Lou Scripa, a Vestavia Hills resident for close to 30 years, recently was inducted into the National Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame. He joins people like Vince Lombardi, Joe DiMaggio and Mario Andretti in that hall of fame, but many people in Vestavia Hills may not be familiar with Scripa because most of his famous accomplishments took place when he lived in California.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Scripa achieved notoriety for setting an array of world records related to fitness and endurance, earning him the nickname “Crunch Monster.” His records include performing 104,568 jumping jacks in 24 hours non-stop in 1986, 110,015 abdominal crunches in 17 hours in 1988, 160,974 sit-ups over 82 hours (with a 5-minute break every hour) in 1990, and his final record of 70,715 sit-ups in 24 hours in 1992, at the age of 58. These accomplishments helped raise millions of dollars for various charities.