HISTORY OF AMERICAN MARTIAL ARTS

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An early pioneer of karate in the South was John Pachivas, who became the first karate instructor in the Miami Beach area in 1961. Pachivas reportedly has been active in the martial arts since the mid-1940s, and holds degrees in judo, jujutsu, and godu-ryu karate.

In Jan. 1961 George Pesare introduced kenpo karate to Rhode Island in Providence. Preceded only by Ted Olsen, Pesare would in time become the foremost instructor in his state and an influential leader in the northeastern U.S.

One of the first New York instructors to be affiliated with Mas Oyama was Augustin DeMello, who opened the New York Kyokushinkai karate club in Greenwich Village in 1961. He later broke away from Oyama and quit teaching.

Daeshik Kim, a judo and tae kwon do instructor, came to Atlanta, Ga., in 1961 where he began teaching tae kwon do in the physical education department of Georgia State College.

Among Kim's students were Joe Corley, Chris McLoughlin, "Atlas" Jesse King, Larry McClure, and Dick Lane. In 1966, Kim sold his Institute of Self-Defense, a non-campus club, to McLoughlin and Corley.

Corley and McLoughlin established several branch schools over the years, all in and around Atlanta, and they jointly produced the first Battle of Atlanta in 1970. Later, the tournament would become one of the most prestigious in American sport karate.

Individually, Corley would become one of the most influential voices in Southern karate by spearheading the formation of the Southesat Karate Association (SEKA). In the 1970s, he would invest most of his time and money in the full-contact karate movement.

McLoughlin would make his mark as one of the first professional martial arts journalists who also was a black belt.

In Los Angeles, Mito Uyehara, an aikido practitioner, and his brother, Jim, published the inaugural issue of Black Belt Magazine in 1961. The first issue was in digest form, with articles on judo, karate, aikido, and kendo. Though it suffered lean years, the publication became one of the most successful in its field. In the late 1960s, the brothers dissolved their partnership, Jim taking with him the merchandise trade-which later developed into Martial Arts Supplies-and Mito retaining ownership of the magazine. The publication struggled until Mito launched a line of paper back text books, which eventually brought large profits. This, coupled with shrewd capitalization on the martial arts movie trend of the early 1970s, made Mito Uyehara one of the few millionaires in the martial arts business.

Out of the Uyehara publishing empire have come some 60 textbooks, the monthly, Karate Illustrated (since 1969), and the monthly Fighting Stars (since 1973).

In 1961 New York's John Kuhl wrote, edited, posed for, and published a karate manual/magazine called Combat Karate. Kuhl started his karate training in Montreal in 1957 under Ari Anastasiatis. After moving to New York City in 1970, he continued his training with Peter Urban and Gosei Yamaguchi, son of Gogen, the goju-ryu teacher. Two of Kuhl's early students were Aaron Banks and Al Weiss. Kuhl and Weiss co-produced in 1962 a manual entitled Karate, the most popular instruction book at its price. Its success prompted the 1968 publishing of Official/Karate Magazine, a bi-monthly. It soon became a monthly, with international distribution. The magazine's outlook is radical compared to the conservative Black Belt. It was an animated voice in the movement toward an Americanized form of karate. And Weiss, its editor, has been recognized for writing the most potent monthly editorials in his field.

Bob Yarnall, a shorin-ryu instructor, opened his first dojo in 1962 in St. Louis, Mo., where he has remained to this day. A student of James Wax, Yarnall has instructed such pioneers as Jim Harrison, Parker Shelton, and Bill Marsh, who was a successful competitor in the European karate circuit. Yarnall is probably the best-known exponent of Matsubayashi-ryu in the U.S. and has been a long time member of Trias' USKA. His wife, Joyce, assists her husband in the operation of his schools, and is a photographer whose collection includes many historic pictures of the sport and its early champions.

