Theodore Roosevelt served as the twenty-sixth President of the United States from 1901 to 1909. TR is famous for the “Strenuous Life”. He practiced boxing and wrestling through his twenties and thirties. What is not as widely known is that he practiced Judo around 1904, when he was in his mid-40s. Roosevelt would eventually earn a brown belt in Judo. Yoshiaki […]
» Read more
On July 2, 1921, Jack Dempsey fought Georges Carpentier in professional boxing’s first million dollar gate. Dempsey won the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship almost exactly two years earlier on July 4, 1919. Dempsey brutally knocked Jess Willard around the ring in a one-sided massacre. Dempsey, known as the Manassa Mauler, proved a dominating champion. In hopes of attracting a large […]
» Read more
At one point before I bought my own house, I thought home repairs were one of my skills. I helped my grandfather, Gilbert Ellis, make repairs to our house and the flat he lived in. Grandpa Ellis taught me how to replace electrical outlets, washers on sinks and build lots of things with wood. I put together lots of prefabricated […]
» Read more
The Tuesday Evening, February 18, 1919, edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch detailed the arrest of two men and two women for the theft of numerous luxury items. Aware that a shoplifting ring was working a couple of the local jewelry stores, the St. Louis Police Department assigned several undercover police women to follow the suspects. Their work resulted in the […]
» Read more
One of the things that impressed me about the Gracies is how they were able to turn out generation after generation of top-notch instructors. After reading articles about their original belt system, etc., I started to adapt their methods with our own students. Once the student reaches Green Belt, we allow them to start helping occasionally. They usually achieve this […]
» Read more
The deadliest incident in St. Louis Police history was not a shootout, natural disaster, or act of terrorism. The deadliest incident in St. Louis Police history occurred on the night of Monday, September 3, 1900. Electricity was the assailant as a power line with 3300 volts of electricity fell onto the telephone lines, at Eight Street and Carr Avenue. The […]
» Read more
One of the best things about martial arts and Taekwondo is the ability for fathers, mothers, children, grandchildren, and other family members to train together. You develop a mutual interest that you cannot replicate by sitting in the stands watching your children play baseball, soccer, etc. Besides training with all three kids and my wife, who trained for six months […]
» Read more
In April 1997, I took my daughter Caitlin, who was three years old, to the St. Louis Zoo. I subtitled the trip, “How to Leave the House with $25.00 and Come Home with $0.75.” In the late 1990s, the St. Louis Zoo had a travelling exhibit of the albino alligator. Caity really wanted to see it, so I took her […]
» Read more
Max Linder (1883-1925) built the Pathe’ Film Studio in the early 1900s. Linder’s comedy influenced Charles Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. Linder is largely unknown today because his biggest film successes were in the 1910s. Also, the majority of his films are considered lost. Film fans today have the benefit of resources like the Internet Archive, which has a […]
» Read more
Huo Yuanjia was a real-life hero, who inspired mythic tales about his life. His life and exploits have been the basis of films starring Bruce Lee and Jet Li. The real Huo Yuanjia defeated foreign fighters when other countries were exploiting China in the late 1800s and early 1900s. His exploits were a source of pride at a time when […]
» Read more