, bring more people to it, and allow us to bring the conversations that you want to hear to the platform. give us feedback or suggest a topic. at info at mhspla dot com. We'll get back with you and we'll either get your topic into the into the wheel of rotation here or get an interview set up for you in the future. today's episode is going to be episode eleven featuring one of the founders of the MHSPLA, Coach Tim Ferno. during this part one, my coach Ferno talks about how he built Millington into the state's premier power lifting program and with seven state titles and twenty six national champions. he takes us back to his roots in Meadville, Pennsylvania, where a YMCA iron worker paid him to lift in his first team meet at the age of 16. he also talks about York Barbell and his run in northern Michigan, alongside many famous names that you've heard of. and the day that You know, he had a bench press challenge on the stage at Millington. he's had Olympic caliber athletes and it's Coach Ferneau is a great, great conversation and hopefully you enjoy part one with him. part two will be released on Thursday of this week as we record this. And yeah, enjoy part one with Coach Tim Ferneau. The bar is loaded. Lock in. Episode eleven. Hit the intro music. Here we are, ladies and gentlemen. The bar is loaded yet again for another episode of the platform, your Michigan High School Powerlifting Association podcast, where the stories weigh a ton. I'm Chris Whitaker, your co-host for this show. I'm here with Coach Chris Gillum, as always, my partner in crime, the executive director of the Michigan High School Powerlifting Association board. Coach Gillum, good to see you again. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, always good to see you and to have this podcast. So talk to a lot of new people and interesting stories and we have some today. Chris Whittaker: And we got a good one today, Coach Gillam. and you're gonna talk all about this man and introduce him, but I I just got to meet him a few minutes ago and I'm already fired up to talk to him. This is Coach Tim Ferneau and Coach Gillam, tell us all about Coach Ferno, please. Chris Gilliam: yeah. Our guest today is a man with many accolades. He was a power lifter himself in high school. He played football and wrestled at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan. He started a weightlifting program at Millington when he was an assistant coach in nineteen seventy-four. Once he became the head football coach Tim Furno: Okay. Chris Gilliam: in nineteen seventy eight, his weightlifting program grew and developed into the premier powerlifting program in the state of Michigan. He was a pioneer for the Michigan High School Powerlifting Association. His teams won seven Michigan State Powerlifting Championships from 78 to 90. He also coached two teams to a national drug free high school powerlifting championship in nineteen eighty seven and nineteen eighty nine. In the same time period, coach he had twenty six individual national champions. Eleven of those individuals were females. Our guest is a Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame member, a member of the Northern Michigan University Hall of Fame, a Millington Athletics Hall of Fame member, and he has the distinct honor of having the football field at Millington High School named after him. Let's welcome Tim Ferno. Chris Whittaker: Cold Fernal. Tim Furno: All right. Chris Gilliam: we find Chris Whittaker: We got new sound effects buttons, Chris Gilliam: some new Chris Whittaker: coach. Welcome. Chris Gilliam: toys. Yes. Tim Furno: Well, before I get started, I'm going to talk about Chris Gillum. yeah, coach at Birch Run. He beat me at times. I didn't like it, but I accepted it because he was a gentleman. He was the best coach that Birch Run ever had. yeah, he was a force in the Tri-Valley, which is a very, very competitive league. Chris Gilliam: Ha ha ha. Thank you, I appreciate that. Tim Furno: One time we had five teams go to the playoffs in the Tri-Valley and he was one. And I was fortunate to be one also. So Chris Gillum, you had your show in high school football. You're a great coach and I congratulate you. Chris Gilliam: No. Thank you, appreciate that. I thank you very much, Coach. I appreciate it. Tim Furno: Well, you deserve it. Chris Gilliam: All right. Thank you. Chris Whittaker: So we're we're gonna get right into talking about you here, Coach. And we talked a little bit about this off air before we we pressed record here. but you're from Meadville, PA. Did I pronounce that town correctly? Tim Furno: That's the Meatville Bulldogs. Get it straight. That's right. Chris Whittaker: The Meadville Bulldogs in Meadville, Pennsylvania. what was it like growing up in their area? And how did you get started in weightlifting and powerlifting? Tim Furno: Well, I came from a very poor family. We didn't have much. I was a Y rat. I hung