Whatever happened to Chet Yorton? I’ve heard that question asked by many. For those who don’t know, Yorton was the 1966 International Federation of Body Builders (IFBB) Mr. America, 1966 National Amateur Body Builders’ Association (NABBA) Mr. Universe and 1975 NABBA Pro Mr. Universe Tall Class champion. And he is one of only three men ever to defeat Arnold Schwarzenneger. He is considered one of the greats from bodybuilding’s “Golden Era,” which includes Frank Zane, who makes appearances and operates Zane Haven, a weekend training program for enthusiasts. Also in that elite group is Larry Scott, who manufactures and sells exercise equipment, has his own supplement line and an on-line personal training program and who is still in demand for public appearances. Everyone knows what Arnold has been doing. But what about Chet Yorton?

Chester Marian Yorton was born in Stevens Point, Wisc., on June 1, 1939. The son of a factory worker, he grew up in South Milwaukee, where his family moved when he was three. Yorton has two older brothers. Greg, the oldest, stood just under six feet, but only weighed about 160 pounds. He didn’t carry much muscle on his frame. Ronald, the middle brother, stood about 5’ 8” and was stocky. Ronald messed around with weights but never got serious with training. Chet says Ronald had great calves and would have had quite a physique if he had concentrated on bodybuilding.

Chet Yorton was involved in a serious auto accident just out of high school. It left him with a laceration to his left eye that went through the eyeball. He also cut his left forearm from the elbow to the wrist, dislocated his hips and shattered the bones in his thighs. He ended up having a steel plate put around his right thighbone, and a steel rod inside the femur of his left leg. He was in casts from hips to toes. While in a wheelchair at the hospital, Yorton noticed a set of dumbbells in the corner of a room. He had never touched a weight prior to his accident. He asked his doctor if using weights would assist his recovery. Yorton weighed 160 pounds and had a 35.5” waist when he first got out of a wheel chair. Seven months later he was 215 pounds with a 32” waist. He continued to train, and after two years competed in a bodybuilding contest for the first time. That was in 1960.

Yorton competed in a few shows from 1960-1962, including a couple of the AAU’s (American Athletic Union) Mr. America contest. Then, at age 23, he moved to southern California’s Muscle Beach area. It was at Muscle Beach where he would meet his wife, Vicki. He spotted her walking by and told himself, “I want that.”

In 1962 Yorton became a father. Justine, his first of two daughters, was born. Several more bodybuilding titles were won in 1963 and 1964. It was 1964 when Yorton first became aware of steroids. He was at the beach and ran into a friend, who gave him a box containing 100 vials of Nilavar (oxandrolone). Yorton contemplated using them, but checked with a chiropractor he was seeing at the time who told him to forget it… that stuff was nothing but trouble. The doctor told Yorton about side effects that could result like acne, gynecomastia (formation of breasts), impotence, hair loss, headaches, increased risk of heart disease, stunted growth if used at too early of an age, kidney problems, liver problems and high blood pressure. Yorton started speaking out against steroid use immediately afterwards.

More titles came in 1965, and then in 1966 Yorton captured the IFBB Mr. America title. He followed that with the NABBA Mr. Universe title, which he considers his most satisfying win of all. It was the culmination of what he said he set out to do, and then some. After Yorton won the 1960 Mr. Milwaukee and Mr. Wisconsin titles, he knew he could be Mr. America. When people would ask him why he was doing all the bodybuilding stuff, his reply was, “to be Mr. America.” He didn’t know why, but he says he just knew he would be. So from the early part of his competition days, Yorton’s goal was to become Mr. America. After he achieved that in 1966, he told himself he may as well go for the Mr. Universe title in London… and he won that too. He noted beating Arnold at the Mr. Universe show didn’t hurt making that win the most meaningful either. That was one of only three situations where Arnold Schwarzenneger would ever be defeated.

After winning the 1966 Mr. Universe title, Yorton thanked the crowd, kissed the trophy, and retired from competitive bodybuilding. Nine years later he returned however, and in 1975 laid claim to the NABBA Pro Mr. Universe Tall Class title.

Yorton’s second daughter, Shannan, was born in 1976. Shannan followed her father’s footsteps and is currently competing in Figure competitions. Yorton remembers Shannan watching him train all the time. He said she used to sit on his back while he did push-ups, and hang from him while he did chin-ups.

Yorton took the stage a couple more times after the 1975 Mr. Universe and competed in WBBG Pro Mr. World shows in 1976 and 1979, the latter of which would be Yorton’s last time in competition. (Note that a recent issue of Musclemag International mentions Yorton placed behind Joe Nista in a Master’s competition in their announcement regarding Nista’s passing, but Yorton never competed in a Master’s over age 40 contest, which would have been after 1979).

Chet Yorton established the NBA in 1975. It was the first federation to screen for use of steroids in competition. A member of Yorton’s gym, Jack Hack, was a pharmacologist at Sunrise Hospital. Hack dug up the drug testing method, researched it, and presented it to Yorton saying he had a way to detect any kind of drug. Hack administered the tests at Yorton’s shows, drawing the blood and conducting analyses himself. Blood tests weren’t expensive and they were covered in part by entry fees, which were about $25.

Yorton considers the first NBA Natural Mr. America to be the grandest of all his events. That was in 1978 in Las Vegas,  Nev. The show used pyramid stairs on stage, which contestants entered from as clouds from dry ice arose and colored lights shot off across the stage. Mike Dayton performed strongman acts such as breaking out of handcuffs and being hanged. David & Goliath were friends of Yorton and members of his gym, and they performed their strength/variety act at it as well. The event was more than a competition…it was a show!

Ten thousand dollars was being awarded for the pro division at the 1978 Natural Mr. America. A number of bodybuilding publications ran information regarding the event and there was a lot of hype. It was the first high-profile NBA show, and it captured the attention of the established physique federations. They perceived it as a threat from another organized body. Joe Weider’s IFBB tried to keep competitors out of NBA shows by threatening to ban them from the IFBB if they took part in the events. The AAU did the same. Yorton stated in a 2006 interview that he had sought AAU sanctioning, but in the end no sanction was given.

Chet Yorton got involved in natural bodybuilding to provide opportunities for competitors who didn’t want to use steroids. He didn’t get involved to make money or to run it as a business, he says. That can be evidenced by the fact that he used his own money much of the time, including the $10,000 for that inaugural NBA Natural Mr. America in Vegas. He did figure natural bodybuilding would take off one day though, and would not require his own money to operate any longer.

Yorton sold half of his gym to Zach Franzi in 1978. He took his family and moved from

Las Vegas to southern California in 1979, not wanting to raise his daughter Shannon in Vegas. He commuted back and forth for a while, staying in Vegas a few days at a time, but eventually grew tired of that and sold the remaining half of his gym in 1980 to one of Franzi’s friends.

The IFBB and AAU continued to attempt to hinder Yorton’s NBA efforts. The other federations were well established and much larger than Yorton’s NBA. It was essentially one man’s battle against the monsters of organized physique competition. Yorton was still waiting for the day where he would no  longer have to sink his own personal funds into the NBA to keep it going too. Plus frustration and disappointment from Ken Cole’s betrayal lingered in Yorton’s mind. Cole was Yorton’s young protégé. He trained at Yorton’s gym and claimed the AAU Teenage Mr. America class title in 1978 under Yorton’s tutelage. The betrayal came from Cole’s choice to turn to steroids shortly after that win.

Yorton moved on and got into the antiques business for a while and owned a shop called the Blue Hen in southern California after leaving the bodybuilding scene. He also dabbled in the jewelry business. He owned a moving company for the better part of ten years as well. Currently he makes hand-painted custom patio furniture. He

didn’t bother to follow bodybuilding at all after he left the scene.

Although Yorton disappeared from the bodybuilding scene, he never stopped training and eating well. His typical routine over the past 24 years was to train twice per week for about 45 minutes per session.

In 2004 the Organization of Competitive Bodybuilders (OCB) named the new organization’s national championship the OCB Yorton Cup to honor Chet Yorton. The competition’s third year would draw Yorton back to the sport.

