 Good afternoon, and welcome to the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. I am Elizabeth A. Sackler, and I am happy to host today's lecture with Rusty Kanakogi. And to let you know a little bit, before we begin about the center, we opened in 2007 in March, so we're coming up on our second anniversary. And in addition to being in the exhibition space for art and the beautiful dinner party by Judy Chicago, we are also an education facility. And this space enables us to fulfill a mission that I am very keen about, which is raising awareness of feminism's cultural contributions and educating new generations about feminist art and about the history of feminist thought. And since we have opened, we have had more than half a dozen critically acclaimed exhibitions in the center galleries, and we have hosted scores of panel discussions and lectures, and thousands of people have been in attendance. The world, as I guess we all know, works in mysterious ways. And when race car driver Danika Patrick became the first woman to win an indie car race in Japan in 2008, she made sports headlines in the New York Times, and it caught my eye. And I took note, and I took note because I was a girl jock in the 1960s, and there was no WNBA. It wasn't even a twinkle in anybody's eye. In fact, there was no college basketball, which was terrible when I went off to college. And there was no women's tennis that was considered comparable or as important as men's tennis. It was before the Billie Jean King-Bobby-Riggs match, which probably all of us watched with Greg Gusto. And so I began to think about how wonderful it would be to have a month here of women in sports. I now have significant women doing significant things in all of the sports areas. That's not going to be happening this month, but I hope it will happen in a future month, one weekend after the next, after the next. So today is particularly important to me, and this is where the world is mysterious. I was at the Center for Philanthropy at CUNY. My friend Kathy McCarthy is the head, the director there. And it was there that, at a panel discussion that had nothing to do with sports, that I met Milena Herring, who is the executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation. So I went up to her and I said, oh, I had been reading about Danachal, and I have this great idea, and this is what I'd like to do at the center. And so in addition to her telling me a lot about, my learning a lot about the importance of the work that the Women's Sports Foundation is doing, she also invited me to Women's Sports Foundation annual benefit, which if you haven't been, you must go. It fills the entirety of the Waldorf story of Ballroom, and it was such a high. It was such an incredible high. And of course last year there was enormous excitement because all of the women athletes who had just come from Beijing were there. And it was just, it was just thrilling. I think however that the most auspicious part of that evening for me was being seated next to Reina Rusty Kenakogi. And in addition to having the pleasure of watching and hearing some young women athletes and some older women athletes coming up to Rusty, one after the other to say hello, to say thank you, and all other expressions of awe and appreciation, I had the pleasure of her company and we, I thought were pretty good dinner mates that night. It was really wonderful. And I, we hit it off. But I feel like it's easy to hit it off with you, Rusty, because you are jam. You are just an incredible jam in this world. And by the end of the evening it felt as if we had known one another for a really, really long time. And I asked her before we left that evening if she would come and speak at the center and she said she would. And here we are today. And we send out from the foundation, from the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation email blasts when I have invited somebody to come. And we don't usually get any particular responses. Well, not this time, Rusty. It was amazing how many people's lives have been touched by you that I know. And I didn't know that. And here are some of the responses that came back. Barbara Dopkin wrote, I regret being unable to attend one of your programs. I love Rusty. I even own a black belt she signed. I'm glad to hear that she'll be at the museum sending her and you my very best. And from Judy Chicago's biographer, Gail Levin, she wrote, I have a class at 10.30 that morning, which will be a studio visit. So I hope I'll be able to go, but I doubt it. I did interview Rusty, Lee Krasner's niece, and she is terrific. All the best, Gail. And from a former BMA board member and collector, Sue Stoffel, she wrote, she was my judo teacher at Dwight from 1969 to 1975. You can tell her I am one of her greatest fans. She left a lasting impression on a young female adolescent growing up in the hellhole, which was New York at the time. She was three that came back. Early in my career, writes Rusty, I defied the rules of gender by competing with men. It was tolerated until I began to win. When banned in the competition, she says, I vowed this would never happen to a female again. Thank you for that. Her bio is as long and wonderful and as important in the sports arenas as Gloria Steinem's. Rusty went on to become international and national coach and international referee and an advocate and promoter of the sport. In the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea, she was the USA women's judo coach. And it was the first inclusion of women's judo in the Olympics ever. Three U.S. women athletes competed and resulting in one silver medal and one bronze medal. 