“When I was a baby, she started calling me R.D. She said, ‘We can’t be calling him Lil’ Ronnie cause this boy is not gonna be little.”
Turns out Grandma was right — in physique, deed and now, especially, in title.
“He’s Mr. Universe,” said Pastor Kenny Smith, who preaches not only at the Greater Love Christian Church in West Dayton, but heads a traveling ministry called Hustlin’ for Jesus. “When I call R.D. up to speak, I introduce him now as Mr. Universe.”
He said that’s how he’ll do it this weekend when his ministry is featured at a church revival and men’s conference geared at stopping the violence in Canton, named in one poll earlier this year as the second-most dangerous little city in America.
Smith wants to make sure his message is heard and he said no one catches the crowd’s interest more than Caldwell.
“When I tell them he’s Mr. Universe,” Smith said, “well, the people just go crazy.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger was once Mr. Universe. So were Steve Reeves and Lou Ferrigno. The title conveys a certain reputation and renown, a bigger-than-life presence.
That explains the reaction Caldwell got at the Montgomery County Juvenile Detention Center this past week when he was brought in to talk to the incarcerated teens.
“I got to speak to all four units — two sets of girls and two sets of guys — and they were very receptive,” he said. “The staff was watching me on camera and they said they never saw those groups so attentive and on the edge of their seats. One kid was asking me questions and afterward the staff was pretty surprised. They said, ‘That kid doesn’t talk here. Never.’ “
The teens wanted to hear his story:
How the former Trotwood-Madison High School football player became a body builder, power lifter, Dayton-based personal trainer, motivational speaker and finally, last month — his body specially tanned, coated in a glistening sheen of PAM spray and accompanied by Smokie Norful’s gospel rendition of Justified — gave an overly-pumped, perfectly-symmetrical display of head-to-toe muscles, added his trademark splits and thoroughly impressed judges at the National Physique Committee (NPC) Universe Championships in Teaneck, N.J.
He first won the national middleweight title and then eclipsed the other weight division champions to become the amateur event’s overall winner — or, as he put it, “Mr. Universe.”
That not only earned the 30-year old Caldwell his International Federation of Body Builders (IFBB) pro card — he’ll be competing for money now — and put him on the United States’ Team Universe squad that competes in Brasilia in three months, but, as Pastor Smith noted, it gave him status that stretches much farther than Brazil.
“Mr. Universe — I actually went and looked the word up to get a true perspective,” Smith said with a laugh. “I wanted to see what Webster’s had to say about it. And with universe, they’re talking about more than 10 million galaxies. I said, ‘Wow, now that’s crazy! Over 10 million galaxies, but there’s only one of you. One Mr. Universe. Just one R.D.’”
Strong role models
Caldwell hasn’t just been a drug-free competitor his whole body building career (“no anabolic steroids, no human growth hormones, not even a lot of supplements sold over the counter”), but he said, “I’ve never tasted alcohol in my life. Never smoked or done any drugs. None of that.
“It’s because of my parents. My upbringing. That was just instilled in me: ‘You don’t need it.’ “
Caldwell credits the example his parents set for him and his two younger sisters, Danielle and Nia. His father, R.C., is an industrial engineer and his mom, Yvonne, is an early developmental specialist who works with children up to age 3 who, she said, “have developmental disabilities or are at risk of delays.”
R.D says he had strong male role models growing up, including both grandfathers and his dad.
He said his maternal granddad, Isaac Brown Sr., was a master sergeant in the Army who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam and lived to be 91.
His dad got him his first set of weights and continues to work out to this day, which is one reason R.D. believes his father was able to beat a bout with colon cancer two years ago.
After playing three sports in high school and spending time at Winston Salem State University in North Carolina and then Central State, flirting with football at both, Caldwell turned his attention more seriously to body building.
He’d actually competed in his first event a dozen years ago — the NPC Indianapolis — and won first place in the teen class. It was about that time his parents, especially his mom, had a serious talk with him about his new sport.
