Attn: Hawk

[Badger]

During your Karate/Kick-boxing days did you know or train with any of the Martial Artists in North Texas(The Greek,Billye Jackson,Allen Steen,Mike Proctor)?

Also,do you have some cool stories from those days?





Badger

[Hawk]

Badger,
I knew them all very well, except Mike Proctor, and fought on the same FC team with Demetrius. Allen Steen was Greek's instructor and a great fighter in his own right. In fact, Allen was the only person I know of that defeated both Chuck Norris & Joe Lewis on the same day. It happen in 1966 at the Long Beach Internationals. Billye J. was a student of Greek & Ray McCallum and a great FC and tournament fighter. He hit it big a little after I retired. I was there when he fought and defeated Benny the Jet in an over the weight match that ended up causing a ton of controversy. Benny said it was an exhibition, however that wasn't the understanding we had. It was billed as a fight and Billye thought that when he stepped into the ring. No doubt he defeated Benny that day. Billy was no.1 contender as a Welter for awhile, but lost his only bid for the title as I recall. He fought the "Million Dollar Man" (Don't recall his name) about 2 years after I fought Ross Scott for the world title. Back at that time, 60s & 70s, Steen, Pat Burleson, Roy Kurban, Demetrius, D.P.Hill, "Radar Smith, Ray McCallum, Louis Arnold, Ish Robles, and Myself were on top in Texas. Steen & Burleson in the 60s, Kurban,Greek, Louis, and me in the 70s, Radar, Ish & Raymond in both 70s & 80s. There were quite a few others and some I left out like Glenn McMorris & Jim Miller were considered Louisiana fighters as much as Texas fighters, as were Radar & myself. Demetrius was killed in a plane crash in '81 or he'd have been a World Champion. Radar died of cancer in the early '90s. I know a ton of stories, and maybe I'll run some down now & then. Appreciate you asking.
Hawk

[Aloha From Hell]

Interesting.

Thanks for the history lesson Hawk!

[SweepEm]

Damn interesting story Hawk.

Come on, tell some more, we can use some more tid bits that you have stored away.

Some to many of the young dudes here might not appreciate them, but I do. Seems that now days, respect isn't always taught to the students like it was just a few years ago.

Part of martial arts is to learn the philosophy of humility, patience and the ability to be gracious without an ego.

[Badger]

Hawk-Very Cool!

That is the group I started with in Martial Arts in the early 80's(just a little after the Greek died & before "McDojo"s started popping up everywhere).
Mike Proctor(a Black Belt of Allen Steen who trained with the Greek)was my 1st instructor.Billye Jackson used to come to our school & spar with all of us(and thankfully not kill us).

It's too bad someone as talented as Benny the Jet can't admit when he has been beat(by Billye or Rorion).


BTW,Do you still teach Karate/Kick-boxing?




Badger

[Hawk]

Badger,
I teach very little Karate or Kickboxing because of my
knees. GJJ/BJJ came around for me just as my right knee pretty much went south as far as kicking is concerned. That was at the end of '93. One of the old stories I'll tell since I got a little time ya'll might enjoy. Ernest "Radar"
Smith, one of two people I refer to as my instructor, and I
headed for New Orleans in '74 where Jim Miller was hosting a regional tournament for Official Karate Magazine. When the smoke had cleared the three guys left in the Heavyweight Division were Radar, Me, and Dan Smith, an excellent tournament fighter out of Mississippi. Radar drew a bye so it was Dan & I to fight. We were all friends, but also very much wanting to win. The score was 2-2 and Dan rushed me and I nailed him with a ridgehand and all the flags went up. I turned knowing I had won & Dan hit me in the back of the head. I turned and about the time I hit Dan
on the left side, Radar hit him on the right. Poor old Dan went down like a rock. When all the yelling and screaming finished up, the decision was we were all three disqualified which really stirred up a bunch of ****.
What it amounted to was we flipped for 1st, 2nd, & 3rd.
Guess who got 3rd? Radar got first and Dan got 2nd. We asked Dan why he did that later and he didn't remember doing it.
It looked like a cartoon cause Radar and I hit him at exactly the same time. Its funny now, it wasn't so funny then.
Hawk

[SweepEm]

Damn good story.

Now tell us another one!
HA!

Man, that sucks that by a flip of a coin, you got 3rd.
sucker punching should have been the worst offense, you were defending yourself, Ernest was on the side lines and shouldn't have been involved.
Since I wasn't there, hard to say what was going on, but should have been you getting 1st and the other two flipped a coin for 2nd and 3rd.
Hawk, you got robbed.

[Hawk]

Thanks Sweep,
The thing was Radar and I were very protective of each other. You're right, he should have stayed out, but there were times I did the same when someone tried to take advantage of him. We were just that close. Ernest & I wouldn't have ever fought, however he was a much better tournament fighter then me and it was vice-versa in FC. In that I was better then him. Its hard to explain, but none of us were that bothered by the result. However, 1st is always better then 3rd.
Hawk