Artie Drechsler © 2024

There are a lot of heroes in the history of the Iron Game. We laud them for their accomplishments and for the character and talent that made those accomplishments possible.  Medal, trophy and record counts are the tools most often used to help us assess and compare performances, and such counts are certainly useful tools. But sometimes they can cause us to overlook monumental accomplishments. Such is the case with Artie Ehman.

That is not to say that Art’s sports accomplishments, by themselves, would not be detected by scans of medals, trophies and records. A “triple threat” in the Iron Game, Art won the Mr. New Jersey and Mr. Eastern States bodybuilding competitions.

He competed in weightlifting competitions through the Jr. National level and had best lifts of approximately 300 lb. in the press, 275 in the snatch and 335 in the C&J (Art competed in the 1950s when lifts in the US were expressed in pounds, not kilos, as they are today).

He was successful in “odd-lift” competitions as well (the precursor to Powerlifting and all-around competitions). And he was written about and photographed by the media.

Yet, Art never saw, at least as most people do, even one of his trophies, or one of his medals, or any article written about him, or any picture taken of him. That is because Art was blind.

Born on July 12, 1935, in Scranton, PA, Art moved to NJ as a boy, and that is where he spent most of his life. He had normal vision until the age of 7, when he found a dynamite cap while he was playing around the coal mines of Scranton. That discovery proved to be life changing for him as the cap he was handling soon exploded in his face. This accident cost him all of the vision in his left eye and 75% of the vision in his right eye. It also caused him to lose most of his middle and forefinger of his left hand (all of the fingers beyond the first joint).

Though hampered by his vision loss, Art kept doing most of the things kids his age did in that same way they did them, until the age of 11. It was at then that a snowball thrown at Art damaged his right eye and the result was that he lost a total of 95% of his vision. After that, he was able to see a little light and movement, but not much more. He was well beyond the limits of being considered legally blind.

Shortly after this incident, Artie began to learn Braille. That tool, along with a lot of help from his friends, enabled him to finish school and eventually enroll and excel at Seton Hall University, where he obtained a Bachelors’s degree in Business Administration. As impressive as Art’s academic accomplishments were, he didn’t let his athletic career get derailed by his vision impairment.

Not long after his snowball incident, Art received a gift of a weight set from the local Lion’s club. He began to lift the weights and had some very limited success in training his young body, but he really didn’t understand how to use this new tool. The breakthrough for him came when he joined the Newark YMCA in 1950. At the Y, Ehman was guided by some of the other lifters.

When he began training at the Y, he was approximately 6’1” inches in height and weighed about 178 lbs. He was very weak, and had to begin his training using a 30 lb. bar. But he progressed rapidly in both strength and size and within two years had developed quite an impressive physique, or so his training partners told him. Soon, Artie began to entertain the idea of entering a bodybuilding competition to find out just how good his physique really was. 

At the time Artie was finishing his High School education, he heard about a competition called “Mr. National High School,” which was to be held in Chicago. He decided to enter it.

A friend of his, Jack Bollin, taught Artie how to pose and gave him an idea of what to expect in a competition. Despite such preparation, many athletes wouldn’t have had the courage to enter a national competition their first time out, or to travel all the way to Chicago, or to travel alone. But none of this was enough to deter Art Ehman.

As it turned out, the trip was not without it’s challenges, the foremost of which was unexpected. During the trip, Artie had all of his belongings stolen, including his plane ticket home. When Art explained the situation to United Airlines, they said they could not replace the ticket but agreed that if there were any empty seats on his scheduled flight, they would put him on that flight. As it turned out, there were some empty seats, so Artie was able return home by plane.. And he came home in style – with a first place trophy and the title “Mr. National High School”.

While Art was building his physique through his weight training, he learned that in addition to physique competitions there were (Olympic-style) weightlifting competitions as well. Ehman discovered that these tests of strength and power involved three lifts: the Press, the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk. So at the age of 17, he decided to learn how to do these lifts. He was fortunate that some of his training partners at the “Y” such as Floyd Despirito and Pete Fetko actually competed in weightlifting so knew the sport well (Floyd was to go on to become one of the top lifters in the nation, winning the Jr. Nationals in 1956).

