‘Top dog’ bodybuilder hails from Titusville
TITUSVILLE (AP) – To stand up to the bullies when he was a child, Harold Poole built the only weight set his family could afford.
With permission, the 10-year-old took concrete blocks and iron poles from a hospital construction site and began lifting them in his backyard.
“They walked up to me and said, ‘What the hell are you? You’re not black; you’re not white. We don’t like you,'” Poole said of his childhood tormentors. “And that’s when I realized I’ve got to get stronger, I’ve got to gain weight, and I have to learn to run.”
Little did he realize that what began outside his Indiana home in 1954 – because of his German, Cherokee and black heritage – would lead to a legendary bodybuilding career.
This month’s Flex Magazine hailed Poole, now 65 and living in Titusville, as the greatest teenage bodybuilder in history. Arnold Schwarzenegger came in third.
“To be recognized as the greatest teenage bodybuilder in the history of the sport is the icing on the cake,” Poole said.
But he isn’t done yet.
After more than 25 years away from the sport, he plans a comeback later this year.
At age 19, Poole became the first teenager to be named Mr. Universe in the International Federation of Body Building competition.
At 21, he was the youngest person to compete in the Mr. Olympia contest and was the runner-up in 1965 and 1966. Poole has five Mr. America titles and was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 2004 and the World Body Building Guild Hall of Fame in 2007.
Poole said he never used steroids. His title-winning dwindled in the mid-1970s, and he said he stopped competing in 1983 because of competitors’ drug use.
“They don’t talk about it, but anyone who is in the sport knows it’s there,” he said. “I got tired of trying to compete when I am natural, and everyone is on the ‘roids.’ I don’t care how great your genetics are: If a guy is using chemicals, you can’t win.”
Poole received $2,000 for winning the Mr. Universe competition. He said competing didn’t pay enough to make a living, so he worked as a bouncer at Cheetah, a New York City nightclub, and as a bodyguard for various clients, including Twiggy, a famous English model.
He also was paid to be in a video for “Love is a Battlefield” by Grammy-winning rocker Pat Benatar.
At 21, he married a woman from Italy, and they were divorced two years later.
“She drove me crazy. She was jealous like crazy,” Poole said. “I made myself a promise that if anyone ever asked ‘Do you?’ again, I would say, ‘No, I do not.'”
In 2001, Poole wanted a change of pace and moved to Fort Lauderdale. He met Marliese Schmatolla, and they began dating.
He eventually followed her to Titusville. They have been together seven years – Poole’s longest relationship.
“She’s the best,” Poole said. “And when you have the best, you don’t think about the rest.”
Today, Poole trains at Parrish Health and Fitness Center in Titusville. Doug Blake, a former bodybuilder and the center’s health and fitness director, called Poole a bodybuilding icon. Blake said he aspired to look like Poole during his own competition days.
“Harold was one of the guys we’d say, ‘Wow, we’d love to have an upper body like Harold Poole or a set of biceps like Harold Poole,’ ” Blake said.
In September, Poole will compete for the first time in 26 years at the IFBB Atlantic City Pro Masters Men’s Bodybuilding competition in New Jersey. He’ll be in the 60 and older division.
“When I pray, after I have thanked (God) for all the things he has blessed me with, then I ask him to please renew my strength, my health and my drive – things that I will need to once again become a world champion,” he said.