After Jhoon Rhee moved from Texas to Washington D.C. Allen Steen and Pat Burleson would become the
focus of Texas karate. While Rhee was the one who
planted the seed for karate in Texas, Steen was the tree
that grew from it. Even after Master Rhee moved, Steen
and Burleson provided him with top quality Texan black
belts that enabled Rhee to build his empire.
Allen Steen:
Allen Steen attended one of Rhee's demonstrations in
the fall of 1959. "He (Rhee) side kicked one of the
support beams in the gymnasium and cracked the veneer on
it all the way to the top - some 20 or 30 feet",
remembers Steen. Having done some boxing, this karate
looked like something Steen wanted to try. 90 percent of
the attendees that day signed up for the $5 a semester
classes.
Mr. Rhee was a third-degree black belt when he
arrived in the U.S. and in Korea first and second degree
black belts were not allowed to teach. Rhee had little
experience in teaching, but had a lot of experience in
military life having been a captain in the Korean Army,
so he ran his class like a military boot camp. "He was a
strict disciplinarian," stated Steen,"On every exercise
you wanted to quit, but Rhee would always get you to gut
out one more push-up or sit-up. We spent over two months
in basic stances before we did anything else. As a
result, I was a white belt for nine months."
During that time finances were tight for Steen and he
didn't have money do much of anything except go to his
classes and karate. He worked out everyday and built
himself up from 6 foot 2, 150 pounds to 200 pounds of
solid muscle. His competitiveness grew from karate and
would later help him in business. After he earned his
brown belt, Steen began to give private lessons when
ever he returned home to Dallas. After he graduated from
college, he moved back to Dallas and opened his first
karate school, The Jhoon Rhee Institute of Karate, in
June of 1962 close to Southern Methodist University.
Shortly after that he returned to Mr. Rhee and pasted a
grueling three hour exam to earn his black belt. Of the
original 184 students in Rhee's class, only 6 reached
this level of proficiency.
Steen would carry on his teachers tough tradition and
added additional tasks of his own to his test. He also
separated from Rhee and named his school the "Texas
Karate Institute". The Korean system of karate along
with the tough nature of Texans resulted in what was
known as "Blood-N- Guts Karate". Thus Steen developed a
reputation for excessive training methods and now admits
he was too rough on his students in those days.
In 1963 he held his first tournament that was to
become the prestigious United States Karate
Championships. He called it the Texas Karate
Championships that year and, as was the custom then, he
entered his tournament and won first place. His
tournament was one of the first open format where all
styles were welcomed. Over the years Steen's tournament
would grow to rival Ed Parker International Karate
Champions in Long Beach as the largest karate tournament
in the U.S. In 1964 his tournament attracted 133
contestants from 32 schools and drew 2,100 spectators.
In a classic match for 1st place in the black belt
division, Steen battled Keith See into multiple
overtimes before losing and settling for 2nd place. Mike
Stone swept the brown belt division. By 1973 Steen's
tournament had grown to the second largest in the U.S.
That year 1,047 competed and were watched by 8,000
spectators. A visionary, Steen was the first promoter to
have a women's division and team competitions.
In the 1960's Steen established himself as one of the
premier fighters in early American karate history. He
went on to win 30 major titles with his ferocity in the
ring that was matched be his athletic talent. He
defeated both Chuck Norris and Joe Louis on his way to
winning the Grand Championship in 1966 at Ed Parker's
prestigious Long Beach International Tournament. That
same year he was a member of the victorious U.S.
National Karate Team competing in Hawaii. Also in 1966
Black Belt Magazine rated him one of the top ten
fighters in the U.S. Steen's favorite fighting technique
was the skip up side kick and he would knock his
opponents out of the ring with it. In 1967 he retired
from competition.
Steen took bits and pieces of other fighting arts and
molded them into a uniquely American martial arts
system. It was at this time that many decided to call
this style "American Karate" or "American Tae Kwon Do".
At the height of his empire he ran 9 Texas Karate
Institutes and had interest in 20 others schools in the
southwest and in Europe. He produced some of the finest
black belts in the U.S. who started schools throughout
the country or were hired away by Jhoon Rhee to run his
karate schools. They include super fighters Pat
Burleson, Skipper Mullins, Mike Anderson, Fred Wren, and
Roy Kurban. They were a fighting Texas dynasty. Other
Steen black belts include Keith Yates, D.P. Hill,
Richard Jenkins,
Royce Young, James Toney, Mickey Fisher, Larry Caster,
Art Heller, Candy Simpson, his brother Mike Steen and
many more. Steen's students above produced another
generation of accomplished martial artists that includes
Walt Bone, James Butin, George Buckner, Phyllis Evetts,
Jim Harkins, Demetrius Havanas, Harold Gross, Larry
Ritchie, Chuck Loven, Ray McCallum, Jim & Jenice Miller,
George Minshew, Rick Vaughn, Jeff Smith, and Pat & John
Worley.
In 1967 Steen created the Southwest Karate Black Belt
Association. The Association grew so large and so
national that it no longer was really a “Southwest”?
association, but an American association. So in 1972 the
name was changed to the American Karate Black Belt
Association. It became one of the largest and most
dynamic martial arts associations in the world with over
10,000 members. He attempted to unite all the karate
organizations in the country with the blessing of Robert
Trias and the USKA, but was unsuccessful due mainly to
the egos involved.
Steen brought professionalism to karate schools as
his were first class. His innovations in the dojo
include wall to wall mats in the workout areas, saunas,
and glassed in offices. Steen became disillusioned with
the business of karate as unqualified $400.00 karate
schools began to pop on every corner. "A guy would go
out and paint the word "karate" on the side of a
building with water colors and open a dojo", he said
with disgust. "What's the use of opening one for
$400,000?" Some of his top black belts broke away from
him to open their own schools. This he took personally
but later realized that their emulation was a
compliment.
In 1976, after many years of successful karate school
chain ownership and operation, and successful tournament
promotion, Allen Steen started to look to other business
avenues, and went into the oil business. He began to
divest his vast holdings in the karate schools and
tournaments to various students and friends. Over the
years he has given private lessons to small groups of
students. The Texas Martial Arts Hall of Fame named
Steen "The Father of Texas" when he was enshrined. A
member of the Who's Who in the Martial Arts, Allen Steen
positive contributions to the art of karate continue to
be felt.
In April 2000 Allen Steen held the biggest karate
reunion every in the U.S. His "Allen
Steen Event Millennium Karate 2000" was attended by
many of the greatest martial artistes in American.
The competitive fire still burns in Grand Master Steen,
as he is a top rated world class competitive shotgun
shooter.
Grand Master
J. Pat Burleson :
Father and Founder of American Karate
The first black belt Allen Steen ever issued was to
J. Pat Burleson. Together they would team up to
dominate Texas karate as Steen's territory was the
Dallas area and Burleson's was Fort Worth. Mr. Burleson
began his martial arts training while in the Navy in
1957 in Japan. Having boxed as a youngster and competed
in the Golden Gloves Championships while in high school,
he became a boxing champion for the Navy. While
stationed in Iwakuni, Japan, his curiosity in the
fighting styles of the Orient lead him to begin studying
different fighting techniques. Mr. Burleson first
studied wado-ryu (meaning way of harmony) style of
karate. While in Asia he trained in several different
schools of karate and Chinese boxing. Returning to the
states to his hometown of Ft. Worth, Texas, Mr. Burleson
worked out with the few ex-servicemen he could find that
trained in Asia.
He had already earned his red belt in Korean tang soo
do when he met Allen Steen who was a brown belt under
Jhoon Rhee. Mr. Steen introduced Burleson to Mr. Rhee
and he traded in his red belt for one of Rhee's brown
belts as he joined Rhee's system. In 1963, three months
after Rhee promoted Steen to black belt, he awarded his
first black belt to Burleson.
In 1964 Master Rhee held the first U.S. National
Karate Championships in Washington D.C. which Mr.
Burleson won and became known as the 1st American Karate
Champion. As he was the first genuine star of the sport
Burleson was also known as the Grandfather of tournament
karate. Mr. Burleson was rightfully feared on the karate
tournament circuit and won many more national titles. In
1965 he won the Texas State Championship and the
Southwest Karate Grand Championship. In 1966 he won the
Open Championships in Oklahoma City and the U.S.
Championships in Dallas.
Mr. Burleson retired in 1966 from the tournament
circuit due to a serious knee injury he suffered,
ironically, while fighting against Mr. Steen in a
tournament. During the match Mr. Burleson blew out his
knee but refused to bow out, insisting he would finish
the match. As the match was restarted Burleson had to
stand on his one good leg. Steen showed no mercy as he
flew across the ring and nailed him with his trade mark
side kick that knocked Burleson out of the ring. That is
the only way either of these warriors would have had it.
In the early days of karate, Texas was known as the home
of "Blood and Guts karate", and was the toughest place
to train and compete. Partly due to the rough nature of
Texans and partly due to the rough nature of Steen and
Burleson, they developed painfully long and hard belt
exams and hard tournaments. It was not uncommon in those
days for a cowboy to walk into the dojo and call out the
instructor to a fight. Mr. Burleson made sure each of
these doubters became converted to the validity of
karate when they regained consciousness. Burleson and
Steen made sure their black belts would be able to
continue proving that their martial arts worked.
Mr. Burleson created the "belt-goal" karate system in
1964 that is used in the American Karate System. Before
his system most schools had only white, brown and black
belt ranking. The introduction of color belts in his
system has resulted in the increase of the number
of karate students and increased retention.
As a sensei, Mr. Burleson has produced accomplished
martial artists that include James Butin, Phyllis Evetts,
Chuck Loven, Larry Ritchie, Ron Moffett, Steve Stavroff,
George Minshew, Billy Watson, and Pam Watson. As a
promoter he produced the Texas State Championships and
the Tournament of Champions. He recently promoted the
Legends Tournament in Ft. Worth and is a highly regarded
referee. His acquaintances in the martial arts are a
virtual who's who that include the late Bruce Lee, Chuck
Norris, Joe Lewis, Bob Wall, Jim Harrison and many more.
A member of the Who's Who in the Martial Arts,
and a recipient of two Karate Hall of Fame awards. In
the late 1970's Mr. Burleson moved from Texas but
returned to his roots in the late 1980's. Mr. Burleson
still teaches karate at his school in Ft. Worth. He
conducts self defense seminars and special classes that
in the past have ranged from working with airline
stewardesses to law enforcement personnel. Mr. Burleson
is also a highly sought out keynote speaker. In 1997 he
was elected into the Texas Martial Arts Hall of Fame.
Grand Master Burleson makes regular appearances on Chuck
Norris's television show, "Walker Texas Ranger"
It is easy to estimate that more than half the
current karate schools in Texas can trace their roots
back to Mr. Steen and Mr. Burleson.
