Founder
of the American Karate System, Pat Burleson was born in Fort Worth, Texas
where he started boxing as a youngster, eventually going to the golden gloves
championships while still in high school. He joined the Navy in 1955, and
while stationed in Asia, he became a traveling boxing champion for the US
Navy, fighting at bases throughout the Pacific basin. This was his chance
to come in contact with the Asian Martial Arts. First, he learned the Wado-Ryu
style in Japan. Next, he trained with several schools of Karate and Chinese
boxing in Japan and Hong Kong, before he came back to the US in 1959. He
had already earned a red belt in Korean Tang Soo Do, and soon after had
the opportunity to meet other masters who were paving the way to the future
of Martial Arts in the US. One of his new friends was Allen R. Steen, a
brown belt under Tae Kwon Do pioneer Jhoon 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 a 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.
In 1963, when the 1st World Karate Championship was held in Chicago, Pat Burleson was there with a couple of friends, to witness the use of hands in a competition for the first time. “We went up there with only our kicks, he said later, but we dropped everyone we hit. After seeing the hand techniques, however, we went back to learn some punches…” In those days, there weren’t many tournaments in the US, and fighters had to travel over long distances to participate in one. Those were the years of the birth of the American Martial Arts. 1963 was the first year of the Southwest Karate Championships, sponsored by Allen Steen, and later to be renamed the United States Karate Championships. Burleson won the 1st National Karate Championships in 1964 in Washington D. C. He joined another big fighter at the time: Al Gene Caraulia, as the first nationally recognized champions in "American Karate". Burleson gained the nickname "the granddaddy" of the early tournament fighters. Next>>
