Pound for pound, Bob Peoples is probably the strongest Tennessean who ever lived. Born in Carter County in 1910, Peoples was a world champion power lifter who developed the craft of weightlifting through much study and practice. He first competed in the 1937 Tennessee State Weightlifting Championships at Chattanooga at the age of twenty-seven, where he handled 515 pounds in three Olympic lifts. In 1939 Peoples became the Tennessee State Weightlifting Champion when he managed 580 pounds in three Olympic lifts and set the southern record in dead lift at 600 pounds. The strongman established the state record in the snatch lift with 220 pounds in the 1946 Tennessee State Weightlifting Championship and the world record in dead lift with 651 1/4 pounds. With all of these accomplishments, it is easy to picture a man with the physical stature of an Arnold Schwartzenegger. Remarkably, Peoples weighed in at a mere 175 pounds! He broke his own world record in 1946 by lifting 700 pounds and again in 1947 with 725 3/4 pounds and was recognized as the official national and world record holder. Inducted into the National Powerlifting Hall of Fame in 1985 as a “pioneer,” Peoples also trained the famous Paul Anderson who set eighteen U.S. records and became a world champion. Bob Peoples teaches us to never judge a book by its cover. At only 175 pounds, the legendary weightlifter was literally as strong as an ox.