1976 to 79, international coach, 1974 to 96, national coach. When she was coaching, the USA was number one in the world when she was the solo coach of those teams. She was the NBC judo commentator in 2004 for the Olympics in Athens, Greece. And media panelist for the International Judo Federation in Cairo, Egypt in 2005. Rusty apparently, and I have no reason to believe it isn't so, has taught more than 100,000 people at every level. Colleges include Pratt, John Jay, School of Criminal Justice, Brooklyn College, the high schools are private and public for kids at risk, elementary school. And she continues to be an advocate for all athletes in judo and Title IX, which of course we know is gender equity in education. Rusty is our shiro and our pioneers. She organized the first women's world championship held in Madison Square Garden in 1980. She campaigned and litigated for women's judo inclusion in the Olympic games and every level of competition including Olympic sports festivals and the U.S. Olympic Committee Training Center in Colorado Springs. Her awards include a presidential award from the Women's Sports Foundation. She's been inducted into the Women's Sports Foundation International Hall of Fame. She's a medal from the International Judo Federation, World Pioneer Women's Judo 2003, inducted into the New York Public School Athletic League Hall of Fame in 2003. Also in a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Athletic Club, and I'm running out of breath. It's marvelous. Recent awards include a Lifetime Achievement from the New York Athletic Club Organizers of the New York Open Judo Championships. And Rusty received from the Emperor and Country of Japan an honor of the Rising Sun Award last November 2008, which was, that's sort of how we did it all. I received an invitation. And it was one of the most moving, and I'm sure your family is here to attest to it, the most moving and important events that has taken place. I know how thrilled you were, and it was really a pleasure to be a part of that, and I thank you. Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz. Yay, Marty, named November 24th, the Rain and Rusty Kanakoki Celebration Day. In Brooklyn, so we now have a Rusty Day in Brooklyn. And also, there is an endowment in her name at the International Sports Foundation to assist in the development of women's judo that began in 2008. Obviously, she has been featured in Sports Illustrated, and I sort of wrote down, not in the swimsuit edition, and then I thought, oh, I don't want to be, you know, risque. She has been, of course, on cable and national news, and she has lists of newspaper and magazine articles. And just to close this wonderful circle of our universe, being here at the Brooklyn Museum at the Elizabeth A. Sanford Center for Feminist Art, Rusty is Lee Krasner's niece. And she was involved with the Krasner Pollock Foundation. She says she's a watchdog, keeping sure that the grants that go out are equal measure, gender-wise. And she was in the documentary on Jackson Pollock in 2005, and I think the only thing we're missing is the documentary about you, Rusty, Raina Rusty Kanakoki. Please help me welcome her, and it's wonderful. I'm tired. I've done that much. Well, thank you all for being here today to help celebrate Women's History Month, and I'd like to thank Dr. Elizabeth Sackler and Rebecca for all the great help and allowing me to share my story with you. I see many of my friends and family in the audience. Thank you for being here. And with the schedule and all the things that we're preoccupied with, maybe this is the best way to get together. The story is going to be a little different, probably, than you expected, because I'm going to tell the truth. Firstly, the name is incredible. I started out in the Daily Mirror many, many years ago. I was referred to as a female launching pad. I graduated to the Queen of Judo, and now I'm the mother of Judo. I've been called a lot of mothers over the past 50 years, escalating what I believed in was justice and equality in my sport. The presentation will have PowerPoint, different photos, and then I can elaborate and work around those and give you a little bit of the background of what gave me the incentive and how I was raised and my experiences to give me the simple word, it's Japanese, I hope you understand it. Khootspa, so really push and not be able to take no as an answer. We're going to start off the PowerPoint with the childhood. Well, that's a little older. Now, I think I was about, the photo and the stroller, that stroller is probably in the Smithsonian Institute. I must have been all of two years old, but the attitude was there. They have no doubt about who I was and how I was going to face the world. The photo with my mother, as you could see, even though it was time of the depression, I was eating well. What? I don't know, but I guess with all the potatoes and bread, they made sure that I wasn't stopping. And we were sitting on a porch in Coney Island, actually that address. We lived at Sixkister Court, which no longer exists. It's right off West 8th Street, but it's about one block away from the beach and right about two minutes away from all the rides. Before we go to actually, the photo's up, but I just wanted to talk a little bit about Coney Island and the childhood. And some of you will go down memory lane with me. Basically, as a kid, what was available to me was the usual. You go to school and you tried to follow the rules, but Coney Island was a unique experience because just in the building we were in, the small two-family house, it was for transients. People would come to work Coney Island. You were acquainted with the people in the different shows, whether it be the sword swallower or Milo, the mule face