out at the YMCA. And I, you know, I would, I was either going to be a leader of a gang or captain of a football team. yeah. So I got a little bit of trouble, nothing serious, but I decided to turn a corner. And be an athlete. And I played football, beautiful high school. I was all state and it was an all state wrestler. And that got me into college and a scholarship. But going back to my early days. I wouldn't have done anything without weightlifting because I was small, skinny kid, scrawny. And picked on or whatever, but anyway. In 1964, I was hanging out at the Y and this big guy who always wanted me to lift weights. He'd get over here and try this. I no, don't like weightlifting. It's too much like work. Leave me alone. And he goes, well, look, he was the business agent of the ironworkers. That means he was the head of all these people. This is erecting steel, skyscrapers. And he goes, Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Tim Furno: You work, I Yeah, make a dollar an hour. He goes, what if you made $14 and 65 cents an hour? I said, I'm 16. I can't join a union. He goes, you're going to work on white paper. And we're going to get you in. I paid to work. Not much, but I paid. I made a lot of money working iron and I didn't mind going up in the buildings, but he was a weightlifter. and he formed a team in the Meadville YMCA and he wanted me to belong. I goes, I'm just a scrawny kid. He goes, yeah, but you, he wheeled me in the room one day and I squatted 350 pounds, but I could only bench like 180. And he goes, you're gonna be okay. Just train. I goes, okay, as long as I get paid that money to work, I'll train. So that was the deal. That was how it got started. And I entered my first meet at 16 years old at the Golden Triangle Y in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And I think I benched around 230 and everybody else benched around 350. And I only lifted against men. I never lifted against another teenager because nobody lifted weights in 1964 in high school. There were no weight rooms. No one knew anything about it. The high school coaches go. Well, if you live, wait, you're going to be muscle bound. You won't be able to run or move and I guess I that. I have to. I have to get muscle somehow in it. You know, I wanted to make the varsity team. So. I lifted in and. My first meet. I I squatted around 505 and I did left it about. 554 but those other guys didn't concentrate in a squat or the deadlift. This thing was a bench. I can bench this. But they opened up with like 350 on the squat. I opened up with 505 and I ended up with about 550 and I deadlifted about my, I just squatted more than I deadlifted. I don't know why. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Tim Furno: So I was used to lifting against the men, not other teenagers like you guys are experiencing. That never happened with me. And I did it because of the money. And the guy that was very inspirational in my life was Bill Knapp. He was a power lifter, arm worker. And he was quite an inspiration to me. Chris Gilliam: Awesome. Tim Furno: I went on to college, but before I went to college, I entered the nationals as a senior in high school. was super senior the summer that was in Scranton, Pennsylvania. And I took third place and I was the only, you know, teenager in the beat. And, I lifted a guy, I lifted against national champions, Tony Fratto. Guy Borrelli, Jimmy Witt. Jimmy Witt was 62 years old and he was, I lifted against him. He was from Texas and he was something else. He didn't, he didn't place. He placed about eighth, but you know, he was there. He was there doing it at 62. Well, what struck me crazy about that meet was Bobby Hoffman. Bob Hoffman, the owner of York Barbell at 91 years old. Chris Gilliam: That's awesome. Tim Furno: was a head ref in that meat. And he had a stand up, he had a table where he sold Bob Hoffman powder, and he had a table where he sold weights, and he had some, the beginning, the infancy of weight machines. And you know, we're all kinda laughing, but he was there, 91 years old, reffin' a meat. That's just mind-blowing. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, well. Yeah. Well get we'll get to that in a second, Coach. I I want I want to talk to you about York Barbell as a matter of fact. Glad you mentioned it. It's in York, Pennsylvania, not very far from where you grew up, right? Okay. it has the moniker of Muscletown USA. I don't know if you're all right, so and you mentioned Bob Huffman. So for our listeners, you know Tim Furno: and my college years. Okay. Right? yeah. Chris Gilliam: You you already told us that he was the owner and founder of York Barbell. It's not as big of a brand as it you know, today as it used to be. It still is in existence. And there's a couple things that, you know, I'm curious of because, you know, you gotta go back to those times and they were he was developing, you mentioned