Bodybuilder knew dangers of steroids, By: Amy Rabideau Silvers

Posted: April 19, 2007

Whatever the death certificate lists as a cause of death, Norman "Rocky" Rauch knew what the real cause of death would be.

A champion weightlifter and bodybuilder, Rauch long abused steroids. Years later, he talked to anybody who would listen about the risks.

Rauch's own medical problems began in 1971, with boils over his entire body. Blood tests found a staph infection, severe liver damage and a diminished immune system.

It would be just the beginning of his health problems - and steroid abuse.

"I think about all I went through since I took that stuff," he said. "I have boxes of trophies, over 200 of them. I look at that and say, 'Was it really all worth it?' Would I take all of that and melt it down and cash out a clean bill of health, swap it out?

"I mean, if I could I would. But I can't."

Rauch died of heart failure April 11. He was 65.

A native of Allentown, Pa., he came to Wisconsin in 1960, assigned to the U.S. Air Force's Truax Field in Madison. In 1984, Lake Geneva became home.

Rauch first started using steroids in the late 1960s, while in the Air Force and training to try to make the 1968 U.S. Olympic weightlifting team. The team physician handed out pills and told the lifters to take two a day for eight weeks, he said.

"We didn't know what they were," Rauch told Gary D'Amato, Journal Sentinel sports reporter, in 2005. "They were little blue pills; dianabol. Oh, yeah, they worked. I got stronger."

He cycled on and off those pills for three years, getting stronger and stronger. Then came the boils.

"I asked the doctor what my choice was," Rauch said. "He said, 'Quit and live or take them and die.' "

Rauch quit and tried unsuccessfully to make the 1976 Olympic team. He turned to bodybuilding, winning a Mr. Wisconsin title.

Later he began "stacking," the risky practice of combining pills and shots. He was looking good, including in the over-40 division of 1982 Mr. America competition.

Even more happened in 1983, as he used more drugs.

The best thing was meeting the former Trudy Thompson, who became his wife in 1987. The worst was episodes of "roid rage" from the steroids. He won the Mr. America title, but immediately admitted to Trudy that he had been using.

No more, he promised her.

Rauch kept that promise for three years.

"Then I caught him with a needle in his butt," Trudy Rauch said.

He again promised to quit. One week later, he woke with a lump in his neck the size of a golf ball. It was malignant.

Other health problems followed. Basil cell carcinomas and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Cancer treatments and a bone-marrow transplant. A staph infection that damaged his kidneys, followed by years of dialysis. Arthritis and heart trouble and bouts with depression.

He and his wife ran Rocky's Gym in Lake Geneva, where Rauch preached the message against steroids.

"I really don't want to see anyone else go through what I did," Rauch said. "I could have avoided all that."

He also became a presence in the community, active with the Rotary and the American Legion.

"My daughter, Jody, said he came into a small community, not knowing anyone, and now everybody knows him," Trudy said. "He got involved and cared about his community."

Survivors also include daughters Sally Rauch, Jennifer Humphrey and Jody Brock; mother Dorothy; brother Charles; and grandchildren.

Visitation was held Thursday. A brief visitation will be held at 10 a.m. today at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church,