boy or the mermaid. There were different characters that you got to know, you weren't afraid of, you spent time with them. They seemed ordinary to you and yet people were paying money to see them. I was getting an education from school, but I was also getting an education from the street. My family was at the time and for a long time they weren't, my mother and father weren't compatible, but at that time there was no such thing as divorce and they stayed together. I was the messenger in the kitchen and the messenger was, you tell him and then you tell her and this is in the same room. It was a constant ping-pong game. A toughness was growing that I had to deal with this type of relationship. The negative physical part was I think once in a while when there was some violence, except it worked in my favor, when a ketchup bottle was thrown. It wasn't at me, but I didn't duck and I got clobbered with it. All of a sudden it had Mom and Dad speaking to each other to find out if I was dead. I said, that's good and then the ketchup dripping off my head. So it was that kind of relationship, but it was building something in me, I guess, a resentment and unrest, obviously a dysfunctional family and how to deal with that. At one point it was a matter of, I thought this was a normal life and the only life that I could know of was going to the movies and seeing some of the characters and the characters, he said, wait a minute, there's another life. People are dancing and happy and getting along and not fighting and not throwing ketchup bottles at each other and I said wait, something, I'm in the wrong life over here. Other than that, my friends, they had problems too. Either the father had a gambling problem or a problem with alcohol, but those days there was always something negative going on and it was tough for a kid to not have to deal with it. Coney Island background was really handy for me because at one point during World War II we had what was called a Mardi Gras and that was usually in September and that would be sort of the end of the Coney Island season and it would also have many military people there, soldiers, sailors, everybody having a good time, a lot of girls looking for boyfriends and boyfriends, looking for girlfriends and movie stars and so forth and that's when I made my most money because I enjoyed working, that was the only way I could get some money and my job, my mother came up with the idea of selling confetti and recently I explained to a friend of mine from Japan what confetti was because why would people want to throw paper at each other but it parted the celebration and as an eight-year-old, I remember having a cardboard box several people worked for my mother and my father at the time they spoke because now they're in business together and it was a cardboard box with a string through either side and hang it on the neck and fill up the bags with confetti and my mother, great entrepreneur, pushed the bottom of the bag up so she could put my confetti in and nobody would be wiser and she could make more money well, certainly I was only the messenger here and as the eight-year-old, I already knew that I had to be different I was the only girl doing this, she had boys working for her and there were other people on the street with the confetti business and I knew I had to be different and I had to make these sales because the more I would sell I would be able to earn and keep my commission well, at the time they came out with homogenized milk and I said, okay, I'm going to turn this into a good business so I was barking at the time get your homogenized confetti here, homogenized confetti and people were buying it, they didn't have a clue what it was but it was homogenized and that was the latest thing so that was my homogenized confetti I also knew that people that were in a bar drinking would be a little looser with their change and I could sell them and being a girl with two pigtails, freckles, little chunky going around, I was already appreciated by the public because, oh, look at that little girl, you know well, with that, I went into the bar at Feltmetz which was a long, long bar and who do I happen upon? and I went right over to them and with my confetti box and tried to sell my homogenized confetti and they pulled out a dollar and he gave it to me and he didn't even ask for the confetti it was Lawn Cheney and he was with his big books and Blonde it was just like a movie and I had my dollar and I didn't have to turn that into my mother but here I was at eight years old already working the street I knew the homogenize, I knew getting the gimmicks I knew different people that worked in Coney Island I was monitoring them, seeing how they did things half of it was a scam half of it was hard work but for the most part it was survival and that education started pushing me in the direction tolerance for people that maybe had that was Milo the Muleface boy who incidentally I was thrilled to death I thought it was a movie star because after I got to know him every time they put him in front of the show to entice the people to come in he would look at me and sing and I was just a child he would just sing Let Me Call You Sweetheart and to me he said wow he selected me this is fantastic and the poor man actually he was retarded and had buck teeth so they turned him into Milo the Muleface boy but that was Coney Island you took what you could you exaggerated it you convinced people this was somebody to deal with and see so that was part of the education the rides my mother worked in Luna Park actually we would enter in the first great fire and I remember the dragons gorge that's where the fire started and that was right across from not the street