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Tiger Pulliam Starts Bodybuilding Competition After Losing Wife to Cancer

By Howard Ludwig | September 9, 2014 5:39am
 Tiger Pulliam, of Beverly, started a bodybuilding competition seven years ago after his wife died from breast cancer. The annual event returns this Saturday to the Harold Washington Cultural Center in Bronzeville. Some 700 people are expected to attend.
Tiger Pulliam Bodybuilding Championship
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BEVERLY — Tiger Pulliam used bodybuilding to build himself up after losing his wife to breast cancer in 2007.

The Beverly bodybuilder buried his wife, Valerie, just one week before their 10-year wedding anniversary. She also left behind their 5-year-old son, Jet.

In the wake of this traumatic loss, Pulliam launched a bodybuilding competition in honor of his late wife — a strong advocate for physical fitness.

Howard Ludwig says Tiger Pulliam's wife insisted he get back on the stage at some point:

The tribute continues this weekend at the seventh annual Tiger Pulliam Bodybuilding Championship. The daylong competition takes place on Saturday at the Harold Washington Cultural Center in Bronzeville. The bodybuilding finals will be held at 6 p.m. Tickets to the finals cost $40 at the door.

Both bodybuilding and powerlifting competitions will be held throughout the day at 4701 S. King Drive. Roughly 70 competitors are expected to participate in front of a crowd of about 600 friends, family and fans.

The competition "really enabled me to take my mind off of things," Pulliam said.

Pulliam, 57, was a competitive bodybuilder for roughly five years. His strongest finish was as the runner-up for the Chicagoland Championship in 1984, when he weighed 183 pounds.

"Everybody thought I should have won, but that's the way it goes," he said.

Nowadays, Pulliam owns a line of workout gear, most of which he sells at gyms in the Chicago area as well as at weightlifting and bodybuilding competitions throughout the Midwest. Much of the proceeds are used to fund his annual competition as well as offer cash prizes to powerlifters.

Pulliam's brightly colored T-shirts, sweatpants and muscle shirts have even popped up in gyms as far away as Europe. This is a direct result of Pulliam's hands-on sales technique.

Weightlifters competing in Chicago often bring Tiger P gear back from competitions. As these musclebound customers are photographed wearing Pulliam's clothing, demand grows.

Pulliam compared his successful marketing technique to workout gear sold by Gold's Gym. He explained that when Arnold Schwarzenegger was pictured wearing Gold's Gym gear in the 1977 bodybuilding film "Pumping Iron," demand exploded. Pulliam expects his line to find similar success.

Pulliam's taken this same hands-on approach in promoting his bodybuilding competition. He said the contest often draws first-time competitors, many of whom sign on after Pulliam approaches them in the gym.

"My main thing is to try to get bring more people back into the sport of bodybuilding," Pulliam said.

After competing in their rookie bodybuilding event, many Tiger Pulliam contestants have gone on to win accolades at other fitness, bodybuilding and weightlifting competition, he said.

Now at 197 pounds, Pulliam said he still considers returning to the stage as a competitor rather than a promoter — despite being in his late 50s. In fact, one of his wife's final requests was that he get back into bodybuilding.

"She wanted me to compete again, but I never did do it," he said.

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