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Jhoon Rhee
Korean-American taekwondo-in (1932–2018)

Rhee Jhoon-goo , commonly known as Jhoon Rhee, was a Korean-American taekwondo practitioner. He was widely recognized as the "father of American taekwondo" for introducing the Korean martial art to the United States when he immigrated in the 1950s. He was a 10th-degree black belt and held the title of grandmaster.

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Early life and education

Rhee was born on January 7, 1932, in Asan, Korea, during the period of Japanese occupation.4 He began training in the martial arts at age 13 in 1945 without his father's knowledge.5 Rhee received martial arts training from Nam Tae Hi and graduated from the Chung Do Kwan school.6 While an officer in the Korean Army, he went to the U.S. to attend Southwest Texas State College in 1956, and later returned to attend Texas to attend the University of Texas-Austin for an engineering degree.7

Career

During the 1960s, Rhee befriended Bruce Lee—a relationship from which they both benefited as martial artists.8 Lee taught Rhee an extraordinarily fast punch considered almost impossible to block, something Rhee named the "accupunch".9 During his study in Texas, Rhee issued his first U.S.-awarded black belt to Pat Burleson and his first fully U.S.-trained student was Allen Steen, both of whom teamed up to set up the influential Southwest Black Belt Association (later the American Black Belt Association), resulting in many champions. Upon graduation from college, Rhee relocated to the East Coast and opened his first studio in the U.S. in 1962 in Washington, D.C., and over time expanded to 11 studios in the DC Metro area.10

In 1973, Rhee made his only martial arts movie, When Taekwondo Strikes; he also had a small role in Fist of Fury. In 1975, he met Muhammad Ali before the latter's Thrilla in Manila fight with Joe Frazier. Rhee demonstrated the accupunch to Ali, who was unable to block it and asked to be taught it. Rhee was Ali's head coach for the boxer's fights with Richard Dunn and Antonio Inoki.11

In the mid-1980s, Rhee operated a network of 11 martial arts studios across the Washington, D.C., region.12 Rhee was well known in the D.C. area for a television commercial with a jingle by Nils Lofgren and Rhee's daughter uttering the catchphrase "Nobody bothers me," followed by his son saying "Nobody bothers me, either" and winking. 13 In 2000, Rhee was the only Korean-American ranked among the 203 most recognized immigrants to the country by the National Immigrant Forum and Immigration and Naturalization Services.14

Rhee was inducted into the Taekwondo Hall of Fame in 2007,15 in which he is listed as both the pioneer of American taekwondo and taekwondo in Russia'.16 Rhee is on Chang Keun Choi's list of taekwondo pioneers.17

Death

Rhee died on April 30, 2018, in Arlington, Virginia, at age 86.1819

See also

Notes

References

  1. Grand Master Jhoon Rhee returns home to serve as Youngsan Univ.'s Chair Professor The Seoul Times, September 2004. Retrieved on July 28, 2007. http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=1012 ↩

  2. Kang, S.-W. (2008): Taekwondo grandmaster lectures at Yonsei University The Korea Times (January 10, 2008). Retrieved on January 26, 2010. https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2009/11/178_17108.html ↩

  3. Kang, S.-W. (2008): Taekwondo grandmaster lectures at Yonsei University The Korea Times (January 10, 2008). Retrieved on January 26, 2010. https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2009/11/178_17108.html ↩

  4. Zia, Helen (1995). Notable Asian Americans. United States: Gale Group. p. 326. ISBN 0810396238. 0810396238 ↩

  5. JhoonRhee.com: Philosophy Archived July 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on January 29, 2010. http://www.jhoonrhee.com/philosophy.html ↩

  6. Kang, W. S., and Lee, K. M. (1999): The Modern History of TaeKwonDo Retrieved on October 14, 2007. http://www.martialartsresource.com/anonftp/pub/the_dojang/digests/history.html ↩

  7. "In 1956 Jhoon Rhee came to the U". www.abbahouston.com. Retrieved October 13, 2023. https://www.abbahouston.com/texaskarate.html ↩

  8. Nilsson, Thomas (May 1996). "With Bruce Lee: Taekwondo Pioneer Jhoon Rhee Recounts His 10-Year Friendship With the "Dragon"". Black Belt Magazine. 34 (5): 39–43. Retrieved November 19, 2009. https://books.google.com/books?id=H9oDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA39 ↩

  9. "Jhoon Rhee, Father of American Tae Kwon Do". www.jhoonrhee.com. Archived from the original on May 6, 2019. Retrieved May 1, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190506223915/http://www.jhoonrhee.com/bio7.html ↩

  10. "Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee, 'father of American taekwondo,' dies at 86". New York Daily News. Associated Press. April 30, 2018. Retrieved May 1, 2018. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/jhoon-rhee-father-american-taekwondo-dies-86-article-1.3964583 ↩

  11. "Jhoon Rhee, Father of American Tae Kwon Do". www.jhoonrhee.com. Archived from the original on May 6, 2019. Retrieved May 1, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190506223915/http://www.jhoonrhee.com/bio7.html ↩

  12. Smith, Harrison (May 1, 2018), "Jhoon Rhee, who helped popularize taekwondo in the United States, dies at 86", The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/jhoon-rhee-who-helped-popularize-taekwondo-in-the-united-states-dies-at-86/2018/05/01/db60f3da-4d45-11e8-af46-b1d6dc0d9bfe_story.html ↩

  13. Richards, Chris (February 17, 2012). "The surprising, rock source behind D.C.'s 'Nobody bothers me' TV jingle". Washington Post. Retrieved April 30, 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-surprising-hard-rock-source-behind-dcs-nobody-bothers-me-tv-jingle/2012/02/15/gIQAFzxdJR_story.html ↩

  14. Grand Master Jhoon Rhee returns home to serve as Youngsan Univ.'s Chair Professor The Seoul Times, September 2004. Retrieved on July 28, 2007. http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=1012 ↩

  15. Taekwondo Hall of Fame 2007 Banquet Retrieved on January 12, 2008. (Although the reference's address contains "2006," the event was actually held in 2007.) http://www.lacancha.com/tkdbanquet2006.html ↩

  16. Taekwondo Hall of Fame Retrieved on January 12, 2008. http://www.lacancha.com/greatest.html ↩

  17. Choi, C. K. (2007): Tae Kwon Do Pioneers Archived March 12, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on March 15, 2008. http://www.taekwondopioneers.com/pioneers.html ↩

  18. "Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee, 'father of American taekwondo,' dies at 86". New York Daily News. Associated Press. April 30, 2018. Retrieved May 1, 2018. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/jhoon-rhee-father-american-taekwondo-dies-86-article-1.3964583 ↩

  19. Wright, Kimberly L. "Man credited with popularizing Taekwondo in US dies". Fox 19. Archived from the original on May 1, 2018. Retrieved April 30, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180501093320/http://www.fox19.com/story/38074799/man-credited-with-popularizing-taekwondo-in-us-dies ↩