I first met Morris Weissbrot at a weightlifting meet in 1953. I was a student at NYU, and entered my first contest. It was held in a bar in Brooklyn where the platform was nailed to the floor. Morris was the emcee. After the meet he came over to me and told me he thought that I had some promise as a lifter, and suggested I come to train at the Cooper AC in Brooklyn. The next Friday night I drove from Paramus, NJ to Ridgewood, Queens in NYC to lift at the Cooper AC. The lifting gym was in a garage behind the German American Sports Club at 60-60 Metropolitan Ave. Imagine my surprise when I walked in, and saw not only Morris, but also the current world champion, John Davis, Dave Sheppard, and other greats. I was going to lift with the greats of the iron game. Through Morris I met and trained with the aforementioned, as well as Tom Gurskey, Joe Muserafate, Stan Chiefetz, Willie Padilla, Larry Mintz, Pancho Camancho, and others. I trained there every Friday for a few years. The atmosphere in the gym was great.

Bill Stone with a 280lb C&J to take 1st Place at the 1957 Collegiate Championships

Once a year there was a dinner at Carl Hopples in Valley Steam and the German American Club through an annual all you can eat venison sauerbraten dinner for all of us. Great fun. Whenever we held a meet at NYU, I would call Morris, and ask him to help referee. Morris would come with Rudy Sablo and Adam Swirz. He never refused. He was lifting’s great promoter. It seemed that every weekend Morris would drive all over the east coast with a car full of lifters to go to some meet or other. He would emcee for the entire day, sometimes until early the next day, and drive home again. He never seemed to get tired when he emceed or drove.

In 1958 the Russian weightlifting team came to the US to hold three dual meets. The first two were held in Chicago and Detroit. The last one was to be held in NYC at Madison Square Garden. I called Morris and asked if I
could help in some capacity. Morris got me a position as a loader during the clean and jerk. What a thrill. I was backstage with the Russian great Trofin Lomokin. He had the thickest back muscles I had ever seen. After the
amateurs had completed the contest, the great Paul Anderson came out and pressed the highest clean and jerk (408) three reps. He went on to press 424 that night and I helped load the weights for him. Thanks again Morris.

Soviet Champion Ftdor Bogdanpsky at Madison Square Garden in 1958 (Bill Stone is the loader at the far right)

After the contest there was a dinner for the lifters at Mama Leone’s restaurant. The cost was $5,and the dinner and camaraderie between the lifters was great. John Davis sang a Negro spiritual, one of the Russians sang, and then Morris sang Oh Chachonia a Russian song. I knew Morris had a beautiful speaking voice, but I found out that night, he had a beautiful singing voice as well.

A year or so later, I went into the Army. When I returned, I called Morris and found that the Cooper AC had closed, but he had found a new place, Elechester. This was a gym in the basement of a housing complex in Flushing, Queens. All the Cooper guys were training there now. We trained there for a number of years until the dropping of the weights drove the tenants crazy and we were going to be thrown out. Morris solved the problem by arranging for our club to move to Lost Battalion Hall. It seemed Morris could solve any problem for us. It wasn’t the way it is today at LBH. We lifted in the back room, where the air conditioning unit is. There were 2 platforms and a power rack. That was all we really needed. I lifted there until 1974 when I moved to Glen Cove. I had given up competing and had gotten into raising a family and maintaining a house. Years later my son wanted to try lifting. He trained with Stan Bailey in his home gym in Uniondale. His first contest was held, you guessed it, at LBH. What a thrill to see my son win his class in his first meet at the gym I had trained at with Morris behind the mike. Stan got me to help referee at the Empire State meets, so I was back in the game again. Every year when I would go the meet Morris would be behind the mike. He was older and thinner; you could see that he wasn't well, but his enthusiasm was still there. He always had the same corny jokes, but they were great and the audience loved them.

Morris would go out of his way and do most anything for one of his lifters. He wrote countless numbers of letters of recommendations for me. I owe many a job and placement to Dental School to him, and a letter with the AAU stationary. He wrote to my daughters college and enabled her to train in the real weight room. When I set up my home gym he got me York dumbbells at a discount. He took me down to the University of Maryland and had me break in as an official. When Larry Mintz was drafted into the Army, he moved heaven and hell (AAU stationery) to make sure that Larry was assigned to the Special Services at Fort Bliss, and had time to train properly. He spent many a night traveling around with a few lifters, giving lifting demonstrations at schools. He had the Elechester crew travel to Paramus NJ, and give one in a Jewish Center I was working at. All that he did was for the love of lifting. He never received a penny.
 

Bill Stone today speed skating -- Still going strong!

I’m saving my favorite memory of Morris for last. I’ve always said that I owe my marriage and family to him. He didn't introduce me to my wife but … in my last year in college I had driven to Boston with a fellow from NYU to lift in the Boston Open. On the way back my car’s engine burned out, and I didn't get home until late Sunday afternoon. We had to hitchhike home from Connecticut. The next weekend, a group of lifters were going to Baltimore with Morris. Myself and the other guy from NYU were going to Wilmington, Delaware. We used his car (mine was dead). He was a 123lb lifter, and lifted on Saturday afternoon. I was to lift Saturday night (181lb class). After this guy lifted he said he was going home, and I was stranded in Wilmington with $1.50 in my pocket. My father would have let me stay there, so what was I to do. I called the Baltimore YMCA, got through to Morris somehow, and told him of my plight. He had a full car, but not only did he pick me up, but also drove me all the way to my door in Paramus, NJ. The trip took him about 2 hours out of his way. What a wonderful thing to do. So you see, without Morris, I would have had to stay in Wilmington and my whole life would have been completely different. Thanks again Morris. Morris was one of a kind.