but the alleyway where the concession she worked in was she worked for a man by the name of Mr. Jaffe and he was a nice man and I remember from probably May through September my daily meal was hot dog, root beer and french fries and didn't get better than that and that was the way it was plus with my mother's connections to all the rides I was Rosie's daughter I can go on any ride I wanted and the kids in the neighborhood all wanted to be my friend because if they take the one and this is 8, 9, 10 years old the day of the fire I remember being in steeplechase pool and once I realized there was a fire I went into a panic because I knew they said it was the dragons gorge this ride and I said oh my god my mother is right next door my mother and I ran no shoes my little bathing suit on from the pool which was approximately a block and a half away but within the park to try to reach my mother to save my mother to find her and as I was en route one of the one burly cop grabbed me and I said no no you can't go there that's dangerous so I was in a panic and ran around in circles and crying and didn't know what to do and when I finally ran home which was about three blocks away and when I got there by the door there was a parrot and several cottons of cigarettes I said my mother must be okay how did this get here well it seemed the fire was going on and the bar next door my mother rescued the parrot she's also rescued several cottons of cigarettes for her so I knew everything was okay but she actually went to find me so there was always something going on and there was I wouldn't call it so much wheeling and dealing but there was opportunity and you took advantage of it without too much of breaking the law maybe little improprieties there but nothing too serious because afterwards she was just rescuing the cigarettes I mean she wouldn't know what to do with them she wouldn't know what to do with them later so so actually the Coney Island part of my life was an education a lot of negative but a lot of positive as I was growing up before sports I really looked up to my brother he the household was like this I slept with my mother in one bedroom my mother and brother were in the the living room and they each had their own bed and then there was the kitchen then there was the hallway and the bathroom that we shared with the landlord and the landlady and that's a whole other story that has to be in the bar so and then of course we had a door and it would be my way of always playing doctor and the door would be my patient and the poor thing was taped up more than anything and what I did to poor Tutsi I remember getting a nickel and I wanted to buy Tutsi a gift so I went to the 5 and 10 and I did buy Tutsi a gift and everybody looked at us and laughed and couldn't figure it out well the only thing I could afford was this thing in a little carton and it looked lovely and I tied it around Tutsi's neck and paraded and rolled over the place with it and unbeknownst to me it was a sanitary napkin to me it was a decoration and I didn't know and then another time with poor Tutsi what I did was my mother had one lipstick in her whole life coating and I found it and I decided Tutsi needed lips so there goes the lipstick so I really Tutsi was my best friend for a long long time it was hard to have too many friends because as I grew up the Jewish girls in the neighborhood I started becoming a bad kid so the mothers would not let them play with me after a while they said no no you have to study let her go her way and I took the Christian girls and later on we formed a gang because it was time to make sure we can register our turf we knew the boys had a gang and we knew that it was time for the girls to have a gang and be able to take care of themselves and if necessary put that energy in the direction if they wanted to fight to arrange a fight it was an arrangement after school arrangement there was only one other girl gang we were the Apaches there was another gang called the Scallots and that was an African American gang and we were the 6 Christian 1 Jew gang worked out well the fight was ok we would meet in the school yard and have our fight we had our uniforms and so clever you didn't wear your official jacket which was a beautiful satin chartreuse and black jacket when you're going to war you wore your uniform what was your uniform a navy type of sweater that had some kind of an oil in it I think if anybody was either in the service shops at Lodell's it's very strong you can't pull it off because girls when they fight one of the first things they do is rip off the shirt because then you're in your underwear and then you can't fight you'll be covering up and the other thing is the hair was tied back either in a ponytail or braids it took gasoline on your face on your arms so when they went to scratch it would come off a lot of things you could either invent or figure out and do and that was very effective and the pants were bell bottoms at the time I remember going to school yard at PS100 we had this fight schedule organized fight and I couldn't find my game so I said they're probably over there I gave them the credit for being there well I show up and nobody else except a couple of the boyfriends of this college, old of the fellas and I go uh oh I have a problem and I noticed they had umbrellas that was it wasn't raining but there were a couple people with umbrellas and I said that's going to be a weapon now I had a weapon however I didn't have it on that day when my brother was in a marines he gave me a gift of a bayonet and I and I with two gauders I used to have it attached to my leg and never had to use it but just the fact that I had it and people knew I had it was