July 25, 1996 – Dr. Gene Beadle of Bruce almost made it to the Olympics representing the U.S.A. in judo.
It wasn’t the games now going on in Atlanta, however. It was 32 years ago and the games were being held in Tokyo.
Dr. Beadle had won many medals and titles in judo competitions, but a turn of fate, or a slip in concentration, denied him the opportunity to compete as an athlete.
During the competition tryouts in 1964, he broke his collar bone and was unable to continue. He was, however, allowed to go to the Olympics as an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) official.
With the start of the Summer Olympics in Atlanta this week, he reminisced about “coming close.” Winning the competition as Grand Champion in Southern California qualified him for the Olympic tryouts in New York City that were being held at the World’s Fair.
“I had very mixed feelings about the outcome,” he said.
“I was terribly disappointed and angry at myself for not making a better effort in the competition,” he said. “But, it was nice to get to go at all and as an official. I had more freedom than the athletes and was able to do a lot of traveling in Japan. We stayed about six weeks.”
He has an Olympic gold medal from the Japan games, but it is only a replica. He said he bought it from a vendor selling the imitations outside the area where the games were being held. “Immediately after I did, the Japanese police came and arrested him,” Dr. Beadle said.
He said he began learning judo in 1953, after moving to Los Angeles from South Dakota. He worked during the day and took judo lessons at night at the Japanese Community Center, which he had joined for that specific purpose.
“I feared it – there was something about all those flying bodies that frightened me and on the other hand, it forced me to face my fear by jumping into it head first,” he said.
He explained the unusual circumstances under which he struggled to learn the martial art, judo, that had been selected as Japan’s main method of defense.
As a result of World War II, an uneasy peace existed among the Caucasians in California and the Japanese who had lived there, raised their families and earned their livings for a long time. Most of them had been sent to “camps” during World War II, because their loyalty to the United States was questioned simply because the United States was at war with their native country. After the war, they were returned to their former places of residence in the states and two of his instructors were among those who had been sent to camp.
He said it was five or six years before they accepted him and spoke to him in English.
“They would not give me judo instructions in English. They would say something to me in Japanese and then flip me to the floor,” he said. “I would go home and look up the phrase they kept repeating in an English-Japanese translation.”
“The next time, it would be a new phrase and more falls,” he said. “I spent months just standing up and falling down.”
“After a very long time, they accepted me, began to speak to me in English and finally said, ‘You think like a Japanese.’ I thought that was a very great compliment.”
Thinking is important in judo because it involves concentration and skillful use of the body,” he said. Judo teaches students to give way to their opponent and makes it possible for a smaller person to have an advantage over a larger one.
He received the black belt in judo in 1960 and the third degree black belt in 1964. He was promoted to fourth degree in 1985.
After the 1964 competition, Dr. Beadle still traveled with the judo teams to competitions in Mexico, Alaska and Japan to national competitions, but was never interested again in trying out for the Olympics.
“I guess I just lost heart over that,” he said.
He participated in tournament competition until moving to Bruce in 1979 and then opened a judo school and continued to practice the art.
“I don’t teach now and don’t practice, but I do work out occasionally,” he said. “I still have the knowledge but not the physical ability because of my age. I don’t move as fast and my body doesn’t heal as fast as it did, when I was younger.”
He still has Olympic memorabilia. Among his collection of souvenirs are first day stamp covers from the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley, Calif. autographed by such athletes as Johnny Weissmuller, Rafer Johnson, Bob Mathias, Sammy Lee and others. “I bought these from a man who was down on his luck.”
Dr. Beadle said he has only used judo as a form of defense twice in his life. “I was not particularly proud of that later.”