Jhoon Rhee opened his first school in Washington, D.C., in 1962, and within three months had amassed more than 100 students. This, then, became the basis of the Jhoon Rhee empire, which later blossomed into one of the largest privately-owned martial arts enterprises in the world today.

The Jhoon Rhee Institutes have developed many of the most accomplished karate competitors in American karate. Some notable students are: Larry Carnahan, Michael Coles, Gordon Franks, Jeff Smith, Jose Jones, Wayne Van Buren, John and Pat Worley, Otis Hooper, John Chung and Rodney Batiste.

Rhee would also begin teaching tee kwon do to distinguished members of the U.S. government hierarchy, senators and congressmen among them. Through his endeavors, Rhee would become a genuine celebrity to the D.C. general public.

Allen Steen, Rhee's student, established the first school of his eventual empire in 1962 in Dallas, Tex. Only Johnny Nash preceded him by a few months. No one, however, would dominate the Southwest territory as would Steen. Like Rhee, Steen trained many of America's top karatemen, among them Mike Anderson, Skipper Mullins, Pat Burleson, Fred Wren, Roy Kurban, and Jim and Jenice Miller.

In 1962 after a visit to Pittsburgh by Master Tatsuo Shimabuku, at the invitation of James Morabeto and Harry Smith, disharmony once again set in among the city's isshinryu principals. Morabeto opened several dojo of his own, while Harry Ackland and Joe Penneywell established the Academy of Isshinryu Karate in downtown Pittsburgh. William Duessel and William Wallace, students of Shimabuko, assumed ownership in the late 1960s.

At this time, Nick Long began teaching Okinawan kempo in Greensburg, Pa., where he built a large following of college students.

In Denver, Robert Thompson and Fran Heitmann jointly opened a Tang Soo Do school in 1962. That same year, Chuck Serett, a black belt student of Heitmann's, established his first school and brought in Korean instructor Moon Ku Back to teach there. Sereff and one of his black belts, Ralph Krause, opened another Denver karate school, but later the two went separate ways. Today, Sereff has one of the largest operations in Colorado.

Frank Ruiz earned a chestful of medals including the Purple Heart, Silver Star, and Bronze Star during the Korean War. Upon his release, he became one of Peter Urban's first students in 1960. In 1962, he launched his own teaching career in New York City, and produced two nationally recognized fighters, Louis Delgado and Herbie Thompson (of Florida), and East Coast karate champions Ron Van Clief, Owen Watson, and the late Malachi Lee. Ruiz later broke away from Urban to form his own Nisei Goju organization. In 1970 Ruiz cheated death after being struck by a car traveling 80 m.p.h., managing four years later to walk normally and even practice karate.

The Birth of Franchised Karate In 1963 two brothers, Jim and Al Tracy, founded their first kenpo karate school in San Francisco; both-had been students of Ed Parker. After spending large sums in development costs, the brothers launched what became the largest chain of karate schools in the world, under the trade name "Tracy's Karate." The Tracy brothers brought big business practices to karate. Their strategy included a proven sales system, adapted from commercial dance studios. At its peak, 1969-73, the Tracy organization was estimated to have 70 studios under its franchise banner. After hiring Joe Lewis, one of the port's brightest stars, as a figurehead for its franchise recruitment program, the organization attracted instructors who, using the knowledge gained in business indoctrination courses, were able to make careers in the martial arts. Among the early corps of Tracy's novitiates were Jay T. Will, Al Dacascos, Jerry Smith, Jerry Piddington, Dick Willett, Roger Greene, Steve LaBounty, and Ray Langenburg.

At the same time, throughout the mid- and late 1960s, other instructors and organizations were developing sales systems and business practices particularly suited to the martial arts. Jhoon Rhee, Allen Steen, Chuck Norris, and Ed Parker soon expanded into franchising. Bob Wall of Los Angeles is credited with having helped many martial artists adopt sound business practices in their schools, among them Norris, Rhee, and Colorado's Jim Harkins.
An astute businessman, Wall developed and manualized a sales system still in use in many professional karate studios across the nation.

