The American College of Switzerland Zoo. James E. Henderson

All 250 pounds rolled quickly across my back and landed with a resounding smack of his arm on the mat. I suspected that he had helped me, like my dad had when I was twelve; but the surrounding students applauded, and the President shot me a quick nod of respect from the floor.

      As he picked himself from the floor and began to straighten his gi, I saw something I hadn’t expected. The coat of the gi had fallen open under his black belt, and with his pants tied below his great belly, I got a full view of its enormity. But it was the smaller bulges running down the belly that caught my attention. Now I am proud of my tiny six-pack, the result of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of sit ups, but his gut had knots of muscle the size of my fist starting as the stomach emerged from his ribcage and moving down to just above his groin. The last set was longer and narrower than the others, and they made up a fourth set of muscles. The Gut had an eight-pack! I hadn’t known that was possible! I stared at his stomach, mouth open, until he was fully up and his gi straightened. We bowed; he smiled and moved on to choose another dummy.

      When I joined Wilds, I asked, “Did you see that?”

      “Yeah, but I’m betting he helped.”

      “No fooling! No, did you see his gut?” I whispered.

      “Hard to miss.”

      “No! I mean did you see his eight-pack!” I said a little too loud.

      “More like a whole keg!” blurted Wilds.

      The Gut had heard and looked around at that, and several students chuckled as he took Wilds for his next dummy.

      After class, sweaty and bruised, Wilds and I walked down to our frat house. I told him what I had seen, but he didn’t believe me. I asked several other students, and they just asked how badly I had hit my head. Well, I am pretty sure what I saw; and by the way he tossed Tiny and the larger guys around, I suspected that there was more than met the eye with our President Arnold. Oh, and that was Wilds’ final judo class.