his like Huffman powder, whatever. He he was one of the pioneers of supplements. Tim Furno: Is it still in existence? that's good. yeah. Chris Gilliam: for the exercise fitness industry. I I I found that out and you you know, you mentioned that they were developing exercise equipment, but yeah, nutritional supplements was one of his big things. And the York Barbell Club was a big supporter and developer of Olympic weightlifting in the USA. I mean they were huge. They they were in the USA during that time was one of the top Olympic lifting countries in the world. Tim Furno: yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Chris Gilliam: so did you compete against guys that lifted for York Barbell Club? Did they ever ask you to lift? Tim Furno: Oh God, yes, yes, yes, all the time. They're they're on a juice and they're there. You know these guys were fanatics. They're like and you know 34 years of age is the age where the male is his strongest. And they were all right there. And then you know it's just a kid. They they make fun of me and stuff like this, but that's that's expected. You know you're just a kid. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tim Furno: here with all these guys and. We didn't have those tight suits or anything like that back then. They didn't make him. You know they just. Chris Gilliam: Okay. So it's more like wrestling singlets and stuff like that or Tim Furno: Well, yeah, I a wrestling sling singlet because as a wrestler I just. Stole it from my school and use it. You know high school. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Yeah, I understand that. All right. Awesome. All right, we're gonna kick the next one to Coach Whitaker. Chris Whittaker: Yeah. Yeah, and and even that Bill Knapp you brought up, I feel like we're, you know, as big followers of of Louie Simmons and Westside and I I feel like I've heard that name come up in some of his stuff. 'Cause Louie's like always talking about this guy and that guy and and even in this the in this book here, like kind of people have like Tim Furno: yeah. Chris Whittaker: names like their name is like a section where then he talks about, you know, that and I'm sure you had talked about Bill Huffman in here too. Or Bob Huffman, I'm sorry. But I feel like I've heard that before. Like i was he connected to West? Tim Furno: Alright, Bobby. Yeah. Joe Weir, you're him, Chris Gilliam: Well, and the other thing for our our listeners out there, and and maybe you two don't know it, but the York Barbell Club has a lifting hall of fame located on the premises of their company. And so it's quite a grand thing. I looked it up online and you know, they honor Olympic lifting and power lifting throughout the history of the United States. And so they got a a a really nice building associated with their facilities that houses pictures and videos and awards of, you know, people that performed at the highest level. so I didn't even know that existed until I was doing some research. Tim Furno: No, Bob Hoffman did it right. Everything he did was right. He didn't want Joe Weider though. You know Joe Weider. California boy. They kind of bucked heads a lot. Chris Gilliam: Right. Yeah. East side, west side, or west coast, east coast, yeah. Tim Furno: Yeah, you didn't care for Weider. I didn't either. I thought he was a pretty boy. didn't like him. Chris Whittaker: So moving moving to Millington, right? you started weightlifting in Millington when you were assistant football coach in the early nineteen seventies. Tim Furno: Well, I'd like to cover Northern Michigan. Briefly. Northern Michigan University at that time was 14,000 students. We were division 1A. We played Central, Akron, North Texas State, Southern Illinois, Youngstown. Even North Dakota State. And we beat them. One time. Chris Gilliam: Okay, sure. Go ahead, coach. Yeah, go for it. Chris Whittaker: yeah. Yeah. Tim Furno: quarterback was Lloyd Carr. You ever hear of him? Chris Whittaker: Just a Chris Gilliam: yeah. Chris Whittaker: couple of times. Tim Furno: Okay, and I was there with Tom Izzo. He was on the same hall I was at, Grease Hall. was there. Tommy Mariucci, Steve Mariucci was there. And another guy by the name of Howard Schultz. Do you know him? Chris Gilliam: Nice. Can't say I do. Tell us about Tim Furno: He's the CEO of Starbucks Coffee. He's a, yeah, he was there. He was a re- Chris Whittaker: That's who that is. Chris Gilliam: yeah, yeah. Okay. That's when he was a student there? 'Cause northern Michigan was the very first college campus to have a Starbucks on it. And I knew it was because the founder went there, but I didn't know who it was. Tim Furno: As is Howard. Howard wanted to be a quarterback. He got in a conflict with McCarthy, this other kid from Ironwood or Iron Mountain, I don't know, iron something, and they made him a receiver and Howard quit. Chris Gilliam: But he created a coffee conglomerate, man. Tim Furno: He was, yeah, he was headstrong. So that we didn't have any weights. We had one of those stupid Universal machines. And I started the Northern Michigan Weightlifting Club, where I'd be in a bar and I'd say, hey, you wanna join? Yeah, give me 20 bucks. Yeah, okay, you're in forever. But we did buy a York Barbell set, because we didn't have any free weights. And we started lifting. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Nice. Tim Furno: And eventually that grew up there. And the Northern Michigan coaches were totally against weightlifting. Don't do it. No. It was 1967 and they, you know, oh, we were undefeated that year in football. And we kicked Central's ass. We just beat their ass severely. We beat them for all four years that I played. Chris Gilliam: Okay. Yeah. Nice. Tim Furno: Youngstown thought they were tough and well, we kicked their ass also. We were pretty tough back then. Now we can't beat anybody. And we have a dome. We have a beautiful dome. Unbelievable. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it is. It's pretty sweet. Yeah, I mean you you went to school probably arguably in northern Michigan's heyday in the late sixties, into the seventies because they were they were a powerhouse and and Tim Furno: Yes, I did. 1975 with Steve Mariucci as senior quarterback. We're national champions Division 2. We start going into Division 2 at around 1971. But we you know we played anybody we played North Texas State. Joe Green played and beat our ass severely. We lost. He knocked two of our kids out. That I got to play. Chris Gilliam: Okay. Tim Furno: because that guy got knocked out. I played England. I wasn't a star. Just put me on the field, please. Chris Whittaker: Yeah. Chris Gilliam: Coach, he's he's name dropping some really famous people. He might know more famous people than anyone we've had on the show, yeah. Chris Whittaker: I can't wait till he starts listing off professional wrestlers, I'm gonna tell you. Tim Furno: Nah, I'll tell you what. Chris Gilliam: Ha ha Tim Furno: I'll you know, I'll give you a professional name. Sharon Stone. You ever hear of her? Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: Once or twice, yeah. Yeah. I I yeah. Tim Furno: She's from Beedville. Chris Gilliam: She's from Maidville. Tim Furno: Sharon Stone's from Beedville and she used to drink at my dad's bar. Carl. Carl Stone would drink at my dad's bar and have Sharon on his knee. She was younger than me. Chris Gilliam: Okay. Awesome. Tim Furno: But she was so very beautiful back then and still is. Okay, moving along. Now that covered like Carr and all those people. Moving along to Millington. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Tim Furno: So I, yeah, we're gonna move along. I was a coach at Gwinn, I head wrestling coach for two years. They cut everybody back because of the Air Force base. They cut everything back 50 % so they cut the teachers back. So I ended up in a town called Millington in 1972. Chris Gilliam: Okay. Tim Furno: We'll give you a crazy story if you want to hear it. I go into the gym, there's nothing there. There's one of those gyms with a gym and a stage in one room. It's really kind of hokey. wasn't used to it. I was from a AA school in Pennsylvania. You know, our graduation class, like 400 kids. So I wasn't used to this. So I developed a makeshift weight room so I could train. I wanted to train, so. I had a York barbell set I bought because Chevy dealership bought it for me and it wasn't enough weight so I would weigh two kids that weighed about 170 pounds a piece and I'd have them lean over the bar and bench press them. Chris Whittaker: Mm. Tim Furno: And they, they went and told their parents and their parents came to the school and said, this guy's doing this. it, are kids going to get hurt? And principal goes, I don't know. And so they, excuse me. They had me put on a small assembly and all of the people who showed up there about, I don't know, 50 to a hundred. They wanted to see me do that. He goes, we want to see that. So I was on the stage now and I had a bench press there makeshift and I benched the two kids and they all got up and screamed and yelled and clapped. Chris Whittaker: Ha ha ha Chris Gilliam: And then the legend was born. It started right there. that's that's a good story. That is really good. Tim Furno: yeah. Well, that's weird, but Millington, when I was there, Chris, you were just a pup. You were a gleam in your dad's eye. Just a young pup. Chris Gilliam: Mm-hmm. Yeah, the year you got there's the year I was born, so Tim Furno: Jesus. I'm lucky I'm alive. I'm the only one alive anymore that knows the stories anyway. We had split sessions. I don't know if you know you guys know what that means. Split sessions we had two groups of people going to school in the same building starting at 6 in the morning. And ending up at 1115 and then the other shift came in 6 through 