'Mother of Judo' Who'd Take You Down Lifted Womens Sports Up

I would not have wanted to mess with Rena 'Rusty' Kanakogi, the  Mother Of Judo if I met her along the way but I do sure wish I had met her. She defied the rules and shattered the glass ceiling for  women to be taken seriously in sports.  I love stories of pioneers and triumph over adversity and thought you would enjoy this story too. 

Raised mostly by members of a boardwalk 'freak show' family on Coney Island in the 50's, this young jewish gal from Brooklyn was the leader of a girl gang who just wanted to fight. 'Rusty' had a lot of pent up energy and that was the way she released it. Until...

As a young married woman while accompanying her first husband to an AA meeting to support his battle with alcoholism, 'Rusty' met a friend there who was in unbelievable shape. She asked him what he did to get into that shape. He said 'Judo". She said. "What the heck is Judo"? So he picks up this big strong woman like a piece of paper onto his hip and she says, "That's it! Whatever it is you're doing I'm going to learn it. "

So next... this young Jewish woman walks into the Utica, NY Young Mens Christian Association (YMCA) a move unheard of at the time. and asks to take the class but they say, sorry women not allowed. Grrr. She persisted. It was 1959. They agreed to let her take a class some days if she also agreed to teach YMCA classes to other women other days. Ads for the YMCA classes in the newspaper read something like this. 'Come learn to be a good wife and serve your husband and press his pants but also come take a Judo class with Rusty'. LOL 

Then... The Utica YMCA Male Judo Team was competing in The Championships and was about to win, when a teammate got hurt. To save the day, the coach asked 'Rusty' to just go in and substitute so they didn't have to forfeit but said don't call attention to yourself. Just call a draw. Well that didn't happen.

'Rusty' who looked kind of androgynous with her short hair, wrapped her chest with an ace bandage and went in and beat the heck out of her opponent and won the Gold Medal. When they they found out she was a woman they asked her to give it back. She was soooo angry. She gave it back so  her team didn't have to forfeit but that anger set her off on a 50 year quest to make sure no other woman in sport would ever suffer that injustice.

Rena 'Rusty' Kanakogi founded, organized and financed the first Women’s World Judo Championships, held at Madison Square Garden in New York City on November 29 and 30, 1980, putting women’s judo on the map and earning the United States the international women’s level competition status required to qualify for inclusion in the Olympic Games. She has been recognized as “the  mother of women’s judo” for her inarguable contribution to the sport.  She was the first woman to rise to the rank of  seventh–degree black belt. In 2008 she was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette from the Emperor’s Order of Japan for her lifelong contribution to the  promotion of judo. Her ashes are interred in the Kanokogi Samurai family grave  site in Kumamoto, Japan, marked with the epitaph “American Samurai.” 

A street in Brooklyn has been named Rena “Rusty” Kanokogi Way.

Jean Kanogi considered  "the daughter of judo" joins me today. Jean spent her years on the mats with her Mom and these days is a Senior Special Agent for the U.S. Government, a fifth degree black belt and highly respected sensei (teacher) of judo. Most notably, Jean was one of the original signers of the American Civil Liberty Union suit to fight for women’s rights in the sport of judo. She mentors high-risk youth, earned her PhD (a promise to Rusty!) and serves on the evaluation committee for the Rusty Kanokogi Fund for the Advancement of US Judo, a scholarship program managed by the Women’s Sports Foundation.

"Rusty' passed 12 years ago and her daughterJean finally finished the book they started writing together which comes out June 1st.

Get Up & Fight: The Memoir of Rena “Rusty” Kanokogi, The Mother of Women’s Judo

By Rena “Rusty” Kanokogi & Jean Kanokogi, PhD

Foreword by Billie Jean King

Second Foreword by the late Dick Schaap