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History of Grand Master O. E. Simon |
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1960’s CONTINUED At one point Master Simon briefly met Bruce Lee. The story goes that Olaf demonstrated the form "Kempo I" once and Bruce picked it up right away, performing it perfectly. Olaf didn’t think much of Bruce and in later years often referred to him as a “punk”. Fact or Myth? Did anyone ever hear from their instructors stories about Grand Master Simon and Bruce Lee. There was one being told about an incident back in LA years ago when Bruce Lee and Olaf were out and about on the town. Bruce apparently pissed off a group of guys who then wanted to kill both of them. Bruce ran away, leaving Olaf to fight all 20. Which of course he did successfully. He said that Bruce was a real trouble-maker and that when they were all out together he would get someone in the bar all annoyed and worked up. Bruce would then take off, leaving Olaf to tackle the bar brawlers (It was always upwards of 10 guys involved with each telling of the story). “Grand Master Simon,
former All American Champion of 1967 awards Chuck Norris the International
Friendship trophy, with Ed Parker.” “Grand Master Simon
refereeing the world championship in Salt Lake between Bill Wallace and Al
Dascascus.” “World Champion Steve
Sanders match refereed by Grand Master Simon and Al Steen, Texas.” "The Friendship Trophy
was presented to Ed Parker, tournament director of the
International Karate Championships, by Dr. Olaf Simon of Calgary,
Alberta, Canada, in 1968 as a symbol of international friendship in
karate. Also know as the “perpetual cup”, the trophy was awarded to
each grand champion of the internationals to keep for a period of one
year…. Names inscribed on the trophy: Mike Stone (1964 and ’65),
Allen Steen (’66), Chuck Norris (’67 and ’68), Joe Lewis (1969, ’70 and
’71), Darnell Garcia (’72), John Natividad (’73), Jeff Smith (’74), Lenny
Ferguson (’75), and Ray Sua (’76).” The “Friendship Trophy” was designed and commissioned by O. E. Simon. After severing his ties with the karate competitions and many of the individuals who were a part of them in the 1970’s he lost track of the whereabouts of the trophy and to this day does not know its location. Olaf Simon married his third and present wife D. June Simon around 1967. On an unknown date his only son from a previous marriage died in a motorcycle accident. Here is post on the KFQC Discussion Board Thread where a past student of "Simon's Karate Studios" relates his experience training under Master Simon in 1967-69. While much of it supports Olaf Simon it also refutes many aspects of what he claims. This is a link to an old program from the "Northwest Open Invitational Karate Championship" held in Seattle, Washington on Oct 20, 1968. There is no reference to Olaf Simon in the text though his picture is on page 11. The sketches in the program are also very familiar and are quite possibly done by the same artist who did the pictures in "Law of the Fist". Also of interest is the picture of "Miss Sandy Brooke" on page 2, only in that it references an ad of hers in that months issue of "Playboy" magazine. Master Simon often commented in later years that the main reasons he left the mainstream Karate circuit was because of the deaths that had occurred in some of the competitions and the recent proliferation of pictures of scantily clad women in many of the Karate publications used to promote the Art. Here is a link to another "World Karate Championship" held at the Seattle Center Arena the previous year where there is a small reference to Olaf on page 7.
In the late 60's and early 70's Grand Master Olaf Simon performed in many live demonstrations to prove his skill and the power of Kung Fu. At the time Kung Fu was not very well known whereas Karate Dojo's had been established in North America for many years. With the popularity of Kung Fu on the rise many Karate Masters at the time knocked it as being a "soft" style only, with no true power. Thus Olaf Simon performed these demonstrations to prove them wrong. The picture on the left shows Grand Master Simons first world record ice break of 1270 lbs. This was shown on the television show "Sportsbeat70" with Johnny Esaw & Pat Marsden. The picture on the right is of Grand Master Simon being congratulated for successfully breaking more than half a ton of solid ice with one blow in 1970 on CBC National television. In 1969 O. E. Simon published his book “Law of the Fist”.
"D. Scheer was a direct student of Olaf in
the 1960's. It was called Karate when Dwight received his black belt
which, I am led to believe, was among the earliest awarded by Olaf...
Dwight later opened his own school in Saskatoon which is now run by his
son (http://scheersmartialarts.com/main.html). "…Dwight Scheer was one of their first students and today is without question in my mind one of the greats in Canadian martial arts. He's been teaching now for over 40 years and has some of the finest blackbelts anywhere. Other than Margie, he's next in line for active lineage... In addition to the original first three blackbelts, I believe Dwight Scheer followed closely along with Emil Repack. Dwight and Emil decided to open their own schools. Dwight went to Saskatoon and Emil to Penticton. That would be in the mid 60's... Following them were Ray Enright and Randy Ness in Edmonton, along with Ed and Lyndon Bateson, Keith Whitton and a couple of others in Calgary. The Bateson’s moved to Regina to start a school. Another blackbelt in the late 60's was Blair Orr who set up a school in Lethbridge. Scheer, Repack and Bateson’s all broke away from Simon in the 60's. Blair did later...
…Margie came to
Edmonton to run Simon Karate and Kung Fu Studios in 1968. She was by then
a 2nd degree blackbelt… I started my martial arts training in Sept. 1967,
receiving my blackbelt from Simon in May1970 (but dated Sept/70) along
with the only other person to call Simon "Olaf". That was Addy Hebein out
of Calgary. I'm fortunate to have received a certificate from Simon at
that time. He rarely if ever gave out certificates. Other than Margie, I
know of nobody else that has a certificate from that era. There were a
few others that received their blackbelts before me in Calgary, but I
didn't know a lot of them personally then, other than Trevor, Ron
Kampitsch, Horst Mueller and a few others…"
Horst Muller was another instructor under Master Olaf Simon from this time. Horst eventually moved to Germany and opened an affiliated "Simons Karate Studio" there however at some point in the mid seventies these two had a falling out for unknown reasons and Olaf separated ties with Horst.
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