2006 Inductees

Paul Chan

Father of Canadian Kung Fu

At age 11, Master Paul Chan began training under Grandmaster Wong Chun Yip in October 1943.

Master Paul Chan was among the thirty students to enroll in the school and spent 6 years under Grandmaster Wong's gruelling regimen. Forging their skills with hard work and discipline, Grandmaster Wong made his students recite the following dictum on a daily basis, "Never be afraid of the strong, for you have fast hands and feet. Develop fast hands, quick eyes, powerful techniques, and a quick mind."

In 1961, Master Paul Chan founded Hong Luck Kung Fu Club with a handful of associates in Toronto, Canada.

Master Paul Chan also holds a black belt in judo, which he earned under Sensei Frank Hatashita between the years of 1958 to 1965.

Frank Hatashita

Father of Canadian Judo

At the May Pan American Judo Union meetings in Puerto Rico, Frank Hatashita, 8th Dan (1919-1996), was inducted into the 2005 PJU Hall of Fame.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:

18 years (9 terms) as President of Judo Canada

• 8 years (4 terms) as President of PJU (Pan American Judo Union)

• 3 terms as Vice President of the IJF (International Judo Federation)

• IJF Referee

• Pacific Rim Tournament founding organizer

• Director of Canadian Olympic Association

• 1964 Olympic Games: Coach of Doug Rogers, silver medalist

• Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame (1974)

• 3 time Canadian Champion

• Hatashita Dojo; owner of Toronto dojo for 47 years

• Government of Ontario Achievement Award

* Introduced Judo in the Pam Am Games in 1967, and Olympic Games in 1964

• One of the first North American born recipients of Kodokan 8th Dan

Mr. Frank Hatashita devoted his life to Judo and was an exceptional man, meeting the requirements of admission to the Hall of Fame by participating in each of the areas of Judo: competitor, teacher, referee, coach, leader, and administrator.

Frank Hatashita started to practice Judo in 1927, at the age of 8 years. He was promoted to Shodan at the age of 15 years, which was inconceivable in the first years of the Judo in Canada. During the visits of Professor Jigoro Kano in 1932, 1936 and 1938, the young Frank Hatashita had the opportunity to know the founder of the Judo. During one of the visits, Professor Jigoro Kano saw a match in which Frank, at 18 years, was fighting and Kano commented on the quality of Frank's technique.

Professor Kano's opinion was proven in many competitions when Frank won the Canadian Championship 3 times, in 1938, 1939, and in 1941, a time when there were no weight categories.

Jong Soo Park

Father of Canadian Tae Kwon Do

Master Park was born in 1941 in Chung-Nam, Korea.

He holds a 9th Dan black belt in Tae Kwon-Do. At the age of 14, and since then, he has been the instructor of the Police Training Centre of Chun Bok in Korea and of the famed Tiger Division of the Korean Army. In 1964, he became Korean National Champion, and in 1965 he made a trip on request of the Korean Government, as a member of the Goodwill Mission for Tae Kwon-Do, demonstrating this art before the highest civil and military authorities of the countries they visited.

In that same year, he was invited to Germany as the coach of the German Tae Kwon-Do Association. In 1966, he left Germany to go to Holland where he founded the Netherlands Tae Kwon-Do Association.

In the beginning of 1968, he left for Canada and now has his own schools in the Greater Toronto Area.

In November 1973, Master Park made another world trip to promote Tae Kwon-Do in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Master Park is known as one of the world's greatest Tae Kwon-Do experts.

Wally Slocki

Canada's First International Champion

Wally Slocki began his martial arts training in 1953 at the tender age of 6 when he started Judo classes with Master Frank Hatashita. Then in 1964, he began Kung Fu training with his friend Tony Facetti under Kung Fu Master Paul Chan in the now famous Hong Luck Kung Fu school on Dundas Street.

In 1965, he began his karate training under Master Masami Tsuroka, and shortly after with Benny Allen. He received his shodan from the legendary Richard Kim and his long and illustrious competition career as Canada’s first and foremost International Karate Champion - especially as a Kumite competitor - began.

It was another karate legend, Ron Marchini, that said, "Wally Slocki was the first one to have the really spectacular kicks his roundhouse and side kick were envied by all."

His list of Black Belt wins is most impressive when you remember this was the Golden age of karate in North America, sometimes referred to as the 'Blood and Guts' era.

Master Wally Slocki is, without a doubt, a legend in Canadian martial arts. He was the first one to compete internationally and it was he who set the bar for those to come after him when it came to Canadian martial arts competitors

Masami Tsuruoka

Father of Canadian Karate

It can be positively stated Karate in Canada owes its mass introduction and development to one person: MASAMI TSUROKA, 9th dan, Tsuroka Karate-do Federation. Almost single-handedly, Masami Tsuroka sensei had kept Karate before the Canadian public in the early beginnings, 1958 - 1968, through newspaper articles, magazine articles, frequent demonstrations as well as appearances on public television and numerous exhibitions across Canada.

Born in Cumberland, British Columbia, Canada, on January 12, 1929, as a teenager Masami Tsuroka moved to Kumamoto, Japan, in 1945 with his father shortly after the conclusion of World War II. (The Tsuroka family as with most Japanese families living in Canada at that time, was placed in 'Internment Camps' for a few years in Tashimi, B.C., and later at Roseberry.)

During 1949, he received his first-degree black belt from Master Chitose. As Masami kept improving his training, he began to advance progressively up the promotion ladder of rank. Before returning to Canada in 1956 and finally settling in Toronto, he would obtain the level of 3rd degree black belt.

Convinced by many friends to share his knowledge of this mysterious art, Masami Tsuroka sensei began teaching in 1957 at a small fitness gym called Mac's Gym (owned and operated by friend, Mac Mia.) Encouraged by a group of members to permanently establish a separate training facility of his own, Masami Tsuroka eventually secured space over Lakeside Bowling Alley in the Queen Street/Lansdowne area in 1958 and began giving Karate instruction at the first Karate Club in Canada.

Notable members were Benny Allen (Eastern Karate Schools - teacher of Wally Slocki, Tony Facetti, and Teddy Marton), Dr. Ned Page (Wen-Do creator), Shane Higashi (Canadian Chito-Kai Federation).

Also, Qai Wong (Wong's Shorin-ryu Karate/Kung Fu Society), Kei Tsumura (Shito-ryu Itosu-kai Karate and Kobudo Association of Canada), Monty and Nathan Guest (Kaishin Kan Karate Organization), Fern Cleroux (Cleroux's Chito-ryu Karate), Joe Gilles (Shotokan-Nishiyama Group). Alcide Bourque (New Brunswick) and Andre Langelier, George Sylvaine (Ottawa), Tug Wilson (Winnipeg) and Tran Quan Ba (University of Montreal).