The World's Strongest Man

 William "Bill" Kazmaier spent the majority of his early years as a skilled athlete in school sports. After two years of college football at Wisconsin, Bill Kazmaier chose to focus his efforts on lifting weights in 1974. At this point that he experienced two of the most important shifts in his life. The first was a physical one that came when he began to learn and did powerlifting. The second one was spiritual, when Bill gave Psalms 40 to him. It was the culmination of these two things that pushed Kazmaier to pursue his dreams in the strength athlete fields.It took a while before Kaz would be able to demonstrate the world his talents. Kazmaier rose to the top of the ranks in the world of powerlifting, making a record-breaking 633lb bench press world record (keeping the fact that this was prior to the use of shirts for bench presses) in 1979. And that very same year Kazmaier was to take another significant stage in his progress: he entered the World's Strongest Man 1979 competition. At his first attempt, Kaz would place third, and astonish judges and competitors alike with his brute strength.Despite all this success Kazmaier was not at a high point in his life. He was quite penniless and often homeless in southern California. But an old friend soon picked him up and took him to Auburn where he would later get a job with the largest barbel maker worldwide. Kaz quickly found success at his new job and was honored with international recognition. He also improved his world-record bench press weight to 661lbs.