by Ken Patera
Patera was a highly decorated Olympic weightlifter. He won several medals at the 1971 Pan American Games including gold in the weightlifting total. He finished second in the 1971 World Weightlifting Championships as well.
Patera won four consecutive U.S. Weightlifting Championships in the super heavyweight class from 1969 to 1972. He was the first American to clean and jerk over 500 lbs (227 kg), which he accomplished at the 1972 Senior Nationals in Detroit.
He is also the only American to clean and press 500 lbs (227 kg), and was the last American super heavyweight for years to excel at weightlifting at an international level.
In the late 70s’ he began wrestling and challenged men such as Bruno Samartino for the WWWF Championship. He was a staple of the early 1980’s AWA wrestling scene before eventually leaving for the WWF full time.
Patera was an integral part of the Heenan Family in the AWA (1982–1983), (1984–1985). While in the AWA, he feuded with Hulk Hogan, Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell.
In the WWF, Patera resumed his feud with Hogan, and also assisted Big John Studd in his feud with André the Giant, helping Studd cut Andre’s hair after both had attacked him. It seemed as though he would be a major force in the WWF, but a stint in prison and then a torn bicep upon his return ruined all of that.
On April 6, 1984, Patera was denied service after hours at a McDonald’s restaurant in Waukesha, Wisconsin, prompting the angry wrestler to throw a rock through a window of the building (Patera claims that a former employee threw the rock but he received the blame).
He and fellow AWA heel Masa Saito later assaulted the police officers sent to arrest Patera at the hotel where they were sharing a room. Sixteen months later, at which point Patera was in the WWF, he was sentenced to two years in prison.
The WWF never treated him the same upon returning to the company.
