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Dave Johns won the medium class at the Mr America in 1976 and 1977 and at the Mr Universe in 1978. He competed for fourteen years and finished second at the professional Universe three times.
Known for
The 1976 to 1978 run is the record: the Junior Mr America and the Mr America medium class in 1976, the Mr America medium class and Most Muscular in 1977, and the Mr Universe medium class in 1978. He also won the Mr California in 1977.
As a professional he was runner-up at the Universe in 1979, 1980 and 1981, and second at the 1977 World Championships. Three professional silvers in three years is a specific kind of career: consistently at the top and never over it.
Early career
He first appears in 1971 with third places at Mr Los Angeles and Mr Physique USA, and spent five years placing second and third around California before the wins started.
The record runs to 1985 and includes 48 contests, which is a heavy schedule for the era.
Professional results
Every professional contest result on record for Dave Johns, 15 in all. Won by names the winner of the division Dave Johns competed in, and shows a dash where that winner cannot be pinned to one person in the database.
| Year | Contest | Division | Place | Won by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Universe - Pro | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #5 | Edouard Kawak |
| 1984 | World Grand Prix | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #12 | Albert Beckles |
| 1984 | World Pro Championships | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #10 | Albert Beckles |
| 1983 | Grand Prix Denver | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #5 | Tony Pearson |
| 1983 | Grand Prix England | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #9 | Mohamed Makkawy |
| 1983 | Grand Prix Las Vegas | Men's Open Bodybuilding | Unplaced | Lee Haney |
| 1983 | Grand Prix Portland | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #5 | Scott Wilson |
| 1983 | Night of Champions | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #7 | Lee Haney |
| 1983 | World Pro Championships | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #10 | Mohamed Makkawy |
| 1982 | Night of Champions | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #8 | Albert Beckles |
| 1981 | Pro World Cup | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #5 | Sergio Oliva |
| 1981 | Universe - Pro | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 | Dennis Tinerino |
| 1980 | Pro World Cup | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #3 | Sergio Oliva |
| 1980 | Universe - Pro | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 | Tony Pearson |
| 1979 | Universe - Pro | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 | Roy Callendar |
Where these results come from. Each contest in the table was recorded from a named source, and for Dave Johns that source is MuscleMemory. Open any contest above and that page names its own source and links to it where the source is still reachable. That archive no longer answers at the addresses we hold, so it is credited by name here and not offered as a link.
Every professional season
Olympia
1st place
2nd place
3rd place
Other
- Pro Debut
- 1979
- Last Contest
- 1985
Physique benchmark
How Dave Johns measures up
Fat-free mass index turns the height and weight on this profile into one number for how much muscle a frame carries, so a shorter competitor is not flattered by a bodyweight comparison. The normalised figure adjusts it again to a standard height, which is the version worth ranking. Both assume the 6% body fat a competitor steps on stage at, because that is the only condition the recorded weight was taken in.
30.0FFMI
30.3Normalised FFMI
144thOf 316 measured men
The closest Olympia champion on that measure is Sergio Oliva, at 30.4.
What this rank is not. This database holds a height and a weight for just 463 athletes, and they are overwhelmingly the ones somebody bothered to measure: 74 of them hold an Olympia title. Almost every competitor on record carries no measurement at all. The pool also mixes every division and era together, from the lightweight women's classes to the open heavyweights, so it ranks size and nothing else. It says where Dave Johns sits among the athletes we hold measurements for, not among competitors.
Amateur and other shows not counted above
33 results from amateur shows and other contests this archive does not class as professional. Every total on this page covers the professional career only, so these are listed here but never counted, and they have no contest page.
Show the list
| Year | Contest | Division | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | World Championships | Division not recorded (Professional) | #6 |
| 1981 | World Championships | Division not recorded (Professional) | #3 |
| 1978 | Mr Universe | Division not recorded (Medium) | #1 |
| 1977 | Mr America | Division not recorded (Most Muscular) | #1 |
| 1977 | Mr America | Division not recorded (Medium) | #1 |
| 1977 | Mr California | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #1 |
| 1977 | Mr Universe | Division not recorded (Medium) | #3 |
| 1977 | World Championships | Division not recorded (Medium) | #2 |
| 1976 | Junior Mr America | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #1 |
| 1976 | Mr America | Division not recorded (Medium) | #1 |
| 1976 | Mr America | Division not recorded (Most Muscular) | #5 |
| 1976 | Mr California | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 |
| 1976 | Mr USA | Division not recorded (Medium) | #1 |
| 1975 | Junior Mr America | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #4 |
| 1975 | Junior Mr America | Division not recorded (Most Muscular) | #4 |
| 1975 | Mr America | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #14 |
| 1975 | Mr America | Division not recorded (Medium) | #6 |
| 1975 | Mr California | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 |
| 1974 | Junior Mr America | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #4 |
| 1974 | Junior Mr USA | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #1 |
| 1974 | Junior Mr USA | Division not recorded (Most Muscular) | #3 |
| 1974 | Mr America | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #6 |
| 1974 | Mr California | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 |
| 1974 | Mr Los Angeles | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 |
| 1974 | Mr Pacific Coast | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 |
| 1974 | Mr USA | Division not recorded (Medium) | #1 |
| 1974 | Mr USA | Division not recorded (Most Muscular) | #1 |
| 1973 | Mr California | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #3 |
| 1973 | Mr World | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #4 |
| 1973 | Mr World | Division not recorded (Most Muscular) | #5 |
| 1971 | Mr Los Angeles | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #3 |
| 1971 | Mr Physique USA | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #3 |
| 1971 | Mr Southern California | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 |
More Men's Open Bodybuilding athletes Athletes from United States
Legacy
Johns belongs to the generation that competed immediately after Pumping Iron made the sport visible, and to the group whose careers were defined by class wins in a judging system that no longer exists. Both facts make him hard to place in modern terms and easy to leave out.
Most-met rivals
Compare any two athletes →In 3 meetings, Lee Haney finished ahead of Dave Johns 3 times to 0.
Opponents are ranked by how often they shared a stage and how big the stage was, not by reputation. A meeting is one contest where both competed in the same division and both were placed.
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Sources
Competition placings on this page come from our own contest database and cover his record from 1971 to 1985.
Contests of this era awarded class titles and a separate overall. Where he won a class, the table records that; where he placed in the overall, it records that too.
Win rate here is first-place finishes as a share of all 15 professional contest results. It is published only where a career holds at least five, because below that a single placing moves the figure by twenty points or more.