Post by Bill Cox on Feb 8, 2011 15:57:54 GMT -5
Hi all. I have not pulled for years other in practice or after the event. My first competition was in 1977, it was run by Al Turner in Brockton, MA. What a shock that was to my ego as I believe everyone there beat me. After that event I started to train with Al Turner. I became a referee in 1978 and started to promote all the events that Al had been running. I became a State Director for AAA and ran two Nationals for them. I eventually left AAA and formed the International Armwrestling Federation(IAF) in 1989. In 1998 along with Dave Devoto and Leonard we formed the United States Armwrestling (USA) which was later changed to the United States Armwrestling Federation(USAF). I ran the first Unified National in 1998 for USA to qualily a team to compete in the World Championship in Thunder Bay, ON Canada in 1998. I also qualified as a Master Referee at that World's with a perfect score. I have refereed about 25 Nationals including two in Canada in the mid 90's. I am now currently a Vice President for the USAF, the Executive Director for the IAF and Moderator for the Northeast Board. I have refereed 4 WAF World Championships and 2 WWC World Championships. I currently continue to run events in the Northeast US mostly, but have State Directors set up that run events in their area. My best advice to new pullers would be to get as much table time as possible and to find a team to train with so they learn the right way. So to wrap up: 34 years in sport, 33 years as referee, 33 years as a promoter and counting. Pull hard but have fun.
