| Cleve Dean | |
| Birth Date: | 15 December 1953 |
| Birth Place: | Pavo, Georgia, US |
| Weight: | NaNabbr=onNaNabbr=on |
Luther Cleve Dean (December 15, 1953 - May 10, 2011)[1] [2] was an American farmer, professional arm wrestler and strongman from Pavo, Georgia.[3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Dean grew up on a family farm, raising hogs and harvesting cotton and tobacco, which moulded a strong work ethic and formidable physical strength. As a teenager, he carried 100abbr=onNaNabbr=on bags of feeds to the hog pens and was already weighing 325abbr=onNaNabbr=on at the age of 21. He was also reported to have lifted the rear end of their seven-ton John Deere tractor for fun.[8]
At the age of 22, while working on the farm he suffered a severe back injury, which crushed and fused his 4th and 5th Lumbar vertebrae. It reduced his mobility and lead to a rapid weight gain to 400abbr=onNaNabbr=on.[9]
Dean was proficient both right and left handed. He started his career in the mid 70s in local armwrestling contests and was weighing 450abbr=onNaNabbr=on, dwarfing his opponents. He entered his first touranament in 1977 where he emerged overall runner-up. In 1978 he won world wrist wrestling championship without losing a single match.
On a supermatch which was held on 15 November 1978 at Silver Slipper casino in Las Vegas, Dean who weighed 480abbr=onNaNabbr=on defeated the 6 ft 5 in, 245abbr=onNaNabbr=on undefeated world champion Virgil Arciero, 2-0 to become the undisputed king of the table.[10]
Throughout his career he won around 90 championships, including supermatches against Virgil Arciero, Dan Mason, Rick Zumwalt and many others, and many championship titles including AAA sit-down national title, WAF world title, Yukon Jack world title among others multiple times. It was said that during a promotional event in 1983, Dean took on about 500 men off the street who came one after the other and nobody lasted a full second against him.[11]
Dean enjoyed eight straight years as the undefeated armwrestling world champion and was defeated only a very few times during his entire career,[10] including that by John Brzenk and Scott Norton.
He played a famous cameo appearance in Sylvester Stallone's Over the Top (1987).[12]
Following an impressing armwrestling dominance, Dean was invited to compete at the 1979 World's Strongest Man and 1980 World's Strongest Man competitions where he finished 6th and 9th respectively[13] [14] [3] irrespective of the disadvantage he had in moving events due to his reduced mobility resulted from his back injury.
→ Dean's heaviest weight was according to Lori Cole, the Over the Top promoter and female world armwresting champion who witnessed him being weighed using a Toledo scale during Over the Top finals on 26 July 1986[9]
→ Dean's hand measurements were according to Neil Robinson[15]
Dean was a devoted family man. He was married to his wife Ruth and together had three children: Shannon, Terri and Leann.
He loved working on his farm and ran a business selling mobile homes.
Dean passed away on 10 May 2011, after suffering a heart attack.