Retrospect: Hemmelgarn trained for Toughman contest

Twenty-five years ago this week, a Jay County man was preparing to defend his title as one of the toughest guys around.

The June 13, 1996, edition of The Commercial Review featured a story about John Hemmelgarn’s training for the upcoming weekend’s Original Toughman Contest at Allen County Fairgrounds in Lima, Ohio. The 24-year-old had won the championship in the heavyweight division a year earlier.

Hemmelgarn won the championship of the competition in 1995 and racked up victories in seven consecutive bouts, all by knockout in two rounds or less. He advanced to the 1995 Coors World Toughman Championship in Asheville, North Carolina, dropping his first-round bout by technical knockout to 1994 World Toughman champion George Gordon.

As he trained in 1996, he recalled his first fight in elementary school.

“A third grader was teasing me because my older brother was teasing me on the bus and I came into school crying,” Hemmelgarn said. “I got mad so I punched him right in the mouth and he had to get three stitches in his tongue. I remember that as plain as day because mom had to come into school, and boy I got yelled at by the principal.”

Hemmelgarn had spent some time training in Las Vegas before returning to Jay County and turning his brother’s farm on county road 300 East into his training grounds. The 6-foot, 4-inch, 240-pounder had a goal of becoming a professional boxer.

“To win the toughman is my first priority,” said Hemmelgarn, who is now director of Jay/Portland Building and Planning. “I would love to fight professionally. That’s what keeps me doing it. But in the same breath I realize I’m 24 years old and it might be too late to get in it at this age.”