Yosh Uchida

Yoshihiro Uchida (born April 1, 1920), better known as Yosh Uchida, is an American judo coach, businessman, entrepreneur, and educator who is best known for his contributions to judo. Uchida has been the head judo coach at San Jose State University for over 70 years, and has played a leading part in the development of the university's judo program. His brother George Uchida was the 1972 US Olympic judo coach. He turned 100 in April 2020.[1]

Yosh Uchida
Picture of Uchida in the 1964 San Jose State yearbook.
Born
Yoshihiro Uchida

(1920-04-01) April 1, 1920
Calexico, California
Known forAmerican judo coach, businessman, entrepreneur, educator

Early life

Uchida was born in the Imperial Valley town of Calexico, California, to Japanese immigrants who worked as farm laborers.[2][3] Later growing up in Garden Grove, Uchida began competing in judo at age 10.[4]

Uchida studied biology at San Jose State, and in 1940 was made the student-coach of the Physical Education Department's judo program.[5] During World War II, while members of his family were sent to internment camps,[6] Uchida was drafted into the United States Army during World War II and served as a medical technician. He returned to San Jose State in 1946 to complete his degree and to restart the judo program.[7]

Judo career

After graduating in 1947, Uchida remained the coach at SJSU, a part-time position, while working as a laboratory technician at O'Connor Hospital and then a lab supervisor at San Jose Hospital.[2] During this time, Uchida and University of California, Berkeley judo coach Henry Stone began developing rules to allow their students to compete against each other, including a weight class system, moving judo away from a martial art for self defense to a sport for competition. Stone and Uchida persuaded the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) to sanction judo in 1953; the first AAU National Championship in judo was held at San Jose State in that year.[8][9]

From 1960 to 1961, Uchida served as president of the Judo Black Belt Federation of America, which under his leadership started a pilot program for a national ranking system.[10] With United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) judo coach Phil Porter, Uchida co-organized the first National Collegiate Judo Championship in 1962 at USAFA.[11] Uchida's San Jose State Spartans won the first of their over 40 national championships under his leadership at the inaugural tournament.[6]

Uchida represented the United States as the team coach of the first Olympic Judo Tournament at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.[6] The team included two of Uchida's students from San Jose State, Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Paul Maruyama.[12] James Bregman won a bronze medal in the middleweight class, becoming the first American to medal in the sport.[13][14]

Uchida continued promoting the sport after the 1964 Olympics. He organized the first U.S. High School Judo Championships and the first U.S. Open tournament, both hosted at San Jose State. As of 2012, his San Jose State Spartans judo teams have won 45 of the 51 National Collegiate Judo Championships.[15][6] In February 2007, the San Jose State program was named one of six USA Judo National Training Sites.[16]

Business career

In 1957, Uchida bought and operated a failing medical laboratory in order to earn enough income to qualify for a home loan. Having bought the lab for $3,000 with a $75 down payment, Uchida made the lab profitable within one month by soliciting business from doctors with whom he worked previously.[2] Uchida's laboratory business grew to 40 locations.[2]

In 1989, he sold the business to Unilab for $30 million.[6] He used the funds from the sale to start Uchida Enterprises.[2] With 78 other investors, Uchida formed the San Jose Nihonmachi Corporation, which invested over $80 million to develop housing and businesses in San Jose's Japantown neighborhood.[2][17][6] Uchida also helped form the Japanese American Chamber of Commerce of Silicon Valley.[2]

Honors and awards

For his contributions to judo, Uchida was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure with Golden Rays in 1986 by Emperor Hirohito of Japan.[12] He was inducted into the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.[18] Uchida has also received many awards from San Jose State, including the university's highest award (the Tower Award) in 1992 and an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in 2004.[19][20] Additionally, the building on campus that houses the judo dojo was renamed "Yoshihiro Uchida Hall" in 1997.[6][20]

See also

References
  1. Almond, Elliott (April 1, 2020). "Coronavirus lockdown won't keep San Jose State judo master from his 100th birthday party". The Mercury News. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  2. Yeh, Emerald. "Yoshihiro Uchida". Asian Pacific Fund. Archived from the original on March 20, 2005. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  3. Myrow, Rachael (April 7, 2018). "San Jose's Own 'Grandfather of Judo' Still Kicking at 98". KQED. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  4. Jackson, Julia Halprin (March 30, 2020). "Spartan Judo Legend Turns 100". San Jose State University. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  5. "History". San Jose State University Judo. Archived from the original on June 8, 2004. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  6. Rhoden, William C. (April 1, 2012), "For 66 Years, a Force for Judo in the United States", The New York Times, New York, New York, retrieved April 16, 2020
  7. "Yoshihiro Uchida: Judo's Goodwill Ambassador". California State University. July 9, 2018. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  8. "History of American Martial Arts: Judo". American Black Belt Academy. Archived from the original on July 20, 2002. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  9. Purdy, Mark (May 31, 2004). "Back where he began it". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on June 17, 2004. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  10. "The History of Judo". United States Kajukenbo Association. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  11. Johnson, Gil (April 1974), "A new look for Joe College: from letter-sweater to black belt", Black Belt, vol. 12, no. 4, p. 25 – via Google Books
  12. Whiteside, Kelly (March 22, 1993), "The Teachings of the Master", Sports Illustrated
  13. Lasseter, Evan. "For Yosh Uchida, judo is a way of life". United States Olympic & Paralympic Digital Museum. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  14. Murray, Jack (October 1976), "One Man's Dream for "A Better Judo"", Black Belt (Yearbook ed.), vol. 14, no. 10, p. 62 – via Google Books
  15. "National Collegiate Judo Championships". San Jose State Judo. March 25, 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-05-07. Retrieved 2007-07-05.
  16. "USA Judo Announces Three New Training Sites". USA Judo. February 17, 2007. Archived from the original on March 5, 2007. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  17. Fan, Lawrence (April 1, 2020). "Happy 100th Birthday To Legendary Judo Coach Yosh Uchida". SJSUSpartans.com. San Jose State University. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  18. "Inductees, Members of the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame". San Jose Sports Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on July 11, 2006. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  19. "AS 1687, Sense of the Senate Resolution: Honoring Professor Yoshihiro Uchida for His 70 Years of Service to San José State University" (PDF). San Jose State University. March 12, 2018. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  20. "Robert Caret Named Commencement Speaker". San Jose State University. May 5, 2004. Archived from the original on May 18, 2004. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
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