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 Brad Hunker
was born in Edmonton and spent the first twelve years of his life on a
farm west of Thorsby where he attended Elementary School and part of
Junior High. While in Grade Eight he moved to the Pigeon Lake area and
attended Pipestone School and then Pigeon Lake Regional High
School
until grade ten. Brad finished high school in Sylvan Lake graduating in
1980. In 1987 Brad moved back to the community of Falun where he met
and married his wife Lorraine and settled there until 1991.
In 1998 Brad and his family moved back to the Falun area and later they
moved to a farm in the Millet area where they now reside.
Master of the
“shoulder roll” and his patented
explosive starts on the “Ready,
Go”!
As a young boy Brad enjoyed all sports. Baseball,
hockey, track and field, football and gymnastics were some of his
favourites. However, Brad’s passion was arm wrestling, a sport he had
watched on TV as a youngster. Secretly he aspired to becoming a World
Champion Arm Wrestler. In the early 1980’s while working at a Red Deer
Tavern, Brad came in contact with some very skilled arm wrestlers. Red
Deer was a “hotbed” of champion arm wrestlers; these fellows would
frequent the establishment and Brad watched them compete. Some of them
showed Brad the intricacies of the sport and Brad entered his first
competition in 1983 coming an impressive third to two well known arm
wrestlers, the reigning Canadian and Western Canadian Champions. Brad
then joined the Red Deer Arm Wrestling Club, one of the top clubs in
Canada. Canadian champions who trained there showed him the “tricks of
the trade” right from the proper handgrip, proper elbow position to even
the small things like where to place your little finger. Later he would
travel to the Breton club and train with the pullers there, mastering
the “shoulder roll”: and developing his patented explosive starts on the
“Ready, Go”!
In a span of four years (1985-89) Brad was
undefeated in left arm competitions
 After starting competition in 1983, Brad’s rise to the
top level of his sport was meteoric. During a ten year period from
1985-1995, Brad won fourteen Canadian, two Can-Am (1988, 1989) and two
World titles (1985, 1990). In over one hundred events in Brad’s career
only four times did he not finish in the top three. In a span of four
years (1985-89) Brad was undefeated in left arm competitions. He won
major titles with his left and right arm in both the Stand-up and Sit
Down styles of Arm Wrestling and has competed across Canada, in the
United States, Mexico, Russia and South America. In 1991 Brad was a
Canadian Champion in two weight classes winning the heavy weight right
and left arm championships as well as the super heavy weight left arm
championship, an incredible feat. Besides all of his Championships Brad
also won three silver and two bronze in World Championships; two silver
and one bronze in Canadian Championships as well as four silver in other
international meets. Because of his achievements, Brad was inducted
into the Canadian Wrist Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1991. He was also
honoured in 1995 by being named Captain of Team Canada in the World
Championships in Brazil. A shoulder injury in 1991 hampered Brad’s
training and his ability to compete at the level he desired leading to
his early retirement from the sport in 1996 at the tender age of
thirty-three (relatively early for arm wrestling).
 Brad continues to be involved in sports. Brad played on
both Slow Pitch and Fastball teams and in 1992 he was the pitcher of a
Provincial Championship Softball Team from Drayton Valley. In the past
he has volunteered as a coach for minor soccer and as a member of the Brazeau Search and Rescue. Brad has also been called upon to give
inspirational speeches to students at Falun School. He now spends hours
with his four boys at the hockey rink where he has volunteered as a
coach, manager and executive member of both Wetaskiwin and Millet Minor
Hockey Associations. Brad has also been the head coach of a “AAA”
summer hockey team.
Brad Hunker’s incredible successes in his sport of Arm
Wrestling and his contributions to the community certainly warrant his
induction into the Wetaskiwin Sports Hall of Fame.
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