Doug Young was born in the year 1944 in Texas,USA. Mr. Young was a railroad conductor. He played football during high school and college but he had to stop playing football. His knees could not stand the strain. Thus he started powerlifting. He was world champion in power-lifting from 1975 to 1977, and strength coach. Doug young was the first man under 300lb/136kg to bench press more than 600 lbs/272kg!
This photo shows his father Richard A. Young. Born in 1922 Karnack Harrison County Texas, USA and died 1998. Furthermore he served with the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II.
This picture shows the beloved Mother. She was born in the year 1925 and died Mar. 29, 2010. Laverne was a trailblazer in industry working in a law office in Brownwood before turning her interest to banking. In addition to her business acumen, Laverne was also an exceptional athlete. She played golf, tennis, basketball, and softball and received numerous awards over the years; She followed her sons to many places to watch them compete in powerlifting.
Now you can see his Brohter Robert Young on the right side. Born in 1942 in Texas. He Lived his childhood in Brownwood,Texas. Played football at University of Texas (1960) but he wanted to be closer to his home and moved in 1961 to Howard Payne University. After pro career, Bob coached in the USFL (1982-1986) as offensive line coach for the Houston Gamblers
1977 World Powerlifting Championships
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Many stories and legends tell about Doug Young. I found a nice footage from the 1977 world championship. It was televised on NBC Sportsworld. Doug Young won this competition with 3 broken ribs. Doug broke (or injured) his ribs at the bottom of his 700lb squat (timelaps 01:00). If you be injured by broken rips you will have trouble to breathe because of incredible pain. It is like a sharp pain..
At first you can see he could not get out from under the bar after squatting. Accordingly that 2 guys had to help him lay down on the bench. After benching 535lbs they had to give him amoniak or smelling salts because he was much in pain and amoniak helps to ignore or overcome these pain.
Despite being injured and feeling pain he did not stop to compete. After bench press he managed to deadlift 710lb. He is crazy. There must be a lot of pain during this deadlift. And after that performance he was going to be collapsed.
Doug Young had a impressive appearance. Especially his chest and neck seemed to be powerful. His chest was around 60inch/150cm and his forearms were around 15.7 inch/39.8cm.
Terry Todd is a professor and was the first man with a total of 1900 pounds in competition. He had met Doug Young.
In 1975 powerlifting meet was held in New York and lifters from all over the country were staying at the Yorktowne, a old hotel in the downtown section. His Wife Jan and he had also booked a room there. And Doug Young had checked in this hotel too. So Jerry Tod and his Wife had to go their room and called Doug Young and arranged to meet that evening to feast on the buffet and catch up on old times.
The story of the legendary Doug Young has been told a thousand times and but it is worth to read. Terry Todd told this :
“Jan and I got there first a made a run through the boiled shrimp and fresh crabmeat. We had just settled down at my preferred corner table to enjoy a long evening of good food when two things happened that made an impression on me – I don’t suppose I’ll ever forget them. The first thing that happened was that Doug Young walked a foot or two past the big double doors of the dining room and just stood there – his shoulders seeming to touch each doorjamb and his deeply tanned 22-inch neck slowly turning this way and that as he looked for us in the crowd. But the SECOND thing, the IMPORTANT thing, was that when Doug walked into the room the entire place grew quiet. Everyone, lifters and nonlifters, stopped talking, stopped eating, and simply stared at what they knew was one of he most astounding creatures on God’s earth. Doug was wearing tight Levi’s again, along with a cowboy shirt and a pair of handmade western boots, and let me tell you he was a showstopper.
Anyone who can take the minds of 200 people off of heaping platefuls of some of the best food in the world has got to really be something. And Doug is. I’ve seen most of the top bodybuilders of the last 20 years and all of the top lifters, but in casual street clothes the most impressive physical specimen of all – bar none – is the big studhorse from Texas who silenced that huge roomful of hungry people with the slim-hipped, bull-shouldered, dangerous-looking splendor of his awesome physical presence. “
Doug’s training philosophy
Richard Young was his 2nd cousin and he described Doug as follows:
“He was inhuman!!! I trained with him a couple of times when he came to Florida and he had me puking when we did squats every time. He could go into another zone when he was doing heavy lifts,very strong will and believed in visualization of already having done the lift before doing it! He would always say the weights feel light today and I knew I was in for torture”
On October 7, 2005, in Abilene, Texas, Doug suffered a massive heart attack and died instantly.
Just one slight mistake in this article, Mr. Berg. Doug was the first man under 300 to bench press over 600 lbs. His world record was 611 3/4 lbs
Gotta agree , at the 1975 World Powerlifting Championships in Birmingham, UK, I was just a 19 year old junior lifter, I remember Doug walking down the stairs at the back of the stage after the finale,he was accompanied by Clay Patterson. He obliged me by giving me his autograph, signed my programme, so did Clay.
I have always maintained ,and have always stated that over all the years since our meeting, I’m 66 years old now, that Doug was without doubt the broadest man I have ever ,or ever likely to see in my life.