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Bohan’s Family June, 2007 - "Warrior of the Month“
Grand Master Don Nagle, Isshin-Ryu Karate-Do
(April 5, 1938-August 23, 1999)
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The Bohan's and Family Web Site would like to thank Grand Master Ed McGrath for taking the time to help us honor his friend and sensei, Grand Master Don Nagle.
Wayne Wayland
by Grandmaster Ed McGrath
Grandmaster Don Nagle, was brought up in Jersey City, New Jersey. Born on April 5, 1938, he was typical of those young people of the era raised in cosmopolitan cities. A good student, with close family ties, he was none the less a “street kid”, wise in the ways necessary to survive in Jersey City. However, in his early years his nemesis became Master Ralph Chirico, another youngster and neighbor of Master Nagle. As Master Chirico tells the story, every time he saw Master Nagle on the street, he would approach him and beat up Sensei Nagle. Many years later, Mr. Chirico wished to take karate lessons and decided to sign up at the new school at 524 Mercer Street, in Jersey City. Unfortunately, Sensei Nagle owned that dojo and he immediately engaged Mr. Chirico in the first of many kumite’s that Mr. Chirico would be subjected to during the next month. We can only picture the predicament that Mr. Chirico was in, but he took his lumps and moved on, eventually becoming one of Master Nagle’s close friends.
While still in high school, Master Nagle began his martial arts training by studying Gojuryu karate, until his graduation from High School. As a result, he was knowledgeable about the martial arts and well able to discern the elements within the teacher and the style of karate he would choose later in his life. Upon his graduation, Master Nagle joined the United States Marine Corps and was sent to Parris Island, South Carolina for his boot camp. Even so-called street kids of the big American cities are not prepared for Marine boot camp. By the end of the first day, you lie in the dark and wonder what in Heaven or Hell prompted you to volunteer for this realm of pure insanity. As all of those who eventually get to call themselves “Marine,” Master Nagle lived through this experience and was then transferred to the Advanced Infantry Training School at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Within a few months, Master Nagle was transferred to the Third Marine Division, arriving in late 1955 on the island of Okinawa, a part of the Ryukyu chain, known fondly by the Marines who served there as “The Rock. ” He served at that station for nearly fourteen months. He told us that shortly after arriving, the he had discovered Soke Tatsuo Shimabuku, the creator of Isshinryu karate, “The One Heart Way. ” This was in late 1955 in the Kyan ( or “Chun” ) village, on Okinawa. At that time, Okinawa was in the hands of the United States government, since the end of World War II, but within several years would be handed back to the Japanese.
(This picture of Don Nagle was taken in 1959 and is from the collection of Rick Niemira)
The young Marine, who was probably seventeen at this time, applied as a student of Soke Shimabuku and was eventually accepted after Soke detailed his daily chores, which had to be finished prior to karate studies, such clearing the dojo area and picking things up, to create room for workouts. It would immediately have been self evident to Soke that he had a prodigy in this student, Don Nagle. As a white belt, Sensei began to form the fighting style that would become famous, throughout the karate world and which was so natural and instinctive that, with little change, he would use for the remainder of his life. He used his style, as Merlin the Sorcerer must have used his magic, deftly and without conscious thought. He would prove to be the instinctive fighter in karate, who inherently understood the principles with which Soke Shimabuku had imbued Isshinryu.
Sensei Nagle was economy of movement, who innately understood his opponent’s intentions, as soon as the opponent’s brain created the first and slightest measure of movement in his body. His Isshinryu was an immediate devastating, preemptive retaliation to movement. Unless he wished it, his fights lasted but seconds. As the Okinawans meant it to be, he fought in your face, often in a position oblique to your stance and suffocated any techniques that you attempted.
He had unlimited speed, whereby his adversary rarely saw, detected or knew what blow ended the match, or where it originated. When you felt that you had trained to the point where you had equaled his speed, he did not just notch it up a bit, he made a quantum leap. He embodied speed. His balance unbalanced your stance and created the errors of which he took advantage.
He was the cold hand of fear that you dreaded, because his perfection of the art of Isshinryu, created a silent, cold and deadly force that could not be overcome or avoided. Even those of us who felt that they gave him a good match, knew that he always controlled the pace, time and ending. He was never sorry if he injured an opponent, since that person had the option of avoiding the match. While fighting he never smiled, talked or changed expression and he taught us to do the same.
It was also an era when we fought without any protective equipment, not even a mouthpiece and were not instructed to pull our blows. In his first two dojos, the vast majority of Sensei Nagle’s students were Marines, who therefore would not complain about an injury, simply shrugging it off as a part of the game. If you were one of the Chosen Ones whom he fought several times each night, the bruises, stitches and injuries were looked upon as a medal, since he felt you were worth fighting and it became a source of honor and great pride among us to be singled out each night.
