Jhoon Rhee
Who Else Remembers Grandmaster Allen Steen, The Father Of Texas ‘Blood And Guts’ Taekwondo Karate?
Just a week ago I spent time with friends in the Lone Star State.
For those of you not familiar with the term, I’m talking about Texas.
What comes to mind for a lot of people when referring to Texas might be cowboys, longhorns, oil, football (American, of course!), BBQ, …..
I have to admit that I thought of some of that, too.
But visiting Dallas this time somehow got me thinking of the first American to receive his Black Belt from the founder of Taekwondo in the U.S., Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee, who had come to Austin, Texas, way back in the late 50s to pursue his college studies. The year was 1957 to be exact.
In 1959, Allen Steen started his karate training under Jhoon Rhee and just 3 years later as brown belt he opened up the first storefront dojo in Dallas.
In 1962, he was promoted and became Jhoon Rhee’s first American Black Belt.
What followed, is nothing short of shock and awe in Texas, the U.S. Southwest and beyond.
Grandmaster Allen Steen is remembered for creating a very aggressive fighting style that was very rough and tough. We’re talking about bare knuckle fighting competition, years before Jhoon Rhee launched his Safe-T protective gear.
In 1966, Allen Steen left a path of destruction at Ed Parker’s International Karate Championships in Long Beach, California, by beating even Joe Lewis and Chuck Norris both on the same day.
I found a video clip of his fight against Chuck Norris that I would like to share with you at the bottom of this post. Hope you like it.
Besides being an extremely successful competitor himself, Allen Steen trained together with his first Black Belt student J. Pat Burleson and surrounded himself with other very dedicated students who went on to become champions in their own right.
Some of the names that I still remember from devouring martial arts magazines way back in the day are Skipper Mullins, Fred Wren, Demetrius “The Greek” Havanas, Roy Kurban, just to list a few.
Allen Steen further impacted American and Texas Karate by opening countless dojos and promoting tournaments of which one has truly stood out over the years.
Originally known as the Southwest Karate Championships, the tournament name was later changed to the United States Karate Championships and became THE karate tournament on the second weekend in February.
I will add that Allen Steen handed over the karate business affairs to his trusted aides and friends years ago to move on to other business ventures, but his impact is felt even today.
I also stumbled across something that might interest you which is what it took to get a Black Belt from Grandmaster Allen Steen:
He expected technical perfection with a “No Quit” attitude.
After a grueling performance of basic techniques, katas and heavy warm-up fights, the student had to go up against one tough Black Belt fighter after another. Many of these guys were accomplished National Champions!
Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse: You were then challenged by 2, then 4, and finally even 8 fighters, all at the same time.
But we did say “No Quit” attitude, right?!
And even if one survived the “punishment”, Allen Steen would only put his signature on the certificate if one met his technical standards.
Let that sink in for a while.
Anyway, here’s the clip I promised. Enjoy!
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TKD Gold Medalist Dana Hee And Change “I Can’t” To “I Can”
I am pretty sure that most of you will agree that the Korean martial art of Taekwondo is one of the most popoular and well-known styles.
Interesting to me is the fact that it was not really developed and introduced until after WWII ended in 1945. That’s not that long ago.
While Japan was occupying their country for decades, Koreans were not allowed to practice martial arts. Except only when in service for the Japanese military.
After the war, that all changed for countless individuals striving to improve themselves through Korean martial arts and Taekwondo in specific.
Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee as well as many other Korean instructors and former U.S. military service members returning from the Far East paved the way for Taekwondo to widespread acceptance, especially in the United States.
Another boost for Taekwondo in the U.S. certainly took place in the realm of the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea.
And our featured martial artist today, Dana Hee, played a pivotal role.
Some of you reading this post might not be old enough or you simply did not follow the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul to the degree to remember her name.
Let me share some very intriguing insights about Dana Hee and what an inspiration she was then and still is today.
