Garry Kennington wasn’t expecting any type of call from the Wyoming Arm Wrestling Hall of Fame. His last official match came more than 30 years ago. The organization was started in 2010.

“I was really kind of surprised at the announcement,” he said in an interview with SVI. “I just never thought they would go back that far and that I’d be considered.”

Garry started an increased interest in the sport at least in part because of his brother, Kevan, a SVHS standout who went on to play football and wrestle at the University of Wyoming.

“Kevan beat a couple of pretty good kids and that sparked an interest,” he said. “So I hit a Flaming Gorge tournament in Green River and one at the Mangy Moose in Jackson and I kind of seemed to have a knack for it so I followed it closer.”

Kennington went on to not only have a Hall of Fame career, he ended his official competition days in his prime according to his induction speech which was held two weeks ago as he was surrounded by family and friends.

“One of the coolest things about Garry’s story, is when he retired, he was in his prime and left the sport to concentrate on raising his five boys with his wife Joyce,” part of the speech read. “Well, those five boys grew up and saw their dad’s trophies and heard what a great arm wrestler their dad was and several of them got into the sport and did very well including Garry’s son Laken who won the National Teens Championship. The boys begged Garry to arm wrestle with them. So, after being retired for close to 13 years he came out of retirement in 2006 and pulled a tournament in Ogden, UT where he not only won his weight class but won the overall tournament.”

Kennington is as humble as they come to those that know him and when asked about his overall win-loss record he answered it in humble fashion.

“I don’t know how many wins I had,” he said. “But I can tell you about every loss I ever had. Those are the haunting moments.” Kennington also spoke of going up against arm wrestling legend, John Brzenk. Brzenk is arguably the greatest arm wrestler of all-time and famously was an advisor on the movie “Over The Top” starring Sylvester Stallone.

“One of the last tournaments we went to was at Universal Studios,” Kennington said. “This was in 1992. So I go down to Utah to see if I have anything left and the famous John Brzenk used to live in SLC. He knew I only had about one good pull in me and he used to say I get him first and he beat me up.”

For those looking to get into the sport, Kennington advised there are a couple of arm wrestling builds out there.

“There’s the shoulder roll, the football type pullers,” he said. “The ones who don’t necessary have big wrists or hands so they have to try and hook you in. They are trying to make it into a power pulling contest. Then there’s the top pull where you’re trying to leverage because you have big hands and big wrists and your trying to get higher than your opponent and come through their fingers and around their power. It makes for an interesting match. That’s why the tie-up is so important. Who has the best positions is the big advantage. Seldom does it start without someone in a better position.”

The Kenningtons have made the arm wrestling gig a family function with all of Garry’s boys competing in eastern Idaho and winning tournaments. Like anything else, Kennington stated that to compete and be among the best, you have to surround yourself with the most challenging practice partners available.

“Like all sports those practice rooms will tell how fast you can improve and how good you can get,” he added. “You want to have the toughest practices you can and find the toughest guys you can to find out where you fit.”