The professional body builder best known for portraying the Incredible Hulk on TV in the 1970s is in Timmins for this weekend’s TimminsCon at the McIntyre Community Centre.
Lou Ferrigno’s history with Timmins goes back to 1974, when he was guest celebrity at the Carling-O’Keefe World Wristwrestling Championship. He did not compete.
And he was in the city for the first TimminsCon.
“I came to see how much it’s grown here,” he says. ”The last time I was here was 15 years ago. But I like Timmins, especially the hospitality, the people.”
Ferrigno says he was bullied as a child.
He worked out his frustration by pouring himself into bodybuilding and other physical activity.
He says he followed his Dad’s path into policing and has been a deputy sheriff in Los Angeles for 20 years.
He says he works in search and rescue and weapons shooting training. He also works with young people contemplating becoming police officers.
“That’s important because it’s a great career, but a lot of people are intimidated, thinking that it’s a bad career. They think that being a police officer can be abusive, which is wrong. We need that.”
At Timmins Police headquarters, Ferrigno said the most important is community policing. He says young people need to know they can turn to police when they need help.
On Thursday, he goes more than 10,000 feet underground at the Kidd mine.
