Below is the poem that was read before the Missouri USAPL's specialty award given out Saturday after the final session. It is our tribute to the only magazine of our sport.

Folks before we go any further......
We’d like to take a minute, to give an award
So please bear with us, you’ll not be bored
The man this is for, doesn’t lift on a stage
He’s the one to thank, as we open the page
The observant one, to big meets does he go,
He doesn’t miss many, I’ll have you know
The Seniors in July are the summertime treat
And In winter we get the World IPF meet
By now you know, powerlifting’s his game
Who’s the guest of honor? Mike Lambert’s his name.
He covers the scene with a camera that’s loaded,
To take pictures of men, with veins exploded
The best photos he takes, the most colorful ones
of oakly legs , and 20 inch guns.
You ask, "What’s this you speak of anyway?"
why it’s Powerlifting USA!
How’d he ever create such a great magazine?
I claim it’s the best thing my eyes have seen.
Without Mike Lambert, you’d never have read
about Larry, Mike, and the doctor named Fred.
And who could forget about the man named Coan,
Whose straining face his pictures have shown.
The names are many, I’ll name just a few
but you’ll get my point before I’m through
like Austin, Gant & Rickey Dale Crain
And many others, who’ve went through the pain
The lifters he’s shown represent his work
Like The mighty Kaz, and a Captain named Kirk
This man has worked hard, each month to report
This animal called Powerlifting, our beloved sport
And though things change, sure as I read this letter
including Mike Lambert, who gets better & better
As we come to the end of this century
I think it’s plain for all lifters to see
For his magazine, we should give credit
even for those, who never have read it
So I say to all in this St. Louis ballroom
No more of your time, I’ll not consume
For if I were to keep going, I’m sure many would nap
Not so fast as we near the point, for Mike Lambert we clap
though he didn’t lift, he did scored a victory
as powerlifting’s man of the century


Rick Fowler

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