I grew up in Jacksonville, Florida in the late 70's and 80's. My family owned the Double A Jacksonville Suns minor league baseball franchise as well as 6 different minor league franchises throughout the country. I spent most of my springs and summers as a batboy for the Suns and traveling with my parents to see the other clubs. While the rest of my friends and classmates were watching the birth of MTV I was hanging out with and living like a pro ballplayer. I never thought I would have been anything else in life but some form of pro athlete. Unfortunately even though I was a pretty good high school baseball player I never could bust a grape at 2 different colleges. My baseball career mercifully came to end in my early 20’s.

I was introduced to weightlifting my sophomore year of high school. Weight lifting was offered in PE class but I never took it. Once I joined the baseball team it was mandatory for athletes to weight lift. The first time I went in to weight lift with the team it was really my first time. It was really intimidating to travel from weightlifting station to station not being able to budge the weight. Everybody but me seemed to know what they were doing. I dreaded every weightlifting session. Not only was I weak but my flat chest formed a perfect backdrop for my almost 3D like sternum. The final straw for me came while trying to move some field equipment with another player. We weren’t budging it and finally the coach came over screaming at the other player for being so stupid as to pick me the weakest player on the team to help him move something. I vowed from that day forward to be the biggest strongest guy walking the streets. As I got bigger and stronger I realized that I really liked the way I was starting to look. The more I got into it I started gravitating more towards bodybuilders and less towards other baseball players. I pretty much made up my mind that when my baseball career was over I was going to become a bodybuilder.

By the mid 90’s marriage and a young family had ended the competitive phase of my Bodybuilding career but I still managed to lift and keep a decent physique. In early 1995 I started doing a radio show with an established Jacksonville sports journalism and radio personality Greg Larson. I used the nickname “The Greek” derived from of course my ethnic background but also the nickname given to my Dad by General George Patton during the North African campaign of WWII. The show was very successful using the shtick of the older fat sportswriter with the younger hipper athlete. Listeners enjoyed taking sides and I started referring to the listeners that liked me as Gang Greek. I par let the success of “The Greek” character into another successful show In the Trenches with Jacksonville Jaguar Brian DeMarco. The show was very popular and I am told a favorite of many of the then Jaguar players and coaches. A tee-shirt designer at the time designed a catchy Gang Greek shirt and we gave away a ton of them to players and fans alike. It seemed like everybody wanted one of those shirts the pinnacle was reached when Jaguar center Michael Cheever was on the front page of the local sports page wearing a Gang Greek shirt.  

By 1997 I was not only burned out but with a wife and young children I needed to make a steady paycheck. I decided to give all of that up and get back into computers which is how a made a living before radio. I continued to go to school and I started learning about the UNIX operating system until 1999 when Lockheed Martin hired me to work on their General Motors Service Parts Operation. I did this until 2001 when Lockheed promoted and relocated my family and me to Orlando, Florida.

I immediately found a gym in Orlando and I continued my weightlifting. I noticed something very quickly about the gym scene here. There were a lot of really big in shape people. Many of these people competed in bodybuilding and figure at all different levels. The more I got to know these people the more I got into the scene, before you know it I was competing as well as dabbling in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts.

The combinations of these elements have allowed me to meet many great people. The type of person every bodybuilder, figure, or MMA competitor should know. As the web site grows and the forums grow all of you will meet them as well. These people are our type of people, these people are Gang Greek.

Contest History:

2008

Lakeland Classic Level 3
Lakeland, Florida
4th Place Mens Men's Open Light Heavyweight

2007

All South level 5 National Qualifier
St Augustine, Florida
7th Place Men's Open Heavyweight

2006

Debbie Kruck Classic level 4
Daytona Beach, Florida
4th Place Men's Open Heavyweight

Ancient City Classic Level 2
St Augustine, Florida
3rd Place Men's Open Heavyweight

2005

Hurricane Bay Level 4
Tampa, Florida
3rd Place Men's over 35

Lakeland Classic Level 3
Lakeland Florida
3rd Place Men's Open Heavyweight

Mid Florida Bodybuilding Classic Level 4
Orlando, Florida
Did Not Place Men's open Light Heavyweight

Tampa Classic Level 3
Tampa, Florida
3rd Place Men's Open Heavyweight

Central Florida Dist Championships Level 3
Bradenton, Florida
Did Not Place Men's Novice