The Missouri USAPL Presents... Back to Wally's Memorial Page Take a trip with us down memory lane to the old school of lifting. This is a place where time stands still and the legends of lifting never die. This is Wally Strosnider's place, where he will be posting columns periodically on the history of the iron game in our area. So sit back and enjoy the rich tradition offered each month at Wally's place. The man behind the Zercher Lift    I have been reading about the Zercher Lift lately in PLUSA, and really enjoy seeing that name in current Powerlifting articles. Ed Zercher lived in South St. Louis near California and Chippewa. My father was 14 years old when he first lifted weights with Ed down at the old Boy's Club, back in 1933. Dad said that Ed was always there volunteering to help youngsters or, for that matter, anyone who wanted to train.    The first memory I have of a weightlifting meet was watching my older brother lift in an Olympic lifting contest at the Boys' Club. The year was 1957, and the head judge was Ed Zercher. Years later he also judged my first competitive lift, and many more after that. Ed was a true old time strong man. Training with him was like training in a time warp. We would descend into his basement gym, which was the closest thing to a medieval dungeon I would ever encounter. His weights were odd shaped pieces of iron, old fly wheels, anvils, wrecking balls, discarded pieces of machinery and chunks of things that I never could identify. But it was all heavy.    Ed trained a lot of different lifts. He did Hip Lifts, Harness Lifts, One Hand Deadlifts, One Finger Deadlifts, Bent Presses, Side Presses, Crucifixes, Two Hands Any How (actually the name of a lift), and more. During breaks in contests, Ed would awe the crowd by doing a few of his favorite exhibitions.    He would lie on a bed of nails, just a big board full of common 10-penny nails sticking through. Then he would lay another bed of nails, points down, on his chest. Two full sized men would stand on the top bed. The secret, Ed confided in me, "don't mind the pain". Another crowd pleaser was Ed's Leg Presses. No machine, no equipment. Just an Olympic Bar and bare feet. Ed would lay on his back on the platform, place an Olympic Bar on his bare feet and do Leg Presses - full and deep. I saw him do 250 lbs. for 100 reps at a meet at the state pen. I saw him do reps with the bar loaded to 250 lbs. and his 225-lb. son-in-law sitting on the bar. Ed was in his late 60's at the time.    Ed Zercher. The man invented a lift that is known by his name throughout the nation - no, actually around the world. The first time I saw his name in PLUSA I wanted to run over and show him the magazine, but unfortunately we had lost him a few years before. He would be proud to know that so many people remember him. Wally Strosnider (Editor's note: Below is a follow up obn Ed Zercher, written by Bruce Strosnider, Wally's brother.) Some hazy memories of Ed Zercher, by Bruce Strosnider    Of course the best was an outdoor meet at Jefferson City State Prison, but I can't remember the date even close. A huge crowd cheering every lifter. I was so thrilled Ed brought me along, especially because I got my first "prison record" - a light-heavy 225 snatch. Ed was always the judge who sat in front of you and gave you the signals to lift and let down-the referee? Seems every meet he was slouched in a folding chair right in front of lifters who would often run towards him in an effort to get under the bar and save a clean and jerk-he never seemed alarmed. After the lifting or midway in it, Ed Jr. and friends would set up his bed of nails, put some kind of flat rock on Sr.'s big belly, and Jr. would smash it with a maul.    Ed encouraged many lifters to try for records in obscure lifts still carried in AAU record books-I remember, for example, Joe Southard doing a crucifix with, I think, a pair of Nineties! Ed revived interest in the bent press and, most amazingly, the apparatus-free leg press! I can see him in his floppy Converse basketball shoes that the bar seemed almost to cut through. The deadlift and other power lifts were, it seemed, just catching on, and in many Olympic contests a bench record would be attempted, usually by only one lifter and only one attempt sort of squeezed in. Or a squat or a deadlift, both really popular with Olympic lifters who would often do an exhibition after the contest. I remember Ed being the force behind this.    I can't remember when, probably '61 or early '62 he invited me along with him and two others to drive to Ft Leavenworth or Lawrence Kansas to see Paul Anderson. A great show - "Oom Paul" squatted all we could get on a bar. He dunked a basketball! Sprinted a fast hundred yards.    Ed always urged keeping athletic points in AAU physique contests-probably not a good idea-lots of hard feelings. At something called the Missouri Valley Championships and Mr. Missouri Valley, he gave me enough athletic points for winning the light-heavy competition to beat a superior bodybuilder. The only Bodybuilding contest I ever won, and one too many.    What I remember best? Encouragement for all lifters unconditionally, and always being there for every hour of endless contests. Bruce Strosnider
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