Having won matches throughout the dojos of Okinawa and finally, within the fifteen months he spent with Shimabuku, winning the legendary Okinawan Championship as a white belt, against the best of Okinawans black belts, he was promoted to Fifth Degree Black Belt or Go-Dan. At that point, with his tour of duty up, he was transferred back to the Second Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
Shortly afterward, he became acquainted with Sergeant Ernie Cates, who would eventually become the eight time All Marine Judo Champion. During the Vietnam war, Mr. Cates would be commissioned and eventually gain the rank of Captain, before retiring. Ernie ran a Judo and Jiu-Jitsu school on New Bridge Street, Jacksonville, North Carolina, just outside Camp Lejeune. Ernie Cates would also become the first American to receive the rank of Sixth Degree Black Belt, or Roko-Dan, from the Kodokan, the Hallowed Hall of Judo in Japan.
(This is a picture of Don Nagle's first dojo as it stands today. He opened the dojo in at 220 N. Bridge St. in Jacksonville, NC. in 1957. This was the first Isshin-Ryu dojo in the United States)
The two men took to each other immediately, as warriors often do, forming a partnership in the dojo and a life long friendship. The large deck within the store front dojo, was covered with a tight mat, with a curtain off to the side, acting as a dressing room. In the rear, was the living quarters of Sgt. and Mrs. Cates, who was also a competent black belt in Judo. By the time that Sensei Nagle left for civilian life, the mat was irreversibly stained with the blood of thousands of matches. No one realized it at the time, but that dojo was to become historic and referred to in stories, anecdotes, magazines and books on karate, over the following decades. The dojo turned out fighters and teachers, who in their own right would become part of the legend of Isshinryu karate, in particular and karate in general. Amongst those students were people such as Rick Niemira, Jim Chapman, Ed McGrath, Don Bohan, Ralph Bove and Otto Anderson. Although they became buddies inside and outside the school, the matches were fought with ferocity. Challengers from other dojos in and outside North Carolina, were never given any slack, since no one wanted to lose and incur the wrath of Sensei Nagle. Some of the steady students in the dojo also traveled to and challenged other schools, as far north as New York and as far south as Florida.
Upon leaving the Marine Corps, on September 1960, he returned to Jersey City New Jersey and within months, he had established his first dojo at 524 Mercer Street, New Jersey. At that time, his organization was the Isshando Karate Association. The patch was a round silver circle with straight black rays coming out from a vertical fist (Mr. McGrath, then a student, sat on the deck, with his fist placed vertically on a paint can, while another student sketched the hand. At that time, Mr. McGrath’s knuckles were enlarged from the makiwara. The name of the organization circled the rim of the patch.
In 1966, Soke Tatsuo Shimabuku visited Sensei Nagle, for two weeks, living with Sensei and his wife, Annette, whom he married in North Carolina, before he left. The entire student body worked out with Shimabuku and their Sensei, every night possible. Mr. McGrath obtained the help of a friend Appon Shimizu, as an interpreter, with whom Soke became attached. The lessons and workouts were long and hard and yet we were all sorry to see him leave. Before leaving, he promoted Master Nagle to Eighth Dan or Hachi-Dan.
(This picture was taken in 1966 while Soke Tatsuo Shimabuku was visiting Sensei Nagle's dojo in the US.)
Sensei reestablished his dojo in 1973, to Central Avenue, where Master Dennis Hoare, still maintains it, to this day, upholding the “Legend of Master Nagle. ” He teaches Traditional Isshinryu, as we were taught, by Sensei Nagle and reinforced by Soke’s visit.
Just one year later, Master Nagle, had his second civilian dream come true, when he was sworn in as a Jersey City Police Officer. He would later be assigned to the Narcotics Squad, in 1997, where he would become policeman of the year and be given the highest awards that the Department gave, for his arrest record and courage. Often, his partner has stated, that he would race up the stairs during a drug raid, kick in the door and drop everybody in the lab or room, before the other officers arrived on the scene. The Mayor of Jersey City at an Open Air Ceremony, gave Master Nagle the compliment that, “Almost singly, he was responsible for the removal of the Black Panther organization from Jersey City.
(Grand Master Don Nagle)
In August 1994, at the Isshinryu Hall of Fame Tournament and Dinner, with a group of about fifty high ranking black belts, many over sixth Dan, that the conversation turned to the feeling which had begun to well up, since the death of Soke Shimabuku, to have invested an American Grand Master, for the first time. Several people, including Lou Lizotte owner of a rival organization, prompted the convocation to give the honor to Master Nagle. When Master Harold Long stated, that “Mr. Nagle is the only logical pick for this spot, since he was the first to teach in America and was the best fighter Isshinryu had ever produced,” the entire group began to cheer and eventually, Master Nagle, who tried to refuse this title, finally gave in and was installed as the first Grandmaster and Ju-Dan in American Isshinryu. As it turned out, Kichiro Shimabuku became Grandmaster in Okinawa, but few people in the United States wished to take his direction. Grandmaster Nagle immediately moved to unify the Isshinryu community, bringing his organization and Master Long’s group together under a triumvirate from both organizations who would direct the overall groups direction.
A few years before he became ill, he was once again honored, when the United States Marshal Service requested him to become one of them, in a security position. He was extremely proud that after his retirement, his reputation preceded him and he was appointed as a Marshal.
Grandmaster Donald H. Nagle passed away on August 23, 1999. He left behind a legacy of perfection as the only goal, through dedication and perseverance. He will never be forgotten. His Legend will live on.