don't go near hub be careful she has that bayonet on probably a bayonet on one leg and a tommy gun on the other one but it was enough to intimidate and I found that innuendo and intimidation it needed sometimes works and uh to cut through to the fight while I was there the umbrellas came out well it was said I'm being wacky with umbrellas and people are swinging while I'm trying and I'm swinging while and this was the first time I wanted to hear the police silent and I said oh where are they and fortunately a woman saw what was going on and she called the cops and oh I was happy and I said oh thank god because it was like six two boyfriends and one of the boyfriends made sure his jacket opened so I could see his zip gun so I was damned if I did damned if I didn't at that point and everybody scattered and of course the rule on the street when they said what's going on because everybody scattered but I was still standing there what's going on nothing nothing what do you mean nothing there was everybody's running in old direction what's the problem I heard you know I probably was scratching so forth well anyway later on um that day I went step by step and found my guy well they hold chicken down but step by step I found him and step by step I had to beat him up a little bit to teach them they shouldn't do that then after that they behave so I work it wasn't like the gangs of nowadays but the point of that story was organization and counting on people and uh responsibility and have had uh something more serious happened to me it was my responsibility I walked into it with my eyes open so that was my sport there wasn't anything for girls to formally do we had our street games the boys always picked me first um I was strong um my brother was my role model he uh he lifted weights he would look in the mirror and say how do I look kid and of course I'd have to say great otherwise he'd hit me so I had no choice uh so I was following his example he was an athlete to a certain degree sports were available to him in school and he was eight years my senior nothing available to me I remember uh wearing these rompers in school in seventh grade eighth grade and um what they had the rompers itself were incredible I don't know why we put it on we didn't need to really change our clothes for the amount of work the girls were doing because they they didn't really want to do anything and then I remember when we did play volleyball and I spiked the ball everybody close their eyes hit their head and that was it and I was all alone um when we played with the boys battle ball or dodge ball that was great because you could run up to the line you could take the ball and you could smash the person and they expected everybody to run back but I would stand by the line and give me a best shot and they wouldn't and I would just catch it pull it into me and there I was right next to them and I'd get it back some of you I'm sure experienced that too so I start getting daring and sports um I like being strong it had nothing to do with being fit there was no such thing at the time it was just strong I was getting more aggressive I was getting more hostile because of the family life to chip on the shoulder watching the movie and saying hey there's another life that's not my life something's wrong here my role models from the film who'd I like Joe Lewis, Fox's strong guy movies who did I really like Dillinger Ma Barker, Babyface Nelson and then when I found out um Lebsky I believe some big gangster from Coney Island I said wow Jews could be tough gangsters now I was getting all these role models and I was definitely going in the wrong direction but there wasn't a right direction there wasn't sports um the role models basically the women that I know was my mother some of her friends um the mothers of my friends from my gang and these women were victims because their husbands also had problems um so there was nobody to look up to once in a while on the news you'd see Eleanor Roosevelt and uh but you could not relate I mean how could I possibly relate to Eleanor Roosevelt Babe Dietrichson that was she was almost like a ghost because she was special she was the only one and who could live up to that so it had nothing to do with being an athlete it was you're in a bind you don't know what direction to go you're reaching out you're striking out uh you know you have something burning in you but you really can't identify it uh you don't expect anything for nothing work was great for me I've worked since I was 8 years old on the books when I was 16 and I was able to earn my keep because there wasn't any private or personal company to do anything when I wanted something I worked for it I worked at jobs that you couldn't believe selling water selling ice water the buses came in from Philadelphia people were drinking gin all the way to Phil from Philadelphia they got off the bus they were thirsty nobody gave them a glass of water because of their race so I had a business anywhere since and five cents a glass of water it was the same glass had a big keg of ice and uh people bought my water I earned ten dollars on Saturday and ten dollars on Sunday I could go shopping I could go downtown Brooklyn to Martins and shop till I dropped the the funny thing is once I got into the business and other people came into the business and now we're going to have a turf war but it went further than that because I um I let everybody know that the stand next to me or a little bit down that they grandma they washed their grandma's bloomism out and I thought you know okay now we're going to start with the manipulation and then somehow a praying mantis landed on my big chunk of ice and people came over and said what's