8. We had pay to play. We had no busing for athletics, nothing. They want to cut athletics out to pass the millage. So that's where got myself in a bit of trouble. I had a master's administration and I knew school law. So I went to the boosters and I said, hey man, I said, do know what sports is costing the Lington community? How much money? No, about 1.5 % of our budget. And they're penalizing all these kids. Do something about it. So they went to board and threatened them. And the board goes, we didn't, wow, hey, huh. And they stopped pay to play. But they blamed me for that conflict, say, Chris, you know how this is. And they would always badger me and stuff. they didn't like me having a master's degree in administration either. They didn't like that. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. So sure. Well, you know, back when you started the training program, like what can you share with us a little bit like what your what were the things you were having the kids do? 'cause you're introducing weight training, obviously. It's brand new to them. So what was the basis of your training program? How'd you get the kids interested? Tim Furno: Want to hear it? Two words, wanna hear it? Easy, peasy. That's it. I was a fanatic about physical fitness. I tested every kid, constantly. How many pull-ups can you do? What can you do here? I picked out the freaks. Nice kids, but you can stop at 45 pull-ups. okay, okay, that's good. You're way up in the percentiles. And that's the freak. And when after, he goes, hey man, you ever think about weightlifting? What's that? You can do it during school, no practice. That's where I got him. Because they were sick kids, troubled kids, broken families, whatever. Didn't matter. But they were freaks. And I knew it. And I had one kid, Vern Foley, worked on a farm. goes, hey, Vern, I... Can you make it to the state meet? Well, I don't know, coach. I gotta milk the cows. I said, we'll work around that. Way in at nine o'clock. I can't make that. Way in to 10 o'clock. No. All right, we start at 10.30, I'll weigh in. Oh, okay. He came in, dead lifted, 132 pound weight class, F480, squatted and shit, 420, benched about. Chris Gilliam: Ha ha ha. Tim Furno: 220. He's a freak. And he's scared, like in veins or popping out everywhere. But he liked wrestling. He played football too, but he liked wrestling. He beat a guy who plays at State his first year of wrestling. He just outlasted him. He never retired. He was a total genetic freak. And that's what I decided. I want those people. Yeah. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Right. Tim Furno: Well, you can get these fat kids, them skinny, make them a chicken, but they don't have the natural strength. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Yeah, they those kids it sounds like they had the it factor and you counter. Tim Furno: I was always, always after them. That's, yeah, that's who to go with. And that's it. go, well, how's he do it all? Yeah, I got the freaks, man. And the female freaks too. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, that's awesome. So with So yeah. Did you so you became the head football coach in nineteen seventy eight, correct? Okay. So I know there's articles about your weight training program in Bigger, Faster, Stronger, like BFS, for our listeners that could be familiar with it or not. I know I started BFS when I first became a football coach. That was part of our training program. Yeah, there we go. Tim Furno: That is correct. yeah. Chris Gilliam: So Tim Furno: Yeah, well, I wasn't impressed with these guys. You know why? They're bouncing the weight off their chest with sponges and shit. I don't like that stuff. I didn't, nah. And we lifted, pause, and we took this grip. We never wrapped the thumb. We always had this grip. Cause it's in line with the ulna. See, it's in line. It balances better. So we always, I insisted on this grip right here. Chris Gilliam: Sure. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Tim Furno: And all my guys did that. And there's a lot of. science or tricks to weightlifting inertia on the squat. Give that little bounce at the end. You go low, but you bounce it and that gives you inertia to push it up. See I developed, I had all those tricks through these weasels that I had to lift against when I was a kid. I didn't ever like them. They taught me all the, all the tricks. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Well yeah, you you learn from people, that's for sure. sometimes you learn what not to do. I love that. Show that again, Coach. Show that again. I don't know if Coach Whitaker saw that. Tim Furno: Yeah, well. Yeah, well that's one of the bigger, faster, stronger guys I didn't like about. Chris Gilliam: All right. Now, did you did you use their like rep and set system, their the way they locked it? No? Tim Furno: Look at me. Chris Whittaker: Yeah. Tim Furno: I'd hell no, I'd no, I'd never, I never used anything for them. I, I wasn't impressed with them at all because they had all the little tricks. They, the wrap here. No, I'm going to wrap my elbow too. Hey, wait a minute. I'm going to have a suit. It's so tight. I can't even move. And if that's not enough, I've got a bench shirt that I can barely touch my chest with. We need, we didn't use any of that. We just, we didn't, we had no money. Chris Gilliam: Okay, gotcha. Right. Okay, I gotcha. Tim Furno: You Chris Gilliam: But you guys were mentioned in their magazine, their publication a few times while you were the weightlifting and football coach. So Tim Furno: Yeah, well they wanted the shine of us taking the Nationals. wanted, yeah, we're a part of that. Not really, but what do I care? It's good for my kids, you know. Chris Gilliam: Okay, gotcha. Yeah, great article there. You you could find that one online too, Coach Whittaker. Chris Whittaker: Mm-hmm. Tim Furno: And, you know, but I was, it was a good, it was good for a high school coach that didn't know what he was doing, but I'm not bragging. I was lifting weights when I was 16 years old, man, was 15 and no one else is doing it. So. Chris Gilliam: Gotcha. Well we're gonna let Coach Whitaker, he's gonna talk to you, he's gonna ask you about some of your mail lifters and you know, what you can recall about them. so let's let let's have some of that conversation. Chris Whittaker: So in in the research and preparation for this, discovered that you had a bunch of national record setters. so we got about five we have four names on this list, and I'll I'll just ask you to you one at a time and you can tell us about the first name we have on this list was Jeff Graham. Tim Furno: Sure. Chris Whittaker: Jeff Graham, four hundred and ten pounds, we found. That was magic squat or a squat, maybe a lightweight squat or a deadlift? Tim Furno: Well, Coach, gotta get it straight. It's Jeff the BodyGram. Chris Whittaker: Well Tim Furno: And every his birthday every I put the same thing to for his birthday. Every woman's dream, every man's nightmare. Jeff the body Graham. I put that. And he loves it. And everybody else in Millington love it too. Yes, Jeff the body. Go ahead. Chris Gilliam: All right. Chris Whittaker: Ha ha ha. Chris Gilliam: That's why I Chris Whittaker: Jeff. Chris Gilliam: So the four ton that he said that he lifted, we couldn't find if that was a squat or a deadlift. deadlift. how big was Jeff the body Graham? Tim Furno: Deadlift. Yes. 132. You might have lifted 120. What was it back then 123? Chris Gilliam: Mm. Yeah. Tim Furno: Might have did it 123. Chris Gilliam: Alright, so not a big guy but with a big big deadlift there. That's awesome. Tim Furno: Every woman's dream, Chris. Chris Whittaker: I love I love the body. 'Cause again, I'm a wrestling fan. So like Jesse the Body Ventura immediately comes comes in. Tim Furno: Jeff, Jesse the body of insurer, governor of Minnesota is personally my hero. Chris Gilliam: All right. Tim Furno: Every time he comes on, goes, Trump's a coward. I like that. He is the original, the body. then Rick Slayer is from Minnesota too, but he's a pussy. Let's move on before I get myself in trouble. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, for sure. Chris Whittaker: Yeah. Ha ha Chris Gilliam: Yeah, that's right. Chris Whittaker: How about Wayne I'm gonna pronounce his last name wrong. De Dechchen. Dechin? Deach Deichin. Deichin. Four hundred and eighty pound deadlift, national record deadlift. Tim Furno: See you soon. Chris Gilliam: Detail. Okay. Tim Furno: yeah, that was his thing. His knuckles dragged on the cement when he walked around, but he did it. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, some log arms, did he? Wha what what was his body weight? How much did he weigh? Tim Furno: Yeah, long arms. Kind of like me, I have very long arms. Oh boy, think he's around, I think his body weight is 165. I have, I'm gonna send you a list of every, national champion I got. I'm gonna send you what I have. I'm gonna send it all to you and I'm sending you, Chris, all these articles. Chris Gilliam: Nice. Yeah, for sure. That's awesome. Appreciate it. Sweet. I love it. Chris Whittaker: Keep those, we'll scan them and put them into our our archives and all that. Tim Furno: You're gonna have. Chris Gilliam: Awesome. Thank you, Coach. Tim Furno: Now gentlemen, you gotta remember, I'm pushing 80. The ruler of my life is coming to an end. So, know, hurry up and catch his stuff while you can because I'm the only one alive in the Flint area that knows this stuff. Chris Gilliam: That's right. You are. We yeah. But you know what? Like you said, you're not going away. So I think you're probably gonna outlive maybe Coach Whitaker and myself too, 'cause you've just got that Tim Furno: No Chris, like I told you earlier, I could become a rash on your body. That's incurable. Chris Gilliam: Incurable. I love it. let's talk about a couple more of your boys. all right. Tim Furno: Ring it. Chris Whittaker: Yeah. Joe Joe Sayring, five hundred pound squat, national record soaring. Mm-hmm. Tim Furno: Joe Soaring, Joe Soaring. I'll send Chris Gilliam: Sorry? Okay. Tim Furno: you his name and he's a good lifter. He wanted to lift more than play football. That I'll tell you in a later story coming up why I got out of powerlifting. Chris Gilliam: Okay, nice. Chris Whittaker: Yeah. And then the last name we got here is Mike Drunco. Tim Furno: yeah, the tracks are both in that bigger, faster, stronger. Article, both of them. Yeah, but they weren't the dogs. The dogs I had was nearly. Chris Gilliam: Yep. So they're both the same age? Tim Furno: Reinhardt, Brad Sales, these guys. Reinhardt should have been on the Olympic team. They offered him, they said, look, who is this? I was on Olympic search. Who is this kid? Him and Neely. Neely deadlifted, I believe, 405 at 114. And he lifted for Bill Stipp. So did Reinhardt. They went to Buffalo, Chicago, you know. Chris Gilliam: Tell us about Tim Furno: Stiff wanted me to live for him, I said, hi coach, I teach. I'm not going down to Fenton every night and train you out of your mind. I'm not doing that. I have a family, but those two kids think, he said, what, you want to go to Chicago? Yeah. I'll outfit you in a suit. Get the shoes, the whole deal. You even have a belt with your name on it. Yeah, okay. Bill Stiff had a gym in Fenton. Chris Gilliam: No Yep, Steph's jum. Tim Furno: And he had a big time team. Reinhardt should have went in the Olympics. Reinhardt had the lifts in the body to do it. And he was a freak. He's about 5'2", about 1'32". He wouldn't train, but if he ever did, he would have easily placed, I believe this, in the Olympics, not in powerlifting. Chris Gilliam: awesome. Tim Furno: And the Klingon jerk, snatch, press. He was a freak, and so was Neely. Neely was a total freak. And they wanted them bad, because they didn't have anybody that strong. Chris Whittaker: One because Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Okay. Right, yeah. Well, like you said, I mean there's people that have that it factor, it sounds like those two did, and Bill Stiff recognized that. Yeah, I bet. Well you mentioned some of those. y I wanna talk about some of the female lifters because you know, back then weren't weren't necessarily a lot of females doing the sport, but you coached a lot of successful females during your time. Tim Furno: They told me. No, Stiff loved him. You did. Chris Gilliam: So like I found in researching that nineteen eighty three is when women's teams started competing as part of the state meet. Okay. Tim Furno: We had them in our safety. Chris Gilliam: Yep. And that's the the one I that I'm referring to. So in the nineteen eighty three State Me, how many schools do you recall like having powerlifting teams of girls at that time? Tim Furno: Not many. The main guy was Lloyd Kuhn of Flint. He just dealt with girls. I dealt with girls. I'm not, you know, I'm liberal. I want them to be successful. But they didn't play football. I had one girl try to play football and I said, oh God, what a nightmare. Anyway, it didn't work out. I wasn't mean to her or anything like that, but. Chris Gilliam: You're a football coach, we understand. We understand. You're a football coach. Yeah. Tim Furno: Ugh, this is the one. Can you see that? Chris Whittaker: Mm-hmm. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Tim Furno: I'll send this to you. Chris Gilliam: It's a big article. Tim Furno: Yeah, she's big time. She broke two national records, And I wonder if one of them still exists. Chris Gilliam: Okay. And what's this young lady's name? at that time she's a young lady, who's a Michelle Parkinson coach. We'll have to do some research, but I did I did find that at a national meet, she was named best lifter. Yep, and she had a two ninety two squat, a one hundred twenty six bench press, and a three fourteen deadlift. And she wasn't a very big girl, was she? Tim Furno: Michelle Parkinson. There you go. I was there. 132. Chris Gilliam: one thirty two, so all right. Yeah, those are pretty good numbers. even nowadays with you know how much things have changed, those are solid numbers for somebody that size. another girl, Nancy Petzold or Mm. What do you remember about her? Tim Furno: Nancy Petzl. that. She was after, you know, she wanted me to go the beads and I wasn't because I was losing athletes. powerlifting. It was upsetting me and I look, I was head football coach, head wrestling coach, and I ran the state meet. I was a busy guy and I had three kids. My wife said, hey, you're to make this function with our kids. You're going to go this baseball game. And you know, I said, yeah, I'm gonna. I don't want my, you know, my family's more important. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Yeah. I understand that. what do you Yeah, let's let's see the Tim Furno: And that brings me to this. See that? Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Tim Furno: That's called the Millington Strongman. That's the next phase. And I invited only football teams to compete against each other. We had a 40 yard dash. So I kind of like to combine the shuttle run, bench squat, deadlift, but we had speed incorporated into that. And then I developed that. Chris Gilliam: Okay. So you transitioned into that from the power lifting because, you know, one, your family's growing, your ki your your kids are getting more involved in activities. So, you know, you gotta give something up. I think all of us can understand and relate that. So at what what point in time was that that you decided I I'm done with powerlifting? Early nineties? Okay. Tim Furno: Yes. 90s. early nineties because it pissed me off that I was losing like dogs big time after soaring all that I goes, hey man, you're gonna come out because I don't know. It's interfering with my training. I said, well, Jesus. I said the whole idea that I'm doing this Joe is because we wanna win in football. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, I got you. Yeah. Yeah, you know, I w Coach Whittaker, like you could probably relay, but you know, in a conversation before this interview I talked to Tim and basically like started it as, you know, just a way to keep his football players getting stronger in the off season. Sounds like a recurring thing that a lot of coaches still do in our association. But the timeline was different because you were also the the wrestling coach, right? So did power Chris Whittaker: Mm-hmm. Tim Furno: Yeah. Chris Gilliam: Powerlifting and wrestling, they kinda conflict, or did they not conflict when you were coaching? Tim Furno: No, no, had it. See, I had weightlifting during the day. We didn't practice it. I had all these freaks in my classes. And I'd say, well, what are you doing? I'm going to try a 450 deadlift. I said, well, I think you'd do better than that. You know, we didn't have to. These kids were rebels. David Neely worked at a party store. And I said the. Chris Gilliam: Okay. Tim Furno: Colorado Springs is calling me Dave. When you graduate, they want you to go out there." And he goes, I got a girlfriend and I got a job at the party store. Chris Gilliam: And that would be the location of the Olympic training headquarters of where you're referring to. Yeah. Tim Furno: Absolutely. I said, they're going to provide everything for you. This is your future. This please, please. No, I didn't do it. Neither did Reiner. I mean, those guys had it. And they had the speed for the Olympic list. You have to have speed and balance. They had it. Hell, Reiner clung and jerked. I think he 275 and put it up. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Right. Mm-hmm. That's great. That's awesome. Tim Furno: at 132. I'm and I took a picture of him and not a video because we didn't have it back then. And the Olympic people came and they goes, well, what's the matter with this kid? He had different interests. Chris Gilliam: Sure. Coach Whitaker, you wanna get on to number five there? Chris Whittaker: All right. So as you're kind of alluding to here, a lot of your athletes were part of the Olympic search, to use this you know, explain what this organization was for and what the experience was like. Tim Furno: yeah. Olympic search was strictly trying to find weightlifters, Olympic weightlifters, male, female, anything. I had one year to get the free barbell set, the 405 pound set. If you had a lot of participants, you got the set. So as a requirement in phys ed, you had to lift in the meat. The girls had left an empty bar and Some of the guys, you know, they did quite a bit of weight and they were impressed and they sent me the set free. Yeah. Every year I got that free set. Cause I had... Chris Gilliam: built the weight room and Chris Whittaker: Built the white Chris Gilliam: weight. Chris Whittaker: built the weight room off of three sets. Chris Gilliam: They probably still using those weights there, Coach. You never know. So the the meet that was held primarily focused on the cleaning jerk. Tim Furno: Yeah, I- yeah. Chris Whittaker: Well Tim Furno: Cling and jerk. They eliminated the press, know, because of course the Russians are cheating. Like they always do in everything and everything they do, they blot dope, whatever. they, they, they, they eliminated it. They said it was too dangerous. And I goes, yeah, okay. The snatch is very hard to do guys. You ever do a snatch? It's hard. I got bad shoulders. I blew mine out on a kickoff in central Mount Pleasant. Chris Gilliam: Okay. Right. Tim Furno: I was screaming down the field and I hit this guy and I go, hey, wait, my shoulders out of place right now. Anyway, one thing I do want to cover, the platforms. Chris Gilliam: Yeah.