Pete Haddad lived in a high crime area in Miami where it was dangerous to walk the streets.  He just got tired of being afraid all the time and decided to learn how to fight.  After reading about karate in a magazine he decided to find someone who was teaching it.

 

Pete finally found someone who was teaching "Kara-do", a combination of karate and Judo.  The person who taught it was a former drill instructor for the Marine Corps.  It was all he could find so he stuck with it.  It was 1960.

 

In 1961 Pete was attending the Miami-Dade Community College where he met Ben Puzon who was taking exams in the same building that he was.  They were standing around talking about the exam when Mr. Puzon mentioned Karate-Do.  He told Pete that he was taking Karate-do and invited him to meet his instructor who was building up a class in preparation for the return of Ralph Bove who was in the Marine Corps and currently in Okinawa learning Isshin-Ryu Karate-Do.  Pete joined the class and learned some of the karate that Don Nagle was teaching at the time.  Ralph Bove was one of Mr. Nagle’s black belts before he left for Okinawa.

 

Ralph Bove returned to Florida in October 1961. Pete said, “He was a genuine lean, mean fighting machine.”  Pete had never seen anyone fight like him, a totally fearless man.  Pete was hooked!  He worked out with Ralph whenever he could and eventually made Go-Kyu (green belt) in Jan 1962.

 

Mr. Bove decided to re-enlist, so he left the dojo mid 1962.  That left Ben Puzon as his senior student in charge.  Mr. Puzon traveled all over Miami looking for Isshin-Ryu and finally found Gary Baker who was a first generation student of Isshin-Ryu’s Grand Master Tatsuo Shimabuku.  Then Gary Baker left Miami and Ben Puzon took over his class.  Pete worked out with Ben Puzon as often as he could as he was attending college in Tallahassee.  Mr. Bove returned on leave and promoted Mr. Puzon to Shodan.

 

About 1963, Bob Bremer, who had been training in Shotokan Karate, visited Sensei Puzon and became a member of the class.  Mr. Bremer was so dedicated that he eventually became assistant instructor and assumed much of the dojo teaching duties.

 

(Ben Puzon, Ralph Bove, Bob Bremer - January 4, 1966)

 

In 1963-64 Pete had been in Tallahassee attending Florida State University.  When he graduated he came back to Miami and began attending class taught by Sensei Puzon and Sensei Bremer and finally was promoted to the rank of Ni-Kyu (first brown).

 

Pete taught karate at FSU.  The dominant fighting sports there were wrestling and Judo.  As far as we know he was the only person in Tallahassee teaching karate.  The Gymkana coach (part of the FSU Circus) was so impressed that he gave Pete a locker reserved for members of the team and asked him to work out at the same time that the team did. 

 

Pete left for the University of Florida to attend Law School in 1965.  He worked out with the Intramural Karate class there and was asked by the Intramural Coach to take over the karate class.  He was the instructor for the karate class 1966-68.  This was the largest and most dedicated class Pete has ever had.  He developed the curriculum, organized tournaments and seminars.  In general he handled all the duties and responsibilities.  He was given an "Outstanding Leadership Award" in 1967 for all his efforts (He also earned $1.25 per hour for 6 hours a week).

 

(Pete Haddad at Florida Gym, University of Florida 1966)

 

 

In 1967, he met George Breed, Go-dan Isshinryu, a first generation student, who was attending the University of Florida.  They became good friends, worked out together and he promoted Pete to Sho-dan in December 1967.

 

By 1967-68, Bob Bremer had become the lead instructor at Pete Haddad’s original school and had been promoted to Ni-dan by Ben Puzon.  He is the one who put Isshin-Ryu on the map in Florida.  The other stylists never really took them seriously until Sensei Bremer (and his students) started winning tournaments using a reverse punch and front kick!!  Around 1969, Mr. Bremer went to Okinawa to train under Grand Master Tatsuo Shimabuku.  By 1970 he returned from Okinawa and was teaching in south Florida.

 

In 1968, Sensei Haddad moved to Titusville, Florida and started his first job after completing college.  He started a karate class at his church as a part of the youth group and taught there for a year until he moved the class into his garage.  Mr. Haddad decided to switch styles in 1970 and study Chito-ryu with Mike Foster.  He worked his way up to Ni-dan before returning to Isshin-Ryu in 1976.

 

In 1976 Sensei Haddad met Steve Armstrong who had scheduled an AOKA tournament in Orlando, Florida.  He purchased the 1966 film of Tatsuo Shimabuku from him and started relearning the kata.  He joined the AOKA.  He relearned almost all the kata from the film and started attending some of the AOKA seminars where he would get assistance on correcting the moves. 

 

Ralph Bove really admired Harold Mitchum and told his students that Harold Mitchum was the head of Isshin-Ryu in the U.S. and for this reason his name was placed in their Miami dojo directly under Tatsuo Shimabuku’s name.  We all considered him the head of Isshin-Ryu.  Pete finally met him in 1989.  Mr. Bove had told them some great stories about Mr. Mitchum so Pete was really surprised to find him very humble and easygoing.  Pete became his student and was privileged to train with him for several years working his way from Sho-dan to Yon-dan in rank.

 

Sensei Haddad credits Master Mitchum and the members of the UIKA with giving him his “second wind” in learning karate.   Master Mitchum, members: George Shin and Sherman Harrill took a personal interest in Sensei Haddad’s training and they all pushed him as hard as they could.  Sherman Harrill had seminars in Florida at least twice a year, sometimes more often.  Sensei Haddad attended all that he could and started going to Carson Iowa for Sherman Harrill’s major seminar of the year.  He attended so many Sherman Harrill seminars that Mr. Harrill began to consider Sensei Haddad his student. Sherman Harrill  promoted him to Go-dan in 1997 and then Roku-Dan in 2002.”

 

(Pete Haddad and Harold Mitchum)

 

In 1991 Sensei Haddad met Shihan William Duessel (IWKA).  Mr. Duessel lived in south Florida during the winter and they started having him up for seminars in Titusville.  Mr. Duessel spent a lot of time working with Sensei on the kata.  He credits him with inspiring him to get deeply involved with the kata. 

 

(Pete Haddad and William Duessel )

 

Sensei Haddad met Chester Holubecki about 1978 at a seminar conducted by the AOKA.  Mr. Holubecki had moved to Florida and had a dojo in Orange City, which was about an hours drive from his home in Titusville.  He was also a member of the UIKA and had regular seminars, tournaments and other activities.  Sensei Haddad attended so many of the activities he sponsored that he became a regular fixture at his dojo.  A few times he acted as a visiting instructor, teaching weapons kata.  In 2006 Chester promoted Sensei Haddad to Nana-dan. 

 

Master Haddad is currently a member of the little known Isshin-Ryu Network organization headed by Grand Master Chester Holubecki.  It is a nonpolitical Isshin-Ryu organization created for the sole purpose of the development of its member martial arts study. 

 

The Instructors that Sensei Haddad had over the years were Ralph J. Bove, Ben Puzon, Bob Bremer, George Breed, Harold Mitchum, Sherman Harrill, George Shin, William Duessel and Chester Holubecki.  Sensei Haddad stated, “What a privilege it was to learn from these first and second-generation students of Tatsuo Shimabuku!!!”

 

(Sherman Harrill, Pete Haddad, George Shin)