Less than a year before the 2006 OCB Yorton Cup National championships, Yorton was working with a saw at his home when he heard a car crash. As soon as he heard it he sensed the severity. He started to run and help, but as he did the outer edge of his foot caught on the ground, twisting his ankle and sending him sprawling forward. Extending his right arm to break the fall, he suffered damage to his shoulder and arm muscles that prevented him from training for nine months. He then spent two and a half months training after deciding he’d take the stage again to put on a posing exhibition at the OCB contest. He upped his training and tightened up his diet. About a month before the show he injured a tendon in his knee while training hamstrings. It wouldn’t deter him however. He appeared as planned, just with a slight limp. Of course if two near-fatal car crashes couldn’t get Yorton down, a couple of injuries certainly wouldn’t do it either.

Yorton delivered a speech at the opening of the 2006 OCB Yorton Cup National championship finals. At one point during his speech he raised his hand and swore he never took a steroid in his life, upon which the crowd erupted into applause. At the end of his speech, he led into the playing of Queen’s “We Are the Champions,” which is how he used to open all of his NBA shows. As it happened in Pittsburgh, with figure competitors taking the stage and posing bodybuilders flooding the auditorium, chills were felt at the starting sounds of the tune, and spectators burst into cheers. Yorton used that particular song because he believed natural bodybuilders were the ones who didn’t compromise their health or break the law and should be the real role models -- the real “champions.”

to many others taking the reigns and natural bodybuilding spread. Yorton may have felt he wasn’t making a difference when he left the scene twenty-four years prior, but with natural bodybuilding now boasting an estimated 400 contests per year in the United States alone, he should realize his efforts were not in vain. He did make a difference, and a big one at that. Tens of thousands of bodybuilders who don’t want to use steroids now have

venues for which to compete in any area of the country, and that is what Yorton wanted from the start. His vision has become reality.

Chet Yorton was a larger than life character in my mind before I met him. In tracking him down, all I had to go on was the information printed in back issues of bodybuilding magazines. He was one of the most accomplished bodybuilders of the Golden Era, a pioneer in natural bodybuilding, a man who told it like it was and had the determination to take a stand, against all odds, to try to bring about change for what he felt was “right.” I admire him for it all. When I discovered I’d have the chance to meet my idol, in the back of my mind I wondered if anyone could live up to what I built Chet Yorton up to be. In a way I worried whether I would still hold such high regard for the character I built in my mind after actually meeting him and finding out what he was really like.

1960 Mr. Milwaukee – 1st

1960 Mr. Wisconsin – 1st

1960 Mr. Michigan – 1st

1960 AAU Mr. Mid America - 2nd

1961 Mr. Great Lakes – 1st

1961 AAU Mr. America - 21st

1962 AAU Mr. America - 21st

1963 Mr. San Pedro – 1st

1963 AAU Mr. Los Angeles - 1st

1964 IFBB Mr. America 2nd Tall

1964 AAU Mr. Los Angeles – 1st

1964 AAU Mr. Pacific Coast – 1st

1964 Mr. California – 3rd

1965 Police Gazette Physical Fitness – 1st

1965 IFBB Mr. America - 2nd Tall

1966 IFBB Mr. America – 1st Overall

1966 NABBA Mr. Universe – 1st

1975 NABBA Pro Universe - 1st Tall

1976 WBBG Pro Mr. World - 7th

1979 WBBG Pro Mr. World - 3rd

Inducted into Dan Lurie’s WBBG Hall of Fame

Inducted into Wisconsin’s Sports Hall

of Fame

09/1964 Strength & Health

03/1965 Mr. America

07/1965 Muscle Builder

10/1966 Health & Strength

03/1967 IronMan

03/1967 Olimpia (foreign)

04/1967 Health & Strength

04/1967 Muscle Builder

08/1967 Health & Strength

09/1976 IronMan

01/1978 IronMan

10/1978 Muscle Training Illustrated

10/1981 Natural Bodybuilding

Muscle Beach Party

Don’t Make Waves