In 1963 Chuck Norris, who would become one of the most respected karate fighters in the world, established his first school in Torrance south of Los Angeles. In 1968 he and Bob Wall bought out Joe Lewis' interest in the Sherman Oaks Karate Studio. From there he launched a chain of seven studios until 1975, when he gave up the operation to concentrate fully on a motion picture career.

Norris is now responsible for guiding more than 2000 students to black-belt rank and dozens to competitive champioship prominence. Among them are: Bob Wall, Jerry Taylor, Pat Johnson, John Natividad, Howard Jackson, Ralph Alegria, Darnell Garcia, and Bob Burbidge, Chip Wright, Danny Lane, among many, many others.

In April 1963 Master Duk Sung Son, president of the World Tae Kwon Do Association, immigrated to the U.S. and began teaching in and around New York City. Within a few years, Son was teaching his art at Princeton, N.Y., Brown and Fordham Universities, and later at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Francisco Conde in 1963 initiated classes exclusively for females at the Women's Karate Club of Fort Meade, Maryland. There his wife, Kathleen, received some of her early training before going on to become one of the premier black belt competitors in her region. Known for his tournament promotions, as early as 1963 Conde became a driving force behind many of the regional activities of the Mid-Atlantic states.

Roger Carpenter, a black belt student of George Pesare, came to Wichita, Kans., in Sept. 1963. Carpenter taught karate for two years at churches, YMCAs, and a National Guard Armory. In the spring of 1965, he opened the first commercial karate school in Wichita. By 1964, Jim Harrison had also established a school in Kansas City.

In Denver, Shotokan stylist Joe Costello(d.1973), from Hawaii, opened a dojo downtown. That same year, Ralph Krause opened the first of an eventual chain of karate schools in Colorado.

Ki Whang Kim, a highly respected tae kwon do master, organized a YMCA class in Washington, D.C., in 1963. This class produced some outstanding D.C. martial artists including John Camance Albert Cheeks, Phil Cunningham, Mike Warren, Furman Marshall, and John Mickens. During the 1970s Mike Warren was widely considered to be America's best tournament fighter and, indisputably, one of the best technicians in the sport.

Lou Angel, Jack Hwang, and Bill Brisco, all of Oklahoma City, are the recognized pioneers of karate in Oklahoma. Angel, a former U.S. Marine and student of Peter Urban, arrived in Oklahoma at an unspecified date in the early 1960s. He is best known for having produced the Tulsa Southwest Karate Championships in 1963 where Mike Stone would launch his impressive fighting career. Stone, then still a brown belt, became an overnight sensation by winning first place in the sparring division and soon rose to prominence as the sport's first superstar.

Jack Hwang, a pioneer of tee kwon do, immigrated to the U.S. in 1960. He taught quietly until opening his first school in Oklahoma City in 1964. In 1965, Hwang produced his inaugural All American Open Karate Championships, which is a highlight of the southwestern karate circuit.

Marine sergeant Sam Pearson, a disciple of Master Eizo Shimabuku, founded a shorin-ryu karate club in 1963 at Camp LeJeune, N.C. His most famous student is the aforementioned Glenn Premru of Pittsburgh, who would become one of the sport's first corps of great kata champions and flamboyant performers.

Tournaments The early 1960s brought the first American karate tournaments. Until 1963 several local and at best, regional competitions were organized in different parts of the U.S Principal among these early events were the All America Karate Championships and the North American Karate Championships. The former was held in Los Angeles in Dec.1961 by Hidetaka Nishiyama, concurrent with his formulation of the All America Karate
Federation. Nishiyama chose as the tournament site the Olympic Auditorium, the West Coast boxing center. The tournament was produced as a fund-raiser for the March for Muscular Dystrophy. Participants were chiefly members of the Shotokan style of karate, but some came from as far as Canada and Hawaii.

