St. Louis Park Sports & Health Club
Zenk’s early training base in the St. Louis Park strip along Excelsior — a meeting place for bodybuilders, local bouncers and many of Verne Gagne’s wrestlers.
Five or six miles west of Hennepin, by Lake Calhoun, is St. Louis Park. This half-mile strip, along Excelsior, between 36th and Highway 100, was my hangout the first three years after I left home. I took a studio apartment on 36th and a half, worked nights in local bars and slept my way through college. The heart of the strip was the St. Louis Park Sports and Health Club, a mecca for gym rats and bodybuilders. In the early 70s to mid 80s, before the mainstream appeal of weightlifting, gyms were special places - a meeting place for malcontents, criminals, aspiring criminals, dope fiends and a wide assortment of misfits. The Sports and Health Club had a unique mix of the old and new. Chuck Loesch, who finished second in Mr. USA and rated in the 1974 Mr. World contest trained there. Years later, he won the Biggest Arms in America contest in the National Enquirer. Charlie legitimately had 23" arms.
Many of Verne's boys trained at the Sports and Health Club - Ken Patera, Billy Robinson, Dino Bravo, and the rest. The local bouncers came to train between 4 and 6 p.m. each evening. I worked out with Dan Larsen, Lenny Bank, Scott Doring, Lowell Miller, Tom Mertz and Glen Beckett. The last three had all been Mr. Minnesota. Dan Larsen had two second-place trophies and one third-place finish. He became a father at the age of 18 and had to work day and night. Training for contests was a tough gig for him. Eddie Sharkey also came in regularly. Eddie was a great technician and knew how to do it right with light-weights and strict reps. I always paid Eddie a little homage. You could learn a lot by shutting your mouth around guys like Eddie. Dan and I trained two hours a day, four days a week. People would gawk at how strong Dan was and how hard we trained.
Tom Zenk