Floyd, Pete and others, were to be of great help to Artie in his weightlifting career, often taking him to competitions and supporting him in many other ways. But Floyd, in particular, spent a great deal of time with Artie, teaching him the lifts. I knew Floyd for years, and always respected his lifting ability, but I never appreciated what a fine coach he was until I met Artie Ehman and heard about his relationship with Despirito.

Now you might wonder, as I did, how could a person with virtually no vision learn to perform lifts as complex as the snatch and C&J? I’ve been teaching people who can see perfectly well to do this for more than 50 years and it’s far from easy. Art’s extremely limited vision wasn’t much help. He was able to see some shades of light with one eye and make out a little with respect to the direction and tempo a movement, but little else.

Well it seems that the first ingredient Ehman needed to become a successful lifter was something that is rather obvious but it isn’t easy to find – an indomitable will. That is something Art Ehman possesses in spades. The next ingredient is a brilliant mind that can figure out how to learn something he can’t see with his eyes (another Ehman trait). Next, it takes caring training partners who can help in the process, training partners like Floyd Despirito.

Those teammates moved Art’s body through the motions of a correct lifts, so that he could sense what he had to do. They also had Ehman touch their bodies and barbells as they went through the lifts, so Art could feel the movement patterns involved in those lifts. The final ingredient was endless hours of highly focused practice to master the lifts. The result was a National level lifter who stunned the weightlifting community with his accomplishments.

By the time the NJ Hercules had graduated High School, he had developed his physique even further. During his College years, he won the Mr. New Jersey competition (1955), and then the Mr. Eastern States (in 1959).

In weightlifting, he reached the 300-275-335 pound lifts mentioned earlier during the late 1950s, and won the 1958 NJ Championships, as well as a bronze medal at the 1958 Jr. Nationals.

As he rose in the ranks of competition, he found that due to increased specialization at this level, he was often the only athlete who would compete in both the weightlifting and physique portions of a meet (bodybuilding and weightlifting competitions were typically held together until the late 1970s, when Federal law prohibited the same organization from governing more than one amateur sport).

It was during his competitive years that Art met Len Bosland. A Mr. New Jersey himself, a gym owner and a legendary announcer for such competitions as Mr. Olympia and Mr. World. Len was another person who helped Art with his career in the Iron Game. Len drove Art to many competitions and lead him out to the competition barbell, so that Art could perform his lifts. Through their experiences together they formed a lifelong friendship and it was Len who introduced me to Art.

Once Ehman graduated from College, he began to put his business training to work. He built a fleet of charter fishing boats, the flagship of which was called “Party Artie”. Then he moved on to create a stable of race horses and raised prize winning dogs as well.

It was during this period that Art learned of a series of 3 operations that reportedly had the potential to at least partially restore his vision. The first two surgeries were to be minor and were needed to prepare him for the arduous and conclusive 3rd procedure.

Art had the first surgery performed, but when he woke up afterward he realized the even the extremely limited vision he had possessed prior to surgery was gone. His surgeon soon informed him that the loss was permanent. Artie accepted his fate and resolutely moved forward.

At about this point in his life, Ehman decided to move into the hospitality industry, opening a bar and grill in Union, NJ called “Club Elmour .” Over the years, with unstinting attention to detail and unbounded energy, Art grew the “club” into a local legend. He ran Club Elmour for more than 30 years, until he sold the business and retired to Seaside Heights in 2001.

Ehman’s Club Elmour years were accompanied by new challenges. In the late 1970s, Art noticed a change in his ability to control his body. The changes were subtle at first, but as time passed he grew concerned. A medical evaluation yielded a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. As the disease progressed, Art had to modify his work at the club. There were days when he could not function as well as others and he learned to adjust his schedule to his body’s capabilities. Through careful planning and execution he was able to continue with the business without most of his customers ever learning of his condition.

All of the aforementioned accomplishments would have made for a very full life for even an overachiever, leaving little energy for anything else. But this was not the case for Artie. As a youth, Ehman became a proficient wrestler, learned to play chess and swim and became an outstanding dancer. And during his collegiate and early business career, his good looks, great physique and other talents led him to another career entirely – entertainment. Gifted with an excellent voice and extraordinary aptitude for music, Artie learned to play the piano and trumpet, but he specialized in the drums.