“My mom’s brother had gotten into body building and like a lot of guys back then, he believed he had to take steroids to compete,” R.D. said. “When they became illegal, he got off them cold turkey but he didn’t have a grasp of all the side effects that would come with that. He suffered from severe depression and ended up committing suicide.
“So when my parents talked to me about that, it registered deeply. His death wasn’t going to be in vain. I made a commitment to God and my family that I would never use steroids. With my faith in Jesus Christ, I believe He will put his ‘super’ on top of my ‘natural.’ And I believe it’s working. I’ve competed in non-tested shows, too, and beaten guys who were on steroids.”
More recently — and with limited training — he’s also competed as a power lifter. In his first big event, the NASA Nationals in June 2013, the 5-foot-5 ½, then 203-pound Caldwell won the Best Overall Lifter award with a 585-pound squat, 418-pound bench and 623-pound dead-lift.
Competing at 212 pounds, he was topping those numbers at the Schwarzenegger Classic in Columbus this past March when he was disqualified for what he said was “a technicality.”
Some seven weeks later, in an almost-unbelievable transformation, he had dropped 25 pounds thanks to strict diet and cardio work and was re-launching his body building career.
“I’m an anomaly,” he said. “Most power lifters are not that muscular because they don’t focus on overall muscularity, they just want strength. And most body builders technically aren’t that strong. They focus on physique. But thankfully I’ve been able to do both sports.”
The dual pursuit hasn’t come without its sacrifices.
“We had a big revival here in Dayton a little over a month ago and I took everybody to the Longhorn Steakhouse for some rib eye steak dinners,” Pastor Smith said. “That’s me and R.D.’s favorite.
“But that’s when he was getting ready for the Universe competition, so he ate nothing but fish with no seasoning, Brussels sprouts and a salad.
“I was like, ‘Really?’ And he said, ‘I can’t.’
“But you know, when he won that thing out in New Jersey, I was about the second person he called behind his mother. He said, ‘I won and now I want my rib eye as soon as I get back to town.’ “
Forceful yet humble
As Caldwell sat in a corner booth at Panera Bread on Brown Street the other day and told his story, few in the lunch crowd fathomed they had Mr. Universe in their midst.
He wore a loose-fitting shirt that hid much of his sculpted upper body. His easy laugh, his low-key nature and overriding humility eclipsed his big-muscle, on-stage presence.
“I’m a big guy, I wear 3-x and 4-x shirts and he always gets the same size,” Pastor Smith said. “You look at him and you don’t really know how big he is. It’s the same with his personality.
“Sometimes when I build him up and introduce him as Mr. Universe, he turns red as a beet. He’s still humble and still has that sweet spirit about him. To go under the radar like that — when you’ve done what he has, that’s not easy to do.
“Each group I’ve turned him loose on — whether it’s young people, elderly, incarcerated, men, women — he’s always produced and ministered effectively. People are drawn to him.”
In his personal training business called Rock Solid Training, Caldwell said he mentors “anybody and everybody.
“My youngest client is 14, a tennis player, and my oldest is 80. He has the possible diagnosis of Parkinson’s and he wants to keep his quality of life and go about his daily functions. I’m also working with a woman who has multiple sclerosis. She’s 65 and came to me on a walker. She advanced to a cane and now she’s getting around without assistance. It’s pretty rewarding to help people trying to embrace a healthier, more positive life.”
He takes the same approach when he joins the Hustlin’ for Jesus preachers.
“He can captivate a room,” Pastor Smith said. “You ever seen the biblical movie ‘The Ten Commandments?’ Charlton Heston played Moses. He had that big, heavy voice. Well, that’s how R.D. sounds up there when he’s preachin’.
“When you meet him, he automatically has that magnetism about him. What’s not to like about a guy like that?”
Yvonne Caldwell thought about the question and finally had to laugh:
“I’m pretty proud of him, but my co-workers tease me because I always say, ‘Well, I just wish he could do it with a little more clothes on.’ ”
About the Author