A reference guide to the people who built American open sport karate and NASKA, and to the people on both sides of its 2026 split. Entries are grouped by era and kept short; where we have a full profile, it is linked. Titles and roles are as documented in public sources; where a detail rests on one account, we say so.
The NASKA series
- The NASKA Trademark Case: What the Jury Decided and What Each Side Says
- From Karate Illustrated to NASKA: The History of American Sport Karate Tournaments
- The PKA and Joe Corley: How Full-Contact Karate Reached Television
- Who’s Who in NASKA and Sport Karate: The Key Players (you are here)
- Stephen Oliver’s NASKA Decade: The Mile High Karate Classic, 1989–1999
Disclosure
This journal’s publisher, Grand Master Stephen Oliver, served on NASKA’s Board of Directors and as its National Sanctioning Director from 1989 to 1999, and promoted the Mile High Karate Classic as a NASKA World Tour event. He has known many of the people in this story for decades, on both sides of the current dispute. Grand Master Joe Corley, whose Battle of Atlanta was a founding NASKA event, is a contributor to this magazine, and Grand Master Jeff Smith, the first PKA light-heavyweight champion, is Chief of Instruction for Martial Arts Wealth Mastery. Martial Arts Professional takes no position in the litigation and has reported each side’s statements in its own words.
Jump to: The pioneers · The PKA era · The ratings era · NASKA’s leaders · The World Tour promoters
The pioneers, 1956–1972
Grand Master Jhoon Rhee (1932–2018)
Father of American Taekwondo; National Karate Championships, 1964
Rhee taught the Texas classes that produced Allen Steen and Pat Burleson, opened the Jhoon Rhee Institute in Washington in 1962, and hosted the first National Karate Championships in 1964. His foam Safe-T equipment made safe contact competition possible. Larry Carnahan, John Worley, Jeff Smith and Stephen Oliver all trained in his system. Full profile.
Grand Master Allen Steen (1940–2025)
Texas Karate Institute; U.S. Karate Championships
Rhee’s first American-trained black belt, Steen founded the tournament that became the U.S. Karate Championships in 1963, beat Joe Lewis and Chuck Norris on the same night at Long Beach in 1966, and in February 1974 ran the first championship to require safety equipment. Full profile.
Grand Master J. Pat Burleson (1936–2021)
First U.S. national karate champion, 1964
Burleson won Rhee’s first National Karate Championships and later promoted both Larry Carnahan and John Worley to 10th degree, in 2014. Full profile.
Ed Parker (1931–1990)
International Karate Championships, Long Beach, 1964
Parker’s Long Beach Internationals, first held August 2, 1964, was the most important tournament of the 1960s. Full profile.
Robert Trias
United States Karate Association; 1st World Karate Tournament, Chicago, 1963
With John Keehan, Trias held what is generally described as the first national karate tournament in the United States, which became the USKA Grand Nationals.
Jim Harrison (1936–2020)
World Professional Karate Championships, Kansas City, 1968
Harrison’s heavy-contact 1968 event, won by Joe Lewis, is regarded as the first professional karate championship.
Joe Lewis
Champion; first U.S. kickboxing bout, 1970
Lewis won Harrison’s 1968 championship, fought the first American kickboxing bout on January 17, 1970, and became the PKA’s first heavyweight champion in 1974. The PKA credits him with the concept of professional full-contact karate.
The PKA era
Mike Anderson (c. 1942–2026)
Top 10 Nationals; Professional Karate magazine; 1974 World Professional Karate Championships
Anderson created the Top 10 Nationals in 1971 and Professional Karate magazine and its national ratings in 1972, and produced the September 14, 1974 championships in Los Angeles from which the PKA grew. Full profile.
Don and Judy Quine
Founders, Professional Karate Association
The Quines co-produced the 1974 championships and founded the PKA, which put full-contact karate on network and cable television for fifteen years.
Grand Master Joe Corley
Founder, Battle of Atlanta (1970); CEO, PKA Worldwide
Corley opened one of Atlanta’s first full-time karate schools in 1967, founded the Battle of Atlanta with Chris McLoughlin in 1970, became a PKA partner in 1977, called its events on network and cable television, gained the PKA rights in 1989 and leads PKA Worldwide today. He was promoted to 10th Degree in 2016 and transferred the Battle of Atlanta to Truth Entertainment in 2013. The PKA and Joe Corley.
Grand Master Jeff Smith
First PKA World Light-Heavyweight Champion, 1974
Smith won the light-heavyweight title on the PKA’s first night and held it until 1980, while serving as a senior executive of the Jhoon Rhee Institute from 1970 to 1985. He is a 10th Degree Black Belt and Chief of Instruction for Martial Arts Wealth Mastery. Profile.
Bill “Superfoot” Wallace
First PKA World Middleweight Champion, 1974
Wallace’s kicking style defined the PKA’s televised product in its first decade.
The ratings era
Renardo Barden
Executive editor, Karate Illustrated
NASKA credits Barden with beginning Karate Illustrated‘s regional and national competitor ratings in 1977, the system the leading promoters kept alive as NASKA when the magazine dropped it around 1986.
Richard Plowden
Promoter and historian of the ratings era
Plowden’s published recollections are the main surviving account of the interim between Karate Illustrated‘s ratings and NASKA, including the Professional Karate League, the National Blackbelt League split and NASKA’s first presidents.
NASKA’s leaders
Cezar Borkowski
Northern Karate Schools, Toronto; recalled as NASKA’s first president
Borkowski founded Northern Karate Schools in Toronto in 1972 and built it into one of Canada’s largest karate organizations. Richard Plowden recalls him as NASKA’s first president; we have not found a second source for the dates of his term.
Jim Lantrip
Bluegrass Nationals co-founder; recalled as NASKA’s second president
Plowden identifies Lantrip, co-founder of the Bluegrass Nationals in Kentucky, as NASKA’s president after Borkowski and before Carnahan.
Grand Master Larry Carnahan
NASKA president, 1988–2026; chairman of NASKA Inc.
Carnahan began taekwondo in Fort Worth in 1967 and earned his black belt in the Jhoon Rhee system in 1970. He taught at Rhee’s Washington headquarters, won lightweight titles at the Battle of Atlanta and the U.S. Open, was named a Karate Illustrated top-ten black belt in 1975, and was rated in the PKA’s world top ten from 1976 to 1982. In 1977 he joined John Worley in Minnesota to build National Karate, and in 1978 co-founded the Diamond Nationals. He led NASKA from 1988 (NASKA’s date) until stepping down in 2026, and is chairman of the board of NASKA Inc., the Minnesota corporation that owns the NASKA registration. He and Worley were promoted to 10th degree by Pat Burleson in 2014.
Grand Master John Worley
National Karate founder; Diamond Nationals co-founder
Worley taught at the Jhoon Rhee Institute from 1970, was named its Instructor of the Year in 1973, and that year moved to Minnesota to found what became National Karate. His team musical form at the 1976 Battle of Atlanta is cited as a pioneering performance. He was an ESPN karate and kickboxing commentator from 1983 to 1989, a PKA vice-president, and one of ISKA’s founding directors in 1986, and he co-owns JLB Productions, which produces the Diamond Nationals.
Bill Dunkley
Diamond Nationals co-founder (JLB Productions)
Dunkley, with Carnahan and Worley, is the “B” in JLB Productions, which has produced the Diamond Nationals since 1978.
Mike McCoy
U.S. Open (Pro-Kick Productions); World Tour Promoters
McCoy and Mike Sawyer helped run the U.S. Open from 1981 and took ownership through Pro-Kick Productions in 1983, moving it to Orlando and building it into the tour’s television showcase; it has hosted the ISKA Sport Karate World Championships since 1998. McCoy was closely involved in NASKA’s ratings operation in its early years and sat on its board for decades. He is a defendant and counterclaimant in NASKA Inc.’s 2026 lawsuit, and the World Tour Promoters side announced during the dispute that he had been elected NASKA president. The lawsuit.
Mike Sawyer
U.S. Open co-owner; ISKA co-founder
Sawyer co-owns the U.S. Open with McCoy through Pro-Kick Productions and was one of the founding directors of ISKA when it was announced on July 16, 1986; by 1991 he co-chaired ISKA’s worldwide operation.
Grand Master Stephen Oliver
NASKA board and National Sanctioning Director, 1989–1999; Mile High Karate Classic
Oliver trained in the Jhoon Rhee system from 1969, founded Mile High Karate in Denver in 1983, and from 1989 to 1999 promoted the Mile High Karate Classic as a NASKA World Tour event while serving on NASKA’s board and executive committee and as its National Sanctioning Director, responsible for rating World Tour and national events and for tournament quality. The first Classic’s grand champions, in 1989, were forms champion Charlie Lee and point fighter Steve “Nasty” Anderson. He is publisher of this magazine. Stephen Oliver’s NASKA decade.
Grand Master John Sharkey (1956–2026)
American Karate Association; AKA Grand Nationals and Warrior Cup
Sharkey opened his first studio in 1973, ran Sharkey’s Karate Studios in Naperville, Illinois for more than five decades, and led the American Karate Association from 1977. He oversaw the AKA Grand Nationals, a NASKA founding event now called the AKA Warrior Cup. He died on January 25, 2026, at 69, and was posthumously promoted to 10th degree.
Hunter B. Lyon
President, NASKA Inc. (2026); AKA Warrior Cup
A member of the American Karate Association and a student of John Sharkey, Lyon holds a 6th degree in Shorei Ryu and a 3rd degree in taekwondo. He is listed with Sharkey as a promoter of the AKA Warrior Cup and is associated with MATAction, the tournament registration, scoring and ratings platform used across the tour. He served on NASKA’s board, filed a declaration for NASKA Inc. in its April 2026 lawsuit, and was named president when Larry Carnahan stepped down in 2026. The lawsuit.
The World Tour promoters
Greg Ruth
Battle of Atlanta; Truth Entertainment
Ruth began coordinating the Battle of Atlanta’s black belt divisions in 2000 and, as president of Truth Entertainment, took over the event from Joe Corley in 2013. Truth Entertainment also runs the Scenic City Open and is a defendant and counterclaimant in the 2026 lawsuit.
Grand Master Dennis Brown
U.S. Capitol Classics
Brown founded the Dennis Brown Shaolin Wu-Shu Academy and, in 1982, the U.S. Capitol Classics in the Washington area. He served on NASKA’s board and was one of the nine members of Educational Funding Company’s first Board of Directors in 1987. Black Belt named him among the 25 most influential martial artists of the twentieth century.
Don Rodrigues and Christine Bannon-Rodrigues
Ocean State Grand Nationals
The couple run the Don Rodrigues Karate Academy in Warwick, Rhode Island, and co-promote the Ocean State Grand Nationals, a NASKA founding event. Bannon-Rodrigues, a 9th degree in Oki-ryu Kenpo, won nine WAKO world titles and is one of the most decorated forms and weapons competitors in the sport’s history. She was among the top competitors at the Mile High Karate Classic in the 1990s. The academy is a defendant and counterclaimant in the 2026 lawsuit.
Bob Leiker and Mark Russo
AmeriKick Internationals
Leiker leads AmeriKick in the Kansas City area; with Mark Russo he promotes the AmeriKick Internationals in Atlantic City, one of the tour’s 6A events. AKI Enterprises is a defendant and counterclaimant in the 2026 lawsuit.
Mohamad Jahanvash
Compete Internationals
A Red Dragon Karate instructor in Southern California, Jahanvash is publicly associated with the Compete championships in Ontario, California, a 6A event.
Keith Vitali
Champion; 1978 Diamond Nationals grand champion
Vitali, rated America’s top point fighter from 1978 to 1980 and Black Belt‘s 1981 Fighter of the Year, won the men’s sparring grand championship at the first Diamond Nationals and went on to a film career.
Sources, and what we could not confirm
Sources: NASKA’s published history; National Karate’s biographies of Larry Carnahan and John Worley; the U.S. Open’s published history; ISKA’s history; the Chicago Sun-Times and Black Belt on John Sharkey; MATAction and AKA profiles of Hunter Lyon; USAdojo biographies of Joe Corley, Dennis Brown and Keith Vitali; Wikipedia entries for Joe Corley, Joe Lewis, Robert Trias, the PKA and Christine Bannon-Rodrigues; the federal docket in No. 6:26-cv-00752; the 1987 EFC Board letter in our publisher’s collection; Martial Arts Professional‘s own profiles.
Where accounts differ or rest on one source: Carnahan’s election is 1988 in NASKA’s history and 1990 in some biographies. The Borkowski and Lantrip presidencies rest on Richard Plowden’s recollection. Early U.S. Open ownership dates differ slightly between sources. Corrections from anyone named here are welcome and will be published with attribution.