Ehman organized his own band and built quite a reputation in the entertainment world. At one point, he became part of Mae West’s famous stage show and joined Bob Hope for one of his legendary USO tours as well, where he was billed as the “Singing Samson.” He also became a model, portraying the “Jolly Green Giant” and “Mr. Clean” for a time, and appearing in many other famous TV commercials..

Ehman’s good looks, muscular physique, intellect, sense of humor and love of people always made him attractive to the opposite sex. But in 1986, he met a very special person who became part of his life ever after – Virginia “Ginny” Kenney. Ginny spent much of her life educating New Jersey’s youth. Her focus was elementary school.

She saw Art by chance, shopping in a local grocery store for his restaurant. It was love at first sight and she and Art have been together ever since. When you first meet Ginny, her vivacious personality and good looks might cause you to be distracted from her essence – a character that is unstoppable and true, like Art’s. They are a wonderful match and a great team (a picture of them in their Seaside Heights, NJ home is shown below).

And together they faced still another challenge. Around the time of their move to Seaside Heights, Art began to lose his hearing, to the point where he was only able to hear at all with the assistance of a hearing aid.

Three years after the couple moved to their dream retirement house near the beach, Art fell down a very large set of stairs inside his home. He broke his collar bone, tore ligaments in his knees and suffered numerous other surface injuries. But the most serious consequence of his fall was a subdural hematoma (a blood clot in the brain).

At first, Art’s doctors feared that the damage to his brain was so severe that he would not survive. When he rallied and became stable physically, he remained in a vegetative state. At this point, the doctors said Artie would probably survive, but every single physician that Ginny talked to said Art would never recover even a fraction of his brain function, remaining in a vegetative state forever.

There were only two people who believed in Art’s future – Art and Ginny. Ginny helped Art in every way she could. Every time the doctors gave up on her hero, she would say “but you don’t know him.” She alone understood his determination and believed he would recover.

While none of the physicians Ginny met offered any hope for Art, one did offer a lead. He recommended that Ginny consult with a neurologist from Tom’s River named Christian Enescu.  After Dr. Enescu examined Art for the first time, Ginny subjected the doctor to her “acid test.” She asked the doctor if he thought Art could ever get better (hoping to hear even some small words of encouragement but expecting to hear what she had heard from so many others and being prepared to move on if she did).

But Dr. Enescu was completely different. A soul mate to Art and Ginny he said “Of course he’ll get better” and the good doctor began to implement a plan of rehabilitation, which included work on the patient’s mind as well as his body. For instance, the doctor told Ginny that each night, as Art was about to fall asleep, she was to repeat the following in Art’s ear, the famous Coue instruction, “Every day in every way I’m getting better and better.” The phrase was to be repeated rapidly – 10 times – so that there was no time between phrases for negative thoughts to slip in.

It was a tremendous struggle in the ensuing years, but Art and Ginny came a very, very long way together after Art’s accident. Art was able to fully understand what he heard and read, and he could converse (which I can attest to since I first met Art after his fall on the stairs).

Although he still had trouble finding the right words to express his incisive thoughts at times, he would often shock you with his insights and ability to articulate his thoughts at others. The last time I saw him he had recently walked a ½ mile with Ginny, and planned to join a local gym (he had been doing some light weight training at home).

Art is shown above receiving a special award from the Association of Oldetime Barbell & Strongmen in 2004, with Ginny holding the microphone for him as he thanks the hundreds in attendance. His friend Len Bosland is at his side (right) and the author presenting him with his award.

When you saw how incredibly far he had come, you couldn’t harbor much doubt that he’d make the rest the journey. And who could deserve it more?

If we were to make a short list of the most unstoppable people on earth, Art Ehman would have to be on it (with his secret weapon Ginny Kenney).

If you have received even 1/10th the inspiration from reading about Art that I did from meeting him, you are fortunate indeed. I know meeting Art and Ginny is something I will never forget and always treasure.

A Postcript – Sadly, Art Ehman passed away in 2010 – about six years after I met him, supported and loved by Ginny to the end.