Dana was born in 1961 in Louisiana and based on what I found out about Dana, she had to endure a rather crappy childhood, to say the least.
Growing up with divorced and alcoholic parents, Dana had to go through what no child should experience, namely despair, abuse and being abandoned.
Over years, Dana was passed between orphanage, suicidal family members, halfway houses, and finally a foster home.
As you can probably imagine that took its toll on her self-esteem and led to a major fear of failure.
At the age of 25 and way too many years of having been programmed with the “I Can’t” mindset and running from her fears, Dana was finally able to make a decision to commit to change her life forever.
Through her agonizing, against-all-odds process of this struggle, Dana Hee transformed from the young woman with low or no self-esteem in a such profound way that changed “I Can’t” to “I Can”.
Dana trained vigorously and competed for several years, pushing past her self-doubts and fear of failure to finally win the Olympic Gold Medal on the U.S Olympic Taekwondo Team that consisted of 8 men and 8 women. Team USA Taekwondo won another 3 gold medals in Seoul.
I will add that Takewondo was a demonstration sport in Seoul and became an official Olympic discipline in 2000 in Sydney.
After her Olympic success, Dana has moved on to become a leading Hollywood stuntwoman and double for leading actresses including Nicole Kidman, Uma Thurman, Gwynneth Paltrow, Renee Russo, and Jennifer Garner in big budget movies such as Independence Day, Terminator III, Charlie’s Angels, Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, Demolition Man, Lethal Weapon 4, Swordfish, The Long Kiss Goodnight, plus an ongoing list of television shows like Star Trek Voyager, The Pretender, VIP, and the X-Files.
With her life experience and unwavering persistence to succeed Dana Hee is high in demand as a motivational speaker for dozens of clients including Hewlett Packard, IBM, United Way, and United Airlines.
I would like to leave you with a quote by Henry Ford:
“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right. ”
Jhoon Rhee, Taekwondo Grandmaster And National Treasure
Back in the day or should I rather say in the late 70s, when I was actively practicing Shotokan karate, some of my buddies and I would go check out Taekwondo schools on our “off” days.
But there never were any real “off” days, because we were just so karate-crazy. Can any of you relate?
I must say that we picked up some great ideas about improving our own kicking abilities on those “off” days by thinking and looking outside the box.
Then came the phase of incorporating contact in our sparring sessions.
And what a blessing it was when I stumbled across information in some martial arts magazine that Jhoon Rhee had developed Safe-T-equipment in 1972 which absolutely revolutionized karate training and tournaments not only in the U.S. but worldwide.
It sure did for us after we got the large box full of equipment. This must have been in 1979 or so. But here I go dating myself again.
And would you believe that I still have my set of Safe-T’s. I kid you not!
Jhoon Rhee, who is now 77 years young and a 10th dan in Taekwondo, did more than just that:
After leaving Korea and coming to the U.S. in 1956 he successfully promoted Taekwondo on such a grand scale that he is today widely recognized as the Father of American Taekwondo.
Due to his countless activities, especially in the Washington DC area, promoting overall fitness and American values at their best, Jhoon Rhee was referred to by Congressman Ike Skelton as a “national treasure”.
Jhoon Rhee and Bruce Lee became friends in the 60s and learned quite a bit from each other.
According to Linda Lee Cadwell they had a very close and respectful teacher – teacher relationship.
Bruce taught him how to much punch and Jhoon taught Bruce how to kick.
They exchanged letters (that’s what people used to do before email and twitter!).
During the late 60s, Jhoon Rhee’s self-defense classes became the talk of the town in the DC area after this TV commercial that people still talk about today:
Jhoon Rhee also showed Muhammad Ali, aka “The Greatest” a thing or two about punching:
Even at the age of 77, Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee is still as active as ever, working out on a daily basis which he hasn’t missed in twenty years and getting in his 100 push-ups per day.
Thank You, Jhoon Rhee, for your never ending inspiration!
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