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ARTICLES AND COMMENTARY

 Memories of the Trenches

With

Grandmaster Long

    A few days back was Master Long's birthday. Next month(Oct. 12th) will mark the anniversary of his death. For these and other reasons, he has been on my mind a great deal lately. Master Long gave us all the opportunity to develop a more productive life style by using his Isshin-ryu standards and values, for any endeavor we choose. It has been bitter sweet to watch what some have done with his gift after his passing... I know he would be proud of many of the working masters and sensei's who have really stepped up to provide leadership and continuing education. As for the other group, I don't want to take more time writing about them, than they have training the past year.

    The purpose of this article is to recall some good memories of times I and others shared with Master Long. They are so numerous, that putting a limit on them is difficult. Also, Master Joe Laney (one of those who Master Long would be most proud), is writing a book. This book will be more comprehensive, set the record straight on some very gray areas, and share many Master Long stories to enjoy and reminisce about. So here are a few of my most vivid memories that illustrate the many layers of his leadership, volatile nature, and generous heart.

 

Master Long's visit to our dojo in Nashville during his stay with me.

    Believe it or not, my best memories are the parties after the tournaments or seminars. No one does this anymore and that has played in to why the next generation is not as close as the first and second generations are. Now guys go to tournaments, speak, fight, then go home.

    Not when Master Long was the leader. Afterwards, everyone grabbed their favorite adult beverage, or just beat it over to Master Long’s room. There he sat. Big grin on his face personally acknowledging each person as they came in the door. That big cheerful voice booming with laughter and jokes. Is there anyone that doesn't remember Master Long’s favorite. Yep, the old "ONE EYED COCKATOO"… We must have heard it a million times, and it was funnier each time. Why? Because he thought it was so funny. We used to ask him to tell it and without hesitation he would launch in to it amid an immediate uproar of laughter. He never knew why we were laughing so hard. It was all part of his vast charm and ability to be laughed with. He loved his people and loved being with them. He had his favorites to pick on because he knew they could take it and that was funny too. I think Melbert Lee used to get there early just to get his part over with. He loved to give it to Trice Fasig and Butch Chilton. Any female who regularly attended, was looked on and treated like one of the guys. They most all wound up black belts and learned how to ignore a bunch of ruckus guys. One of my funniest memories (maybe you would have had to be there) was when I decided to do an imitation of him. Now the best imitation is done by Phil Little. Close your eyes and you can't tell the difference. But I rolled out my own and barely got a smile. That meant don't do it any more. I kept wondering if it were me or that he didn't like imitations of him. About that time Phil came rolling in. So I said, "hey Phil, do Master Long. " Without observing the mood, Phil fired off maybe his best Master Long ever. Only Master Long was not amused and screamed that will be enough of that. Phil stood there frozen and vowing later to get even with me. As I remember he got out of it by asking Master Long to do the, "One eyed cockatoo" joke. That was always an ice breaker.

    Below I have recounted some tournament stories. They were long ago yet, seem like yesterday. They are really about both of us the way I like to remember us, and the bond we forged doing what we both love best... the heat of battle.

    Master Long wasn't beyond carrying a bit of a grudge. Guess you didn't know that... Ha!!. Pretty much how a master woodsman carries his ax. If you really wanted to get ahead fast, go into a ring and hammer some guy who had ticked him off. My first big tournament as a black belt was in Lexington, Kentucky. I was a ni-dan and almost overwhelmed by the number of competitors, and the fact that we had about, seven thousand spectators in U. K. 'S gymnasium. All the people I had read about in Black Belt Magazine were there. I won my first two matches, so I guess Master Long thought I was ready for the big time. He put me beside a guy who had opened up a school in Knoxville for a brief time. All Master Long told me was, that the guy was a dirty fighter and then mumbled something about me becoming a san-dan. What others told me was, that he had won his last seventeen tournaments in a row, and that he was very dirty. Master Long was the ref, so he stared straight at me when he started the match. The guy was all over me and drove me out of bounds. When we dropped our hands, he slapped me across the face as hard as he could. When I walked back in the ring, I said to Master Long, "I'm getting him." He just smiled, nodded his head, and said, "All right sir." Don't know if he has ever said, "All right sir" to you. I'm expecting you to keep your word, and do what you say you will do is what it mostly meant. I took a power stance and just forgot about points. I never took my eyes off his face. He charged and I just powered a punch right on the button. I didn't even feel it. He did about two back flips and laid there. Master Long rushed over, still signaling a point for me. He looked up and signaled for me to wipe my mouth. That wasn't easy because in the exchange, I had my teeth knocked almost through my lower lip and I was doing some serious bleeding. I was so juiced, I didn't feel him hit me either. Finally they got him up. Still out on his feet, Master Long ruled that he had charged in, so it was a point for me. That's the way they actually called it then. If you charged in and got hit, tough for you. If you charged and hit someone injuring them, you might get a warning and occasionally DQ'd. But.... they had to be really messed up. There were also no equipment to include mouth pieces. He was out of the tournament and out of competition for two years. He had a broken jaw, cheekbone, eye socket, and jaw teeth gone or lose. His most lasting injury was a laceration to his hand from my front teeth. He used to ride me later abut being a carrier of some powerful disease that nearly cost him his hand. I told him all Tennessee boys had mouths like copperheads. No names on any of this. At least not on a web site. I became friends with most of the people I competed against. I'll tell you if you ask me, as it is a matter of record. But I'm not showing them up on a web site years later. The good news is that shortly I became San- Dan Denny.

Master Shaffer receiving trophy from Master Long (Lexington)

    In the day, we had all open tournaments. They were big and they were competitive. It often was Isshin-ryu against the world. Master Long always had our backs. If you were getting a screw job, look for him to show up in your ring letting someone know about it. Boy could he express himself. The USKA (United States Karate Assn) were the big guys on the block. Master Robert Trias, the first man to teach karate in the U. S. was the head man. His association was huge and had an abundance of nationally recognized competitors. His best was Victor Moore. At a tournament in Chattanooga we faced each other in the quarter finals. It was in the evening because, the tournaments used to be so big that you took a break, and the quarters and finals were fought at night. I had watched Victor breeze through his matches and even humiliate a good fighter by beating him while fighting from one knee. Master Long warned me not to let that happen to me. I had no intention of that, although I didn't have a clue as to how I'd fight him. When our match began, Master Trias was center ref, which didn't make me or Master Long too happy. I decided to just street fight him. He did a lot of flying spin kicks and strikes. I kept low and ducked under and up reaching for his face. I caught his face and brought him down on the back of his head on the gym floor. I decided to put a shoulder into his face for good measure. At that point, it was on. He was shocked and a little confused at my grab and slam approach. He was better than me, so it was a matter of time before he scored. He caught me with a less than impressive back kick, but the judges felt it was good enough. I then returned the favor and for about a minute we both tried unsuccessfully to score on each other. Finally I caught him with a good sweep kick, then shuto to the head. I got no call. In to the ring burst Master Long. Master Trias was so shocked at his anger all he could say was, "you can't smoke that cigarette in here Harold." Yep, Master Long had vaulted other black belts at ring side and was smoking when he did it. Again, times have changed. Master Long threw the cigarette down on the ring floor, and crushed it out with his bare foot. Lots of words were passed and finally the fight resumed in over-time, sudden death. Where was Master Long? He was standing almost in the ring smoking and screaming. By now no one wanted to call a point, so we went five overtimes. Finally Victor caught me with a punch to the ribs. A clean point that you could hear and see. Master Long Picked me up like I was a baby and tossed me up and down. As some of the others put me on their shoulders, Master long gave me that look and nod you'd fight a circle saw to get. Mentioned some names here because the guy won and that's fair.

From L to R: Victor Moore, Master Robert Trias, Master Shaffer (Chattanooga)

    Much later, Master Long, and the beautiful and wonderful, Doris long, came to spend a couple of days with my wife and I in Nashville. He was so relaxed and acted right at home the whole time. I thought I'd be nervous but he wouldn't let me be. He expressed some aggravation with a guy in Jackson, Mississippi. He said I'm going down there to be chief referee. Maybe you'd like to take a shot at this guy. So I of course said sure. What would you have said? Besides doing the guy in to his satisfaction like he asked me to do, two funny(Isshin-ryu funny) things happened. The first was when we were refereeing the brown belt competition. I had the light weights and Master Long had the heavy's. We were both center ref's. I had my back to his ring. All of a sudden, someone rolled into the back of my legs so hard, that it knocked me down and I wound up on top of him. It turned out to be, some fool who had questioned his call on them. He had back handed this guy so hard, that it lifted him up and carried him into my ring hard enough, to knock me down. I got up and found Master Long calmly going on with the next match. I honesty don't know what happened to that fat brown belt. Probably still going through therapy. The next thing was; this "celebrity master," who made the rounds demonstrating sanchin breathing, and having people hit him in the stomach. He talked the guy who gave the tournament into letting him do it right before the finals. There were three of us in the finals as I caught the guy Master Long wanted me to in the quarter finals. With a grab of his gi, and a punch to his breast bone hard enough to rip him out of his gi, he was unable to continue. The three of us were then asked to punch this celebrity show off in the gut. We didn't like doing this before our finals but we went along. The first two didn't make a dent. Master Long said, you'd better drop this a_ _ h _ _ _ or I will. I hit him with what I had and did nothing. When I turned around, Master long was livid. So I quickly back kicked the guy in the groin. He went down like he was shot. The cheers turned quickly to shock then laughter. Master Long went nuts laughing and so did I. He hustled the three of us off the floor and told the guy he had, had his moment in the sun and to get the hell out. He knew Master Long, so he didn't argue. This guy had been at the same tournament when a nationally known sensei who also taught Elvis, came in late to the tournament with about thirty five students. He wanted to register after competition had started. Master Long said flat no!! He argued and found his feet up over his head as Master Long foot swept him, then ran him out of the gym. I mean this guy was a big name. But Master Long was a big man. Anyhow, I finished third. I never regained my composure and snickered, along with the other two guys, through two lousy final matches. As a sidelight: I decided to do a Wado-ryu tension kata, (Ju-Te), in competition. I reasoned that it was an open tournament and didn't ask Master Long. He was chief kata judge in my ring. Half way through my kata, I glanced over at him and he was already holding up a big fat zero. Guess he didn't like my Wado kata...... Ya think????

Master Shaffer with 3rd Place trophy and broken foot (Jackson)

    Next was Columbia South Carolina. At the black belt meeting some big mouth from Chicago blurted out, "Don't matter what the rules are they all gotta come by me. This guy was huge. Maybe six four or five, and a two seventy or so frame. You have to think that anyone this big and would flap off like that really knew something. Master Long did a slow burn until the black belt matches. Who do you suppose he place Mr. big mouth beside?? Yes, yours truly. I kept hoping to hear something about a red and white belt but he didn't hold any carrots out this time. He just said, "hurt him". I know he didn't mean permanently??? Just change his dental work or something. The match started fast. I chased and he ran. Master Long was the ref and every time I hit the guy, he yelled ouch and oh and screamed. I couldn't believe it and neither could Master Long. The guy was a big weenie. So Master Long found something wrong with each of my points and yelled no point in advance of any of the judges call. Basically he just wanted me to beat the crap out of this guy for two minutes. I had him one to nothing. When you had only fifteen seconds to go, a bean bag would be tossed into the ring to alert anyone behind. He made no effort to catch up, and with maybe ten seconds to go, I let Master Longs icy stares get to me. So I blasted him in the jaw. He went down with a real big splat. I stood there safe in the knowledge that I had gotten the job done and would move on to the next round. Master Long stood up and said, "you are disqualified." Shocked, I screamed, " he's faking, uh he ran into it, uh he's not hurt. Master Long stood up and had a hand full of teeth. He said, "hell Denny", "what do I do with these??” He was grinning, so I didn't care as long as he was pleased. He told that story when he inducted me into the HOF, but he gave it a "Master Long twist" to keep from admitting guilt for putting me up to it. Man ya gotta love him....Later that day, I was able to compete with a team we had put together. We won every match and finished first. Phil Mcelroy took his opponent (maybe Columbia's best known fighter) by the throat and slammed him on the floor. Guess Master Long had run out of DQ’s by then because, MR. Mack-el-roy as he always called him, only drew one of those big grins and the famous, Yes Sir."!!!!!!!!

From L to R: Ron Hutchins, Gary Earhart, Master Shaffer, Phil McElroy (Columbia)

    As I said earlier, there is so much more. Not only that, but you who are reading this and trained under him, have some great stories of your own. I've heard a ton of them and enjoy hearing them over and over again. I have been honored by Master Laney, as a potential contributor to his book. There are some stories that should be saved for the book, if Master Laney thinks they are a fit for what he is doing. Or, they may be more appropriate for web page use. If so, I'll share them with you in this manner. As I've said before, the best way he can be remembered, is by carrying on his life's work. Many are doing this. Perhaps much could be said of the personality and personal viewpoints of the existing leaders. Put that aside and ask yourself; who has been working, giving and/or attending seminars, training in their dojo or someone else's, and what have you witnessed them doing in the last few years. Once again I say, put aside your personal feelings and ask yourself who you think has carried on the tradition, and leadership, based on deeds not words. When you have figured it out, get close to the working group, and avoid at all cost the non-working group. Hard work is its own reward. Complacency is a vexation to the spirit, and flies in the moral face of every thing Master Long preached, practiced and stood for. Stand up for progress and honor his memory and sacrifices.



Denny Shaffer

Proud, Harold Long, first generation student