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The Asian martial arts began in the U.S. in the early 1960s. The first of these Asian combatives that Americans trained in was Judo, a fighting system that the Japanese Jiu Jitsu master Jigoro Kano formulated in the late 1800s. For many years, Judo was the most common Asian martial arts that was practiced in the U.S. In 1946, thanks to Robert Trias, Karate was introduced to the American public, and within a few years, it became the leading martial art. By the mid-1960s, the Korean martial art of Taekwondo began to be widely practiced, followed by Kung Fu, and later numerous other martial arts followed, such as Aikido, Ninjutsu, Brazilian Ju-jitsu, and even Brazilian Capoeira had a following. Generally, almost everyone studied a specific martial art, rarely changing styles. But in time, the concept of mixing the systems began to take shape, and mixed martial arts was born.

When Brazilian Ju-jitsu became widely practiced, many Karate students suddenly realized that their skills on the ground. were inadequate, and suddenly a large number began training in the grappling arts. When Karate became a major sport, many students felt that its practical street application was no longer adequate in a real fight, so systems like Krav Maga, which mixed numerous martial arts, became popular. The reason was it made more sense to mix various systems into a practical self-defense art when, realistically, most people enrolled in a dojo to learn to defend themselves.

Today, mixed martial arts is widely practiced, and if you ask a number of well-known martial artists who was the father of mixed martial arts in America, most give credit to Bruce Lee. Others claim it was Gene LeBell. Some even feel it was Joe Lewis who became a kickboxing legend. Surprisingly, the name Bruce Tegner never comes up. Yet as early as 1952, Tegner was already teaching a system called Jukado, a martial art that combined Judo, Karate, Ju-jitsu, and Aikido into a mixed martial art that was practical for the street and yet was practiced as an Asian martial art with belt rankings and with many of the traditions practiced in most dojos.

Tegner was born in 1929 in the Chicago area to parents who were well-known black belts in Judo and Jujitsu and owned a large Judo club. He began his martial arts training at a very young age in Judo. Over the years, having access to top senseis due to his parents’ involvement in the arts, he also studied Ju-jitsu, Aikido, Karate, as well as Japanese sword and stick fighting. He even trained with a leading instructor in Savate, a French foot fighting style.

By the time he reached his early 20s, he was already teaching martial arts. When he moved to Los Angeles in the late 1940s, he opened his own dojo in Hollywood where he taught classical martial arts, but soon realized that the majority of his students were there to learn self-defense, not compete in judo or karate tournaments. At a time when only a few dojos existed, instruction was in a specific martial art, such as Judo or Karate. Students had to spend years of training to become black belts. Tegner realized that by combining the various martial arts and extracting the most practical techniques from each, his students could learn to be effective fighters in a street confrontation without spending years on techniques that were part of a martial art, but not necessarily for practical combat. Thus, in 1952 Jukado was born. The training was rigorous and repetitive, and included punches, strikes, and kicks from Karate, grappling and throwing techniques from Judo, joint locks from Ju-jitsu and Aikido, and even included the use of the cane as a weapon. Although he did not call his system mixed martial arts, that was what Jukado was. 

I remember meeting him in 1965, and when I told him I had a black belt in Shotokan karate and Judo, he asked me if I ever got into a street confrontation would I ever use a sword hand block (shuto-uki), which is commonly taught in Karate, or would I use a stomach throw, used in Judo, in the street. My reply was, “Probably not.” He then discussed his philosophy of teaching his students techniques from different martial arts but leaving out moves that had no practical use in a real fight. He felt all martial arts had value, and you had to take the best techniques from them and impart them to your students. He also felt that dojos that made students believe that what they were learning was the best martial arts were doing an injustice. This was 1965, and in those days, he was right. Everyone felt that what they were teaching was the only system worthwhile learning. Even in my case, my Judo instructors often did not look favorably on me studying Karate as well.

Over the years, I came to realize why so many people shunned Bruce Tegner. He didn’t fit the mold because he wasn’t a traditionalist, yet Tegner, who wrote over 50 books on the martial arts, was undoubtedly an early pioneer of martial arts in the Americas. Even in Hollywood, he was the first black belt to choreograph realistic martial arts fight scenes on television. Since he was also the first to teach mixed martial arts in this country, in my opinion, he deserves the title of the Father of Mixed Martial Arts in America.