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PAT BURLESON
American Karate System
Pat Burleson, founder of the American Karate system
holds a 10th degree black belt. Pat began his study of the
martial arts in Japan in 1957, a competition career in 1963. In
addition to regional championships, he claimed the first US National
Championship in Washington D.C. in 1964.
Pat started boxing as a youngster, eventually going to the golden gloves championships
while still in high school. He joined the Navy in 1955 to "see the
world" and while stationed in Asia this stocky seaman became a traveling
boxing champion for the USN, fighting at bases throughout the Pacific basin.
Being a fighter from the United States, he naturally came in contact with the
fighting arts of the Orient. His original martial arts training came in
the wado-ryu style in 1957 in Iwakuni, Japan. Burleson trained with several
schools of karate and Chinese boxing in Japan and Hong Kong before he
came back to the states in 1959.
Settling back into his hometown of Fort Worth,
Texas, Burleson worked out with the few other ex-servicemen that
he could find that had trained in Asia. He had already earned
a red belt in Korean tang soo do when he was introduced to Dallasite
Allen R. Steen. "Allen was a senior to me and I can definitely
remember that his abilities were better than mine at the time" says
Burleson.
Steen was a brown belt under tae kwon do pioneer Jhoon Rhee and was eager for
his new friend to meet Mr. Rhee. "He [Rhee] was very open to letting me
work out with his group," recalls Burleson, "although he wanted me
to change my red belt to brown belt for his system." Steen made his black
belt in the summer of 1963 and three months later Burleson himself was promoted
to 1st-degree black belt.
When Rhee moved to Washington D.C., Steen and Burleson took over the reigns
as the fathers of karate in the Southwest. "In my opinion the American
system of martial arts really started in two places in this country," says
Burleson, "in Chicago and in Dallas/Ft. Worth. It spread quickly
from there to place like Los Angeles and New York, but the real beginnings
were in those two places.
In 1963 the 1st World Karate Championship was help in Chicago, jointly
sponsored by Robert Trias and the late John Keehan (aka "Count Dante"). "AlGene
Caraulia won it as a brown belt," Burleson states. "Allen was
there, myself, Jim Harrison and a few others. In those days there were
no belt division; in fact, no rules to speak of. That first time in Chicago
you saw the marriage of kicking and punching. We went up there with only
our kicks, but we dropped everyone we hit. After seeing the hand techniques
on those guys, however, we went back to learn some punches.
"Ed Parker is a good example of that type of thinking," says Burleson." He
and his bunch [from California] were at Chicago and they couldn't kick over knee
high, but they went back and worked and six months later they were doing head
kicks." Burleson maintains that the birth of American martial arts
came in 1963 in Chicago. "We started to integrate right there."
There weren't very many tournaments in those days. Fighters had to travel all
over the country if they wanted to compete in the handful that were available. 1963
was the first year of the Southwest Karate Championships, sponsored by Steen,
and later to be renamed the United States Karate Championships. Ed Parker held his first International Karate
Championships in 1964. "The people to beat at those first few tournaments
were the Chicago/East coast fighters and the Dallas/Ft. Worth people." remembers
Burleson.
Indeed, it was Burleson himself who won the 1st National Karate
Championships in 1964 in Washington D. C., held by Jhoon Rhee. Burleson joined
AlGene Caraulia, who later taught out of Cleveland Ohio, as the first nationally
recognized champions in "American Karate". Burleson, in fact, gained
the nickname "the granddaddy" of the early tournament fighters. Jhoon
Rhee remembers how proud he was that one of his own students would win his
very first tournament.
In spite of his own reputation, Burleson says that the three top fighters of
that period were Allen Steen, Mike Stone, and Jim Harrison. "They were
totally awesome," claims Burleson, "Because if you didn't defend
yourself against these three you could be seriously crippled for life. A lot
of guys were intimidated by them and didn't fight that kind of fight, but if
you intended on beating them then it turned into a life or death thing."
"As I said, there were no rules in those days," remembers Burleson. "The
rules in those days were kind of made up in those first few tournaments. And
they were quasi-rules at that. That was the terrifying part--anything could
happen."
This period of competition is justifiably called the "Blood-'n'-Guts Era" of
American martial arts. Although the rules stated certain grounds for
disqualification most competitors and officials alike ignored them. Fighters
were constantly kicked out of the rings. Broken bones and the drawing
of blood were commonplace.
"I loved it when the hand and foot pads finally came out because I had something
constantly broken on me." says Burleson. "I always had hands and feet,
and toes on both sides broken while I was competing. When I fought without
the equipment all those years you wondered not only if you were going to be knocked
out, but if your were going to be cut and scarred for life. Each punch and kick
had the capability to do permanent damage to you. Today the worst that's
going to happen to you is you're going to be knocked out."
When comparing the competitors of today to the
early karate fighters Burleson says it's like asking if modern
boxers could compete with the bare-knuckled brawlers of the past
such as John L. Sullivan. "I think the people who fought bare-knuckled
boxing were meaner and tougher than boxers of today," says
this old boxer. "And it's the same way in karate. I consider
the people I fought bare-knuckled much meaner than anything I've
seen lately, although technique-wise, I'll admit there's no comparison.
these new fighters are far superior to us."
"You know, I've been criticized, along with
some other people, for teaching the fighting aspects of the martial
art too harshly. And we did. But it's easy for someone opening
up a school today to say that someone like Allen Steen or myself
were barbarous in or hard fighting methods. It's easy for that
person to go and open a karate school in North Dallas and nobody
will question them as to whether or not karate will work. The reason
is that we greased the rails for them. We created the respect for
the martial arts in this country by proving that it worked," says
Burleson.
"Today most instructors don't have
to worry about some cowboy coming in and challenging them, saying
'Let's see if your karate really works, black belt!' I've
forgotten how many people I've literally kicked out of my school
who've challenged me. We didn't have any other option than
to show the public that the martial arts worked." maintains
Burleson. "Americans had never heard of karate. They
only knew the mystical aspects of it. We took it out of that
realm and made it an effective fighting method. That was
part of martial art's evolution in America. And that's why we did
what we did."
"But," adds Burleson, "in doing that we neglected 90% of the character
building aspects that go with it. We were so busy fighting and showing
that it worked that we neglected the emphasis the true martial spirit and
the mental aspects that go with it. But I'm proud of what we've done in this
country. We've pioneered a rugged art, one that's respected anywhere in
the world. I hope that we are now coming a full-circle and emphasizing
the philosophies that should go along with any martial art, even an American
one."
"You have got to be flexible," Burleson point out. "Robert Trias
has the largest organization in the world [The United States Karate Association]
and he did it by being flexible. Originally he let some guys in that I thought
were weenies, but in retrospect he did the right thing. Look at Los Angeles'
Hidetaka Nishiyama. He wouldn't accept anyone who didn't do it his way and
now look at him. I've changed and am trying to present the martial arts
in a positive light," Burleson says. "Even though I've seen it, I know
a lot of my old head-knocking buddies haven't. They are still where I was
years ago."
For more information:
J. Pat Burleson
460 Reese Loop
Azle, Texas 76020
Phone: (817) 448-9877
Fax: (817) 448-9878
E-mail: karate1@swbell.net
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