Australia - Bodybuilding .com

A former Overall Australian National Champion, Les Spendlove was the first Australian to compete in the NABBA Universe held in Britain in 1965 at only 20 years old and placed an impressive 6th in the tall class [Edit: Jan 2009, this is debatable as Vic Vella competed in 1963, however reports suggest his official entry form lists his nation as Australia and Malta] Bodybuilding legend Arnold Schwarzenegger was also in this class, making his NABBA debut at age 19 and placed 2^nd.  Les competed all naturally, and trained old school style with all dumbells and barbells - no machines.

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• Contest History
• Looking Back: In his Own Words
• Photos
• Media

Les Spendlove’s contest history includes:

• 1963 Jr. Mr. Australia - 1st
• 1964 Jr. Mr. South Coast - 1st
• 1964 Jr. Mr. NSW - 1st
• 1965 Mr. Coogee - 1st
• 1965 NABBA Mr. Australia - 1st
• 1969 Mr. NSW - 1st
• 1969 Mr. Southern Hemisphere - 1st

A very interesting look back at the life and motivation of Mr Australia Champion Les Spendlove who as a mixed race Australian in the 1960's has a unique perspective on things:

"You would have been hard-pressed to find “anyone” more serious about lifting weights in the 60s than myself because my motivation was beyond just the striving for increased muscle size as I’ll explain in some detail. In addition, I was also motivated in my gratitude to bodybuilding for curing my illness of bronchial asthma that I suffered for 10 years and which kept me underweight. Funnily enough, it’s only now as I write this that I see the origin of that illness was caused by the emotional stresses I was introduced to when I started school.

My dearest mother passed on many positive genes that served me exceedingly well in my bodybuilding endeavors but I inherited the genes of her shyness too. I’ll try to keep it brief but the more larger contributor to my shyness was caused by the racial bigotry that I experienced in growing up in a white Australia of the 1950s and 60s. A time when the Australian Government banished all the native aborigines from the capital cities to reservations in an effort to exclude them from their white society.

Les Spendlove [face circled] in kindergarden

This racial bigotry affected me from the first day I started in Kindergarten and all the way into High School. I was the only colored kid in school and I was constantly subjected to taunts, racial slurs and bullying by a lot of the other children. Words such as “blackfella, abo, dago, wog, etc.” plagued me all the way through my school years and beyond. I couldn’t win any school fights because I was too small and weak but I tried nonetheless without success. Kids learn from their parents and a lot of ignorant Aussies in those days held these racist feelings towards others of color.

I know my experiences could not in any way begin to compare to the sufferings and hatred that black-Americans were forced to endure in the days before Civil Rights but I was alone and with no support group in school. You can imagine the impact this had on my young mind and I didn’t understand it, especially since my family was mult-racial. It would have been so easy for me to develop a hatred for white people but my Dad was white and my eldest sister was even more fair with blue eyes to boot!

I never discussed my tormented times in school with my parents and I just endured it all in silence. I put on a smile, kept to myself and sought solace in reading the bible from the age of 5 years old. By the time I was 15 years old in addition to the Bible I had already read all the world’s religions, the Bhagavad Gita, the Koran, the teachings of Buddha, the Jains, Zarathrustra and the works of many of the great philosophers.

All these books helped me greatly to deal with the racial discrimination I was subjected to but it was only when I started bodybuilding and I joined Barry Hart’s gym in Coogee that I found another safe haven other than my own family home. Barry accepted me just as I was, an eager young boy who wanted to become strong and healthy and to be treated with equality. I never experienced any racial prejudice in the gym by him or any of the guys like Robert Nailon, Alan Cox, Tony Gambin, Ron Rowlands, etc. “I was one of the boys,” I was another aspiring bodybuilder just like them. And I didn’t have to compromise my principles or “kiss ass,” I was amongst friends and we were all equal in our common love for bodybuilding.

I was 15 years old and I finally had friends that I felt comfortable with, friends who inspired me to build up my confidence and my body. When I began to see the initial improvements in my strength and physique I became extremely motivated in my training. Just like the Charles Atlas ads . . . . but instead of sand it was racial slurs that got kicked in my face and I now had the key to stop those constant tormentations and bullying in school. It wasn’t my negative attitude but the negative attitudes of others that motivated me to train so fiercely.

It’s true what I’ve written before, winning titles rewarding as it was, never meant that much to me. More rewarding to me was the one day I went to school and proclaimed to all the other kids, “the bullshit stops now!” It was Randwick Boys High School, not a co-ed school and we had to wear grey pants, long-sleeved shirts and a tie. I was 16 years old now and I had trained exceptionally hard over my 6 week summer vacation. I had built my arms up to 15 and ½ inches which was a pretty big arm in those days, especially for a young kid of my age. Dock workers never had arms that size and if they did, they were flabby looking and not muscular and hard like mine were.

The day before school started again I asked my mother to cut the sleeves of my school uniform shirt to mid-deltoid level. She asked me why and I finally confided in her about all the racial crap I had taken since Kindergarten and she understood too well because she had been subjected to this same bullshit in her first few years living in Coogee. My Mum never left the flat in those first few years and she used to send me out to do all the grocery shopping. To make an even greater impression I had also bought a pair of high-heeled riding boots and with these my height was around 5’ 9” . . . . . and now I was ready!

D-day had arrived and I rode my bike to school but I got there purposely a little late so that all the other kids would be gathered inside the school building and outside the classrooms. I was the last one to enter the building and standing tall with my chest raised and my veined, muscular arms posed by my sides I proceeded to walk towards the crowded corridor where all the kids were waiting for the bell to enter the classrooms. The first few kids that saw me gaped with amazement and quickly backed against the wall to let me pass and so it was with all of them as I walked down that long hallway. Let me tell you, it felt like Moses parting the Red Sea and I’ll never forget that moment for as long as I live.

Les before and after, click to enlarge

I walked further down the corridor to my own classroom and stopped in front of the group of bullies that had tormented me the most. Now, I was no longer the quiet, skinny weakling who never said a word, I called out with confidence to the ringleader, “hey . . . d**khead . . . get over here!” I could see the shocked look and fear in his face as he stared in disbelief at my muscled arms and he creeped sheepishly towards me. I looked him in the eye and said, “well pr**kface, do you want to call me some bullshit name now . . . . do you want to try and push me around now!” He turned to water and just cowered away and that was it! I never had any more trouble in school from that day onward.

My next 2 years of school were peaceful, I still kept to myself and maintained a low profile but I could feel the new respect of the others kids and from the teachers too because now I walked proud, as every boy and man in life should. I never thought of myself as better than anyone else and I treated everyone equally until they showed me through their actions they were unworthy and then I avoided them. Every kid in school wanted to be my friend now but I shunned them all because my true friends were in the gym. I held no animosity against any one person or “kept a chip on my shoulder” but the damage of those 10 years had a great impact on my psyche and I often wonder how different I might be today if I had grown up in Burma or Hawaii.

But I don’t think I turned out too bad and it was bodybuilding and the camaraderie of bodybuilders from all over the world that provided me with the inspiration to become the man I am. I hope what I’ve written here gives everyone who reads my words on this board a better understanding of why I love bodybuilding so much and why I consider all bodybuilders of every race and station in life as my friends, “we are all brothers and sisters of the Iron.”

Les Spendlove appeared on many bodybuilding magazine covers in the 1960’s.