About Paul Anderson (weightlifter)
Paul Edward Anderson (October 17, 1932 – August 15, 1994) was an American weightlifter, professional wrestler, powerlifter and strongman. During the 1950s, he was an Olympic gold medalist, a world champion, and a two-time national Olympic weightlifting champion. Anderson contributed significantly to the development of competitive powerlifting in the 1960s. Due to his many world records and outstanding feats of strength specially for his time, he has often been called "the strongest man who ever lived". == Early life == Anderson was born in Toccoa, Georgia, the only son of Ethel Bennett and Robert Anderson. As a teenager, he began his early weight training on his own in his family's backyard to increase his size and strength so that he would be able to play on the Toccoa High School football team, where he earned a position as first-team blocking back. He used special homemade weights that his father created out of concrete poured into a wooden form. Anderson attended Furman University on a football scholarship, where he began lifting weights. He later moved to Elizabethton, Tennessee, with his parents, where he met weightlifter Bob Peoples, who would greatly influence him in squat training and introduce him into weightlifting circles. == Early amateur career == Like his contemporary and future rival Doug Hepburn, Anderson quickly identified the squat as the most important exercise for developing strength.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.