Inducted into the Louisiana Weightlifting Hall of Fame: November 26, 2021
Born in Abbeville, Louisiana, on November 17, 1930, Mike Stansbury was instrumental in the development of weight training, Olympic weightlifting and body building in Louisiana. As a result, the whole approach to athletic training was revolutionized. He attended Abbeville High School where he was a member of the football team. As a teenager, he began working out with weight lifts at a small gym in the Woodman of the World building in Abbeville. Later, his family moved to Lafayette, and he began a weightlifting team in 1947 and called it Mike’s Gym. In 1960, he became recreational supervisor for the City of Lafayette. He was very successful in discovering and developing young lifters, including National Collegiate Champions Gene Hebert, Mike Thompson, Dick Fleming, Jimmy Reinhardt and Walter Imahara. His work inspired many other young men from Vermilion Parish to enter the sport of weightlifting, including Terry Perrin, Warren Perrin, Bill LeBlanc, Jay Trahan, Mack Schriefer, Stafford Palombo, Glyn Viltz, Cliff LeBlanc and Weldon Granger. (continued below photos)
In the mid-1950s, Mike Stansbury is pictured performing a deep squat. He was the founder of Mike’s Gym. Note that he and his “spotter” at left are wearing T-shirts promoting his gym. The shirt was donated by Red Lerille and is presently on display at the Acadian Museum in Erath. The lifter spotting Mike on the left is Buster Loubriel from Puerto Rico, who was a member of Mike’s Gym. He and Imahara boarded at the gym on the second story from 1956-1958 located at 411 Jefferson Boulevard with phone number of Center 54327. They paid Mike $15.00 a month for rent—when they had the money. Photo courtesy www.athleticnetwork.net
(continued from above) In 1949, Stansbury contacted the SAAU and sponsored a novice weightlifting meet in Abbeville, the first such event in south Louisiana. Fifty years ago, in 1956, with the support of SLI Dean Glynn Abel, four members of Mike’s Gym, who were SLI students, qualified for the National Collegiate Weightlifting Championship in Columbus, Ohio. Team members included: Stansbury, Stafford Palombo, Cliff LeBlanc, and Walter Imahara. The following year, with the addition of Louis Riecke (who later set a world snatch record of 325 pounds), the team was successful in winning the first National Collegiate Weightlifting Championships for the university. Later, the weightlifting teams at USL won seven additional National Collegiate Championships in 1957, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970 and 1971.
Stansbury has three degrees from UL: In 1954 he received a BS in Business Administration, in 1956 a BA in Liberal Arts, and in 1960 a BS in Art Education.
In 1953, Stansbury met Lloyd “Red” Lerille and invited him to move to Lafayette. In 1956, Mike and his wife Andrée opened Mike Stansbury’s Health Club, Inc. on Jefferson Blvd. Red Lerille worked with Mike and Andrée in the operation of their business.
In 1960, Red established “Red’s Health and Racquet Club.” After closing Mike’s Gym in 1960, Stansbury returned to Abbeville to run a business he inherited from his father. In the 1970s, the Stansburys took up various hobbies such as photography, scuba diving, and spear fishing. They were well-known for their innovative art work primarily involving sculpture. Mike died on August 19, 2013 and Andrée died on November 15, 2017.