that and I said where my family comes from in Russia this is the best sign this is the best good luck you could possibly have actually this is my grandfather reincarnated and it worked I was selling more water than I I could handle so this is all before 15 16 years old so I was on the way the uh sports was still street sports nothing in school I tried to get the sport with street fighting I was able to convince the science teacher who after school did a program I also taught boxing I convinced him to teach me how to hit the heavy bag and I got into a little bit boxing so instead of just throwing my punches wildly I could really throw a pretty good punch and hit the heavy bag and I loved hitting the heavy bag because it was an outlet and had this churning burning when I went roller skating instead of just roller skating to the music I turned it into roller derby trying to knock everybody in the skating way it could never be anything normal it had to be physical it had to be aggressive it had to be attack it had to be win no direction to go finally I met a man who actually had this white round thing tied up with a yellow belt and I asked him I said what's that looking thing that's my judo gi what the heck is that because the only thing I knew about the Japanese were from World War II from the news from the movies even the the visible impression was everybody looked like Tojo or Hirohito at the time and it was a strange country and we were at war with them we had a big war we won the war and it was a terrible war on both sides but I really didn't know too much about Japan or for that matter I didn't know too much about anything outside of Coney Island and Brooklyn well he told me it was his judo gi and I said what do you do with it and he says well we throw people well that's great I said I usually punch people but I've never thrown anybody how do you do that and he without the gi he put that down he just put his arm around my waist and picked me up on his hip and held me there like it was a piece of paper and I had to out weigh him by at least 40 pounds and he put me down and I said how did you do that it was magic it was unbelievable how little effort on his part well I think he did it again he actually did it probably twice and I said I want to learn that how do I learn that and he said well you can't he said because I work out at a YMCA in Brooklyn and it's no girls no women he said I have to learn that well that was it the seed was planted it was something I wanted it was something I had to go after and at the time I was at a Presser Park YMCA which had a women's night on Wednesdays and they had a combination of trampoline and rings and medicine bowl and basketball and different exercises and the physical education director there after my participation I realized that I was strong I was aggressive I could do a lot of the skills very quickly and he asked me to assist him and I said sure because this way I didn't have to pay it was something I could do after I was there a while I mentioned that the Brooklyn Central YMCA had a judo program that I wanted to get in that judo program and he called all of them out in the whole building so he explained to the director there of Mr. Kern he said well she's different she's unusual she's strong blah blah blah and they said no it doesn't matter no women period well finally Mitchell Lauren Mitchell came up with the idea he said how about let's make this a YMCA project here's the deal if we can get you into if I can convince Renee Kern to let you into the Brooklyn Central YMCA to learn judo in order for you to come back and teach it at whatever you learn at the Preston Park YMCA the following week maybe we can do a deal well it worked and they let me in and at the time you had to earn your judo uniform my friend was a yellow belt so he already had earned his uniform we the beginner had to wear an army fatigue cut down the sleeves cut just like the judo uniform same thing with the trousers the metal buttons cut off and a clothesline rope to go around your waist two times and that was the uniform well that was fine if they said come in your pajamas that would have been okay with me too as long as I can get in there and I show up the first night and of course there's no place to change so I didn't even have the uniform at the time I actually just had regular clothes on and it was 40 men and some of them were advanced and there were only a handful of beginners in myself and you can imagine the air in that room in that dojo on that mat the looks fortunately I was tall pretty well built strong looking I didn't sashay in like I was a flower and I didn't walk in like I was going to take all these men on single-handedly either with an attitude just went in nice and calmly and that was the beginning on the mat I didn't know where to stand I didn't know how to bow I didn't know any of that stuff so I kind of hung out at the end and that's the way it worked well those sessions, those classes, the once a week and then going back teaching the following week I had three women that was the beginning of the actual teaching career so I was teaching as I was learning which is a pretty good way to do something too I knew I had to work harder than anybody in the class because when we're doing push-ups corner the eye watching me when I was falling corner of the eye watching and I got the respect of majority of men in the class and basically they were a handful that just kind of didn't want me there they probably didn't know why they just, you know, this is our territory and get out but never said it to me had they, I would have probably went back to Coney Island street fighting and did them in so that was the beginning that same YