August 27, 2004

Evergreen resident dedicated to keeping bodybuilding alive and well in San Jose

Former champ organizes, promotes local competitions

By Jeffrey Lo
Times Intern

Evergreen resident Paul Love Sr., a former Mr. California (1969), Mr. Masters America (1980), and Mr. Western America (1981), has been promoting bodybuilding shows for more than 25 years.

These days, he devotes his time to supporting amateur bodybuilders in Northern California who have seen the number of competitive opportunities in their sport decline in recent years. Love, who retired from bodybuilding after winning Mr. Western America in 1981, wanted to be a bodybuilder ever since he was a kid.

Evergreen resident Paul Love in 1980 as Masters Mr. America.

“I don’t want to see the sport disappear here in Northern California,” Love remarked.

“I always wanted to body build,” recalls Love. “I was inspired as a kid by Superman because I saw he had a nice muscular physique, and I wanted to be like that.”

Pursuing his dream at an early age, Love was also inspired by a real flesh-and-blood person with a muscular physique, “The World’s Most Perfectly Developed Man,” also known as Charles Atlas.

“I bought my first set of weights from Charles Atlas,” said Love who started to take bodybuilding seriously while attending Colorado State in 1963. He played football, which also gave him a chance to develop his body.

In 1966, Love moved to San Jose, a bodybuilding center at the time, to pursue his career. He won his first title at the Santa Clara County Championship held at the YMCA. He continued on to win many other titles throughout his bodybuilding career.

Retirement hasn’t killed Love’s passion for bodybuilding. “I really love the fact that it’s a sport where you have to work really hard to improve yourself. It isn’t like other sports where you only work on certain areas. You work on everything not only to improve yourself but to improve your health,” he explained.

As a member of the National Physique Committee and a show promoter, Love stays active in the bodybuilding world and helps keep the sport from dying out in this area. A host of many local shows here, he most recently hosted the San Jose Bodybuilding Fitness and Figure Championships. Sponsored by Bad Boys Bail Bonds, the event was just held July 31 at Parkside Hall in downtown San Jose. The competition attracted 90 bodybuilders and four professional guests.

“We had a real good turn out. The show went very well,” commented Love.

His company, Loves Silicon Valley Productions, also promotes shows and holds muscle camps for aspiring bodybuilders. Over the years, it has grown with support from such sponsors as Gold’s Gym, Bad Boy’s Bail Bonds and many others.

The shows produced by the company have drawn many guest professional posers including International Federation of Body-builders professionals Quincy Taylor, Gunter Schlierkamp, Amber Littlejohn, Dexter Jackson and Mike Matar-azzo.

For more information on Loves Silicon Valley Productions, visit www.paullovesvproductions.com