The North American Karate Championships, conducted on Nov. 24,1962, was the first karate tournament held at Madison Square Garden, and the first open karate competition in America. Here, Mas Oyama appeared for the second time in his illustrious career, and this time the appearance was not for the purpose of demonstrating karate's superiority to professional boxing and wrestling. Preceding the finals, Oyama presented one of his impressive breaking routines, crushing rocks, bricks, and boards with his bare hands, feats even at that time considered phenomenal by the American public. Gary Alexander, one of the early wave of "fighting" instructors, won the black belt sparring championship. In 1963 he established his first school in New Jersey and began promoting notable karate tournaments himself.

On July 28,1963, Robert Trias and John Keehan jointly hosted the 1st World Karate Tournament at the University of Chicago Fieldhouse, gathering contestants and officials from around the country. This was the first truly national American karate tournament and the forerunner of the many subsequent tournaments using and abusing the title of "World Championship." To date, this misnomer has been attached by various promoters to more than 20 North American karate tournaments. Clearly, it is an inexact title, since the participants do not come from all over the world.

Tournament titles were not an issue, however, during the embryonic stage. What is important is that Trias' event attracted most of the prominent American karateka. What took place in Chicago set a precedent for the emergence of large-scale, national-caliber competitions. This particular event was retitled the USKA Nationals in 1966, and in 1968 adopted its present title, the USKA Grand Nationals. It is one of the longest-running annual karate tournaments in America.

Also in 1963, Texan Allen Steen inaugurated his Dallas Southwest Karate Championships, in which Mike Stone, still a brown belt, won the black belt fighting division. Steen's tournament was retitled in 1965 the U.S. Karate Championships. David Moon, one of the few Asian instructors competing in open sparring divisions, won the first of three consecutive grand championships there. The tournament maintained its national prestige until the mid-1970s.

During this period many judo and jujutsu black belts had begun studying karate; their styles were often unrefined. Some were the recipients of "cross-over" ranks, i.e., because of their proficiency in one art they might receive den rank in karate.

As each generation of American karate black belts became progressively more polished, fluid, and performance-conscious, the old ex-judo/ jujutsu converts appeared out of touch with new developments in the art. Despite criticism, many of these same figures were responsible for introducing the martial arts to
individuals who would later make contributions to the growth of American karate. One of these, Jerry Durant,
trained tap fighter Artis Simmons as well as Art Sykes, William Cavalier and Vince Christeano.

In 1964 Trias again staged his World Championships in Chicago, but this year two new tournaments shared the spotlight. The first was Ed Parker's International Karate Championships in Long Beach, Calif. Parker's tournament, like Trias 'the year before, attracted the biggest names in American karate.

Mike Stone became the event's first grand champion, an accomplishment overshadowed historically by the results of a demonstration presented there by an unknown Chinese stylist named Bruce Lee.

Lee was a sensation. Demonstrating his skills, he sent partners reeling backward with his 1 -inch punch, a technique that became a personal trademark. Lee's performance left a lasting impression on many practitioners and non-martial-artist spectators.

Parker's Internationals grew in size and prestige until about 1976, reaching its zenith in 1974, when Parker drew a record-setting 6,000 contestants. In 1975 Parker awarded prize money totaling $16,250 the largest yet at an American Pro/Am tournament.

The second prominent event of 1964 was Jhoon Rhee's U.S. National Karate Championships, held in Washington, D.C. Pat Burleson of Texas, winner of the black belt grand championship, joined Al Gene Caraulia in becoming the first recognized national champion of the new sport. Today Burleson is looked upon as the "granddaddy" of tournament fighters and the first genuine star in the sport.

In late 1964 Mahn Suh Park produced the first open tournament in Philadelphia, the Globe Tae Gyun Championships; it became an annual promotion enjoying steady growth.

Jhoon Rhee pulled off a coup in 1965: he persuaded Wide World of Sports to film and subsequently broadcast segments of his U.S. National Karate Championships. His was the first American karate tournament to receive television coverage from a network sports program. However, a heated match for the grand championship between Stone and Walt Worthy, in which there was bloodshed and heavy contact, earned the displeasure of the show's producers. Select excerpts only were broadcast. And the program ignored the sport for the next nine years.

It is important to recall here the nature of competition in this period. It was a time of bloodshed and brutality. Historians have called it-suitably-the "blood and guts era" of American sport karate, a period spanning from 1963, when the major open tournaments began, to roughly 1970, when the sport temporarily graduated to its first kick-boxing phase. During this time tournaments were an arena for only the most courageous karate fighters, with a high tolerance for absorbing punishment. The type of sparring then popular is called "non contact" or "light contact." Rules stipulated closely pulled blows to the face and only light body contact. Excessive contact was grounds for disqualification. Despite this general rule, heavy contact to both the face and body was so common that competitors and officials alike appeared to accept it. The techniques, crude and calamitous by today's standards, were as unrefined as the rules governing the infant sport. A fighter might break an opponent's bones or knock him into the grandstand and not be disqualified. If he was a true fighter, the opponent was expected to come back and dish out the same punishment he had received.

The Second Generation In karate instruction a virtual explosion took place from 1964 onward, not only in the U.S., but in Canada, South America, Europe, and Asia. Ex-military personnel, having studied the martial arts in the Orient, returned home en masse to open karate schools. Augmenting this rapid growth were the second generation, students of the original pioneers, who concurrently established studios of their own.

In Sept.1964 the Institute of Technology in Pasadena adopted a regular course of karate instruction supervised by Tsutomu Ohshima. This is the first known karate program to have been accepted as an accredited course by an American college.

The move to establish karate as part of the educational curriculum had enjoyed widespread success in Japan. Thus, the early Japanese stylists in the U.S. concentrated on this aim. Later, the Korean tae kwon do instructors, perhaps even more meticulously organized, likewise made significant progress toward gaining acceptance for the martial arts in American institutions of higher learning.

In Beaver Falls, Pa., Willie Wetzel, a master of pukulan, was one of the first instructors of an Indonesian discipline to surface in the U.S. ne of his students, Barbara Niggel, in the mid-1970s distinguished herself as a national kata champion.

Pauline Short should probably be called the "mother of American karate." Short opened in 1965 the first karate school exclusively catering to a female clientele, in Portland, Oreg. In 1975 she became one of the nation's top 10 female fighters.

Also in 1964, Bill Readers emerged in Erie, Pa. He trained Art Sykes.

In 1965 Glenn Premru returned to Pittsburgh, having trained with Shorin-ryu instructor Sam Pearson. He opened a dojo in the North Hills section of town.

Mike Stone became the first superstar of the sport. He had dominated competition since 1963, and by the time of his retirement had been active for only eighteen months. Although he competed in a total of nine tournaments, all of them were large-scale events featuring highly rated fighters. Stone won in 1965 what could be considered Karate's Triple Crown: the Internationals in Long Beach, U.S. Nationals in Washington, D.C., and World Championships in Chicago. Although Stone claims to have won 89 consecutive black belt matches, the record shows that he lost a grand championship match in the middle of his run, at the 1964 Western U.S. Karate Championships in Salt Lake City. (Stone won the heavyweight title, but was defeated by Dave Johnson in the grand championship play-off.)

The first genuine martial arts craze in America began in 1966, when Bruce Lee made his acting debut as Kato in the Green Hornet TV series. From Sept. 9, the weekly series remained on the air until Mar. 17,1967. There were 26 half-hour episodes, and reruns began in 1968. Although this series was short-lived, Lee's provocative kung-fu action in the show's numerous fight scenes stirred the public's imagination. Thousands of new students became involved in the martial arts. This development seemed to prove that the popularity and acceptance of the Asian martial arts was directly related to the degree of its exposure in the visual media.

The year 1966 marked the competitive debut of Joe Lewis, who had distinguished himself quickly, earning his black belt in Okinawa in a mere seven months. With just twenty-two months of training, Lewis entered his first tournament in 1966, Rhee's U.S. Nationals. He won the black belt championship, using one technique exclusively, the side kick Astonishingly, no opponent scored a single point against him. Demonstrating his versatility, Lewis also won the black belt kata championship.

During the late 1960s the number of karate tournaments swelled substantially on a state, regional, and especially, on the national level. Yet, as the sport grew, so did its problems. Promoters disagreed on rules and procedures; the sport suffered from a lack of unification and standardization, a problem that continues to plague it today.

These difficulties did not impede two rising tournament stars, both of whom became recognized world champions: Chuck Norris and Skipper Mullins.

After losing the 1966 Internationals grand championship to Allen Steen, Norris came back to win the grand title two years running, 1967 and 1968. He also won the grand title of the 1967 and 1968 Al1 American Karate Championships, produced by S Henry Cho in New York.

Norris was an innovator in combination techniques; until his arrival fighters usually delivered only one technique to score a point. After his victories combinations became standard in the sport.

Skipper Mullins, 6 feet, 150 Ibs., was heralded as the fastest kicker in karate. Many of his victories were the result of whiplike kicks, at a time when punchers dominated the tournament circuit. Mullins rose to prominence on lightweight and middleweight victories in the Al1 American Karate Championships, produced by Jack Hwang in Oklahoma City, and the Top 10 Championships. In one weekend in Feb 1967 Mullins fought in New York City on Friday, Dallas on Saturday, and Los Angeles on Sunday.

Norris and Mullins, with Mike Stone and Joe Lewis, the great karate champions of the 1960s-only Lewis continued competing into the 1970s

Team Competition In 1967, in New York City, team competition was introduced. The concept was originated by Aaron Banks, who became karate's most prolific promoter. Banks started the team competition format, producing the first team event of national caliber in 1968, the East Coast vs. West Coast Team Championships. The victorious West Coast contingent was represented by Joe Lewis, Steve Sanders, Chuck Norris, and Jerry Taylor. Representatives for the East Coast were Thomas LaPuppet, Joe Hayes, Kazuyoshi Tanaka, and Louis Delgado.

Team competition was soon adopted by karate promoters throughout the country. Banks also deserves credit for keeping sport karate flourishing in New York when others could not: from 1967 to 1975 his over 100 flamboyant productions gave regional exposure to aspiring East Coast competitors.

The Sport Turns Professional For five years, from 1963-68, sport karate had grown strictly on an amateur basis. In 1968 several promoters endeavored independently to add a professional dimension, offering prize money to victorious fighters and meeting the expenses of star names participating in the events.

In Feb. 1968 Jim Harrison staged the 1st World Professional Karate Championships (WPKC), the first of a string of tournaments to use this popular title. In principle, at least, this was the first professional tournament in the history of American karate. Harrison conducted the event in his Kansas City dojo, two days after Allen Steen's U.S. Championships in Dallas. Many top fighters were invited, but in view of Harrison's permissive rules, which endorsed heavy contact, only six fighters participated. They were: Joe Lewis, Bob Wall, Skipper Mullins, J. Pat Burleson, David Moon, and Fred Wren. Several fighters suffered broken ribs and noses and were forced to forfeit. Lewis won the title, becoming karate's first paid professional fighter when Harrison awarded him
the token sum of one dollar.

In Aug.1968 Robert Trias and Atlee Chittim produced the World's Hemisphere Karate Championships in San Antonio, Tex. The second professional karate promotion held in the U.S., this was the first to be conducted as a genuine tournament. Victor Moore of Ohio won the grand championship in a spirited battle with Joe Lewis and took a purse of $500. (Lewis also took away $500, a contract guarantee.)

The most important professional karate event of the decade was Aaron Banks' World Professional Karate Championship, produced on Nov.24, 1968, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. This invitational established four fighters as recognized world champions. In contrast to Harrison's event, each champion was paid $600. And Banks paid all of his ringside personnel, from officials to the announcer.

The champions were heavyweight Joe Lewis (over Victor Moore); light-heavyweight Mike Stone over Bob Taiani middleweight Chuck Norris (over Louis Delgado); and lightweight Skipper Mullins (over Kazuyoshi Tanaka). There were subsequent protests disputing the event's status as a legitimate world championship, in the sense that the contestants were predominantly American, but no one disputed the world-class skill of the four winners. (Only Norris returned in 1969 to defend-successfully-his title.)

Another karate competitor who made his bid for national prominence at this time was Ron Marchini of Stockton, Calif. He won Henry Cho's Tournament of Champions in 1968 in New York City, and then went on to distinguish himself as one of the top competitors of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Challenges to authority and inconsistent tournament regulations became the rule rather than the exception, though tournament planning was steadily improving. The amount of promiscuous contact in tournaments became a destructive issue, and injuries increased dramatically, often because of inexperienced and intimidated officials. Some believed the sport should encourage contact; others wanted contact barred.

Commercial karate came of age in 1969. Women and children flocked to the schools, as more and more instructors expanded classes to accommodate them.

In 1968, two influential martial artists, Jay T. Will, and Al Gene Caraulia established schools in Ohio. Will, a student of Ed Parker and Scott Loring, had relocated from San Jose, Calif., to Columbus, opening the very first Tracy's karate franchise in the U.S. Caraulia, the winner of Robert Trias' 1963 World Championships, had relocated to Cleveland from Chicago.

In 1969, Sok Ho Kang, a Korean Tae Kwon Do and World Champion, made his way to Huntington, West Virginia where he opened his first studio. In early 1970 he meet Danny Lane, a highly decorated U.S.Marine who had justed returned from Vietnam. Danny became a police officer and went on to become Master Kang's most famous student. Within 5 years Danny become one of Tae Kwon Do's top competitiors winning the 1975,76,77, U.S. Open Tae Kwon Do Championships after competing for years and walking in the shawdows Tae Kwon Do greats Joe Hayes, Mike Warren, Albert Cheeks, George
Thanos, Gerald Robbins, and many more. Master Kang took Danny to Korea in 1975 then only as a second degree black belt and put him up against the 6th and 7th degree masters in dozens of matches. Danny came out victorious in all the bouts which developed a stir and talk among the Tae Kwon Do community. Master Kang and Danny went on to open a sucessful chain of Tae Kwon Do Schools in the West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky area. Danny also turned to professional kickboxing where he was undefeated as a professional in the middleweight division and was rated in the top ten by PKA when
he retired. Danny started working out with Chuck Norris and in 1980 became one of his black belts. Danny returned to the ring in the 80's to win (6) Chuck Norris National UFAF Championships and again in the 90's as he won the 1994 National Ju-Jitsu Masters Championships. He still runs the same school that Master Kang opened in Huntington in 1970.

Until 1965 the Japanese styles had the largest following in the U S, but by 1967 Okinawan karate was attracting more students. In 1969, with the great influx of Korean immigrants, tae kwon do suddenly outdrew the others. More than ever before, practitioners were changing from one style to another. Consequently, interest in organizations and unification dwindled.

The Birth of Full-Contact Karate Joe Lewis objected to the unrealistic structure of noncontact karate, in which blows were to be pulled short of actual contact. Its nature was to score points without producing results-what Bruce Lee called "swimming on dry land." At the peak of Lewis' disenchantment, which had began as early as 1969, he started training with, and was influenced by, Bruce Lee and ranked heavyweight boxer Joey Orbill. He began training in various Los Angeles boxing gyms, with the intention of becoming a professional boxer.

In late 1969 Lewis was contacted by Los Angeles promoter Lee Faulkner, who was organizing a major noncontact team contest in which he wanted Lewis to participate. Lewis agreed on the condition that Faulkner permit him to fight also in a full-contact match. Faulkner agreed to promote the bout, but only if Lewis fought in the team event as well. Lewis searched frantically for a suitable opponent. After repeated rejections from top karate fighters, he found Greg Baines, a San Jose kenpo stylist, who agreed to meet Lewis under full-contact conditions

The bout, preceded by the U.S. Team Championship, took place on Jan. 17, 1970, at the Long Beach Sports Arena. Results of the contests were victories for Lewis, by a 2nd-round knockout, and for a West Coast team composed of Lewis, Mike Stone, Bob Wall, Chuck Norris, and Skipper Mullins. And, while the Lewis/Baines bout had been promoted as the "first full-contact" championship, during the fight itself the uninformed announcer inadvertently but repeatedly called it "American kick-boxing." The announcer's blunder caught on, and Lewis became known for having pioneered American kick-boxing. The term "full-contact karate" would not be used until several years later. In this its original form, full-contact karate survived for only a year; Lewis successfully defended his title during that year ten times, with no opponent lasting past the 2nd round. The Jan. 17 team bout also marked the last fight in Chuck Norris' brilliant competitive career.

Karate in the 1970s Pat Johnson of Sherman Oaks, Calif., a nationally respected tournament referee, originated the "penalty point" system for excessive contact in 1970. The "Johnson Ruling," as it was called by Karate Illustrated, essentially ended the uncontrolled "blood and guts era" of noncontact sport karate. Johnson's innovation, introduced at the National Black Belt Championships in Albuquerque, is used as a standard today in every U.S. karate tournament. Under this rule, competitors who make excessive contact forfeit one point; any degree of dangerous contact results in disqualification.

The year 1970 also marked the emergence of amateur sport karate on a truly international scale: 32 nations took part in the 1st WUKO World Karate Championships at Tokyo's Budokan. A conference held prior to the event had resulted in the name of World Union of Karate-do Organizations (WUKO). Qualification and participation rules, however, were ill-defined and the competition rules were those used by the Japanese. WUKO had no constitution or organizational rules covering the tournament. As such, Japan was permitted to have four teams competing and the U.S. three. Al1 other nations had one. The U.S. members had been selected by extensive negotiations among the principal U.S. Japanese karate stylists. The only nationally known U.S. member was Tonny Tulleners of Los Angeles; he won third place in individual fighting at the WUKO event.

The disorganization of the 1st WUKO World Championships was the chief reason for the eventual existence of two organizations governing international amateur karate: WUKO and the International Amateur Karate Federation (IAKF) with Los Angeles' Hidetaka Nishiyama the elected executive director as of 1974, when the association was formed. The struggle to organize international karate has engaged these two bodies since then. The goal is a worthy one: Olympic recognition and acceptance for the sport.

The AAKF resisted a move in 1973 by the AAU to relinquish its rights as the international karate representative of the U.S. in WUKO, and subsequently resigned its membership in the AAU. Afterwards, the AAU formed its own karate committee with Caylor Adkins, a student of Tsutomu Ohshima, named its first chairman. So bitter were the political conflicts that in 1976 Adkins dropped out of karate altogether and moved from Los Angeles to a farm in middle America.

In Thailand, its homeland, kick-boxing, or more properly, Muay Thai (Thai kick-boxing) was-and is-the national pastime. In America, however, it failed dismally. In 1971 American kick-boxing died almost as suddenly as it had begun. There was virtually no spectator support, and promoters were losing more money than ever before. Along with kick-boxing, professional karate, in its noncontact form, also died. Chuck Norris held perhaps the last important pro tournament of the initial era. His 2nd World Pro/Am Championships of 1971 attracted a large representation of top-rated fighters, but barely 1,000 spectators showed up at the spacious Los Angeles Sports Arena where it was staged.

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