Initially, the style Allen learned from Jhoon Rhee was Tang Soo do, but following a 1960 alliance with General Choi Hong Hi and the newly formed Korea Tae Kwon Do Federation, the style was eventually changed to the Cha Hyon forms of Chung Do Kwan. In 1962, Mr. Rhee moved to Washington, D.C. and left his two Senior American Black Belts, Allen Steen and J. Pat Burleson to continue his introductory work in Texas.
Native Texan, Allen Steen built the first real stronghold of Karate in the United States, and is known as the "Father of Tae Kwon Do In Texas" as well as the "Father of Texas Karate". Steen opened his first school in Dallas, Texas in 1962, and within a few years, with the help of a staff of his own highly skilled black belts and business director, Richard Jenkins, he built a network of schools throughout the state Texas, and spawned new schools throughout the country.
Mr. Steen's reputation as a champion, and instructor of champions in the late 60's and early 70's, was rivaled only by Mike Stone, Chuck Norris and Joe Lewis. Steen is one of the few who can honestly say he defeated Mike Stone in competition, but Stone, who was undefeated as a Black Belt competitor, was not a black belt at the time, but still a brown belt. Steen also defeated both Chuck Norris and Joe Lewis on the same day in 1966 to win the International Karate Championships, a major national tournament promoted by U.S. karate pioneer and legend Ed Parker.
Allen in conjunction with his first Black Belt student, J. Pat Burleson, produced a list of national rated Black Belt competitors and champions that dominated the top ten national tournament ratings of Black Belt Magazine and several other Martial Art publications for over 15 years. Many of Steen's students such as Skipper Mullins, Fred Wren, Demetrius Havanus, Ronnie Cox, Jim Butin, and Roy Kurban became national karate celebrities in their own right.
In 1963, Allen Steen began to promote the Southwest Karate Championships, this tournament grew so rapidly and became such a national competition arena that the name soon was changed to the United States Karate Championships. Every other karate promotion in the United States came to a halt each year on the second weekend in February, because that was the weekend of U.S. Championships. A win at this prestigious tournament was a guarantee of placing in Black Belt Magazines early Annual Top Ten Competitor list, and generally meant placing in one of the top three places on that list. Winners of this tournament include such names as Joe Lewis, Chuck Norris, Bill Wallace, and Fred Wren. Allen continued to promote the tournament for 25 years until he retired from active karate promotion.
Perhaps what Allen Steen is best remembered for is development of the rough and tough "Texas Blood and Guts" style of Tae Kwon Do. Until Jhoon Rhee invented Safety Gear in the 1970's, Karate tournaments in the U.S. were bare knuckle. Tournaments in Texas were not only bare knuckle, but involved a high degree of body contact, and a more than moderate degree of head contact. Allen's students were trained from the day they first stepped on the school's training floor to not only take such physical punishment, but to dish it out with the best of them. He filled his students with a "never say quit" attitude.
A Black Belt Test under Allen Steen is the type of thing that gets communicated down to ones great-great-great grandchildren. It was a very tough and grueling endurance test. Allen was merciless in his demand for perfection in technical performance from the candidate, as well as a grueling endurance test that was second to none. Any one who said "I quit" didn't receive their Black Belt from Allen Steen.
There was always that infamous "Mill" of Black Belts to be faced as part of the test. One tough Black Belt fighter after another in successive and uninterrupted fights. Many of the Steen Black Belts one faced in their test were national champions and ranked fighters of Allen Steen and Pat Burleson's camp. This , of course, after one had already been through a grueling demonstration of basic techniques, katas, and several heavy "preliminary warm up fights". Even after the infamous mill it wasn't over, then began the "multiple" fights. Now instead of one tough Black Belt at a time, you faced them in two, four, and even eight at a time.
It took a lot more than just being able to remain standing at the end of it all. More than one candidate came through the grueling test, still standing, not having quit, to learn that he still hadn't cut the muster to the demanding level Allen Steen required of those to whose Black Belt rank certificates he signed his name.
It is said that Karate in the U.S. had two birth places, Chicago and Texas. In Texas, Allen Steen was and always will be the King of Texas Karate. In 1980, Allen Steen, now a 10th Degree Black Belt stepped down and handed over the helm of his Karate Empire to a few of his select black belts and a few other individual investors. Today Allen is a very successful businessman in the King of All Texas Businesses, the Oil Industry. While largely retired from the martial arts scene, he still keeps an eye on those who he left to carry on, and occasionally will surface at some gathering of the "Texas Old Guard".
In addition to his many other contributions to martial arts, Allen Steen founded the Southwest Karate Black Belt Association, which grew to such a large national membership that in 1972, it's name was changed to the American Karate Black Belt Association. An organization that at one time touted amoung it's membership such greats as Chuck Norris, Steve Armstrong, Al Dacascos, Sam Allred, and David Moon, as well as all of Allen Steen's and Pat Burleson's Black Belts.
The impact that Allen Steen had on the development of U.S. and Texas Karate still remains unparalleled.
Copyright 1999 by Charles G. Bouton, all rights reserved