Gary I’ve been trying to remember the name of the young BYU Judoka who tried to teach me the basics of judo . I couldn't remember Howard Shirtleff's last name... the picture brought it back...thank you. I never saw the Judo team practice. On a few occasions “Howie” tried to teach me some mechanics but I didn’t have the time to devote to the gentle art. Ed Parker did NOT intermingle Kenpo and judo. I find it interesting that in the attached article there is a picture of the Judo Club above which there is a picture of Ed Parker's first Kenpo patch. Are we to imply that they were one and the same? No, that doesn't make sense, because there are a good number of Haoles on the Judo team. Is the fact that the Judo club was formed in 1955 supposed to lead us to the conclusion that Kenpo was not taught at BYU before that? It's a laughable implication ...lousy logic and deliberately misleading.
Why, you might ask, does Will Tracy try to manipulate history to prove a point of which he has no first hand knowledge? He wasn’t there. His history with Ed Parker doesn’t even begin until Ed moved to California. Even then, the little I’ve read of his tortured history seems to involve his attempts at tearing down the reputation of the man who gave him his start in the Martial Arts. Why? Tearing down Ed Parker doesn’t build Will Tracy Up...does it? But then, what do I know, I’m just a country boy.
For the record, there were two basket ball half time exhibitions, one in winter of 1954 and the more famous one at the UCLA game. What evidence can I offer?
FIRST, I was a green as grass freshman in 1954. The whole college experience was brand new to me. The Smith Field House and the crowd at the game was the biggest sporting event I had ever seen in my life. It made a huge impression. I was the youngest, the “little brother” of a group of guys who came from Norther California to attend BYU. There is NO WAY we would have forgone the basket ball home games our first year there. That demonstration absolutely blew us away!
SECOND, there were specific differences in the two demonstrations. Perhaps someone who was there will remember those differences: In the first game, when it came to the breaking portion of the demo Ed effortlessly broke the two boards held in place by two men...it looked almost too easy. At the UCLA game it was totally different. Ed hit the boards once and the sound of that “THWAK” rang through the field house and you could see people shudder. He hit them again...nothing but pain. Everyone watching felt the pain. The third time they broke...of course. Years later I asked about that and was counseled that...”if you make it look too easy there is no value to the demonstration.” Not long after that, breaking was largely discarded with the following bits of wisdom: 1.) ...when breaking is the featured part of a demonstration that’s all people tend to remember; and 2.)...boards and bricks don’t fight back.
THIRD, as to the statement in “Inside Elvis,” That book was written in my home in Lake Forest California. Ed lived in my home for thirty days where we worked together to meet the publisher’s deadline. The experiences were Ed’s. He would recount them to me, I would convert them into prose. I have stated previously that the reference to the first basketball exhibition got dropped in proofreading. My fault, mia culpa! It doesn’t change the facts. Will wasn’t there. He wasn’t at BYU in 1954 and he wasn’t at my home when “Inside Elvis was written; but that doesn’t stop him from distorting the facts. Why? I don’t think even Will knows.
Finally, When I opened the school across from Sears in 1958/ 1959, you have to ask yourself this question, would Ed Parker have looked the other way while an unqualified instructor operated a school in ins name? Would he have visited that school repeatedly and promoted a fraud? Would he have met there and allowed the IKKA to have been formed by a self promoted wannabe? Would he have waived his own rule that a Black Belt had to be 18 when he saw 16 year old Casey Clayton (whom I trained) perform and elevated him to be the youngest Black Belt in the history of the system?
I didn’t create a system so I could promote myself. I haven’t claimed rank I wasn’t awarded by the head of the system in which I was trained. I haven’t tried to destroy the reputation of the man I called teacher; and more importantly called, “friend.” I haven’t tried to rewrite history to build myself or my kin in the eyes of others. In fact, I consider the whole matter to be a monumental boor. Rhet Butler put it best,...”Frankly my dear, I don’t give a dam.”