Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Orange Rank is the next step on the path to obtaining a 1st Degree Black Rank in the Zimmerman Self-Defense System. You will continue to learn new techniques and start to figure out what you are naturally good at and what you need to work on more. Orange and Green Ranks sometimes trouble students because the novelty of training in
William T.”Willie” Egan took over “Egan’s Rats” on the death of his older brother Tom in 1919. Thomas “Snake” Kinney and his childhood friend and brother-in-law Tom Egan formed St. Louis’ criminal organization in the late 1800s. Both Kinney and Tom Egan were saloon keepers and Democratic politicians. They employed “the Rats” for political slugging and other criminal activities. Thomas
On July 26, 1854, the bare knuckle champion John Morrissey met occasional bare knuckle fighter William Poole in a no rules street brawl. What followed would be the worst five minutes of John Morrissey’s life. On October 23, 1853, the 22-year-old Morrissey beat Yankee Sullivan for the world bare knuckle championship in a disputed decision. Sullivan actually knocked Morrissey out
Sam Hill, a Seattle businessman, brought Professor Yoshiaki Yamashita to the United States in 1902. Professor Yamashita intended to help spread Dr. Jigoro Kano’s relatively new martial art of Judo. Accompanying Professor Yamashita was his student Mitsuyo Maeda. Maeda would go on to teach Carlos Gracie in Brazil. The Gracies modified the techniques into the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Over
I first read about William Muldoon in a biography of John L. Sullivan, the last bare knuckle heavyweight champion. Sullivan ushered in gloved boxing by refusing to take part in any more bare knuckle bouts. The last major bare knuckle bout was fought by Sullivan against Jake Kilrain in 1889. Odds were against Sullivan, a binge drinker indulging heavily between bouts. He was
On Thursday night, May 31, 1900, Albert Koenig, a strike sympathizer with a history of mental illness, shot and killed Patrolman Dennis Crane. Patrolman Crane and several other officers responded to the area due to reports of Koenig menacing other citizens. Koenig entered Eas and Sons Saloon at the southwest corner of S. Broadway and Osage Streets. Koenig may have
The 1900 St. Louis Streetcar Strike was a shooting war between the working class and the upper class. It started as a job action by streetcar workers of the newly consolidated streetcar lines. However, it quickly divided the city with the working class supporting the strike while the upper and professional classes defied the strike. The result was a deadly
When I was growing up, I often heard Grandma Ellis, Alvina M. Mosblech Ellis, talk about her two lost sisters. She lost her oldest sister Margaret and her little sister Loretta before her 40th birthday. Margaret B. Mosblech was the first of fourteen children born to Eduard and Magdalena Mosblech. Great Aunt Margaret was born on June 10, 1908. As
Spike TV began to broadcast a show that would put mixed martial arts on the mainstream map. 16 fighters lived in a house and competed in a tournament to see which two fighters would win a six figure UFC contract. The Ultimate Fighter would change television and the UFC for good. At one point during the Finale, ten million households
Jack Johnson has always been a tough subject for me. I admire his courage and strength in confronting hatred and bigotry in a time when doing so put his life in danger. He refused to conform and accept a position of inferiority to white Americans. Yet, like many human beings he was a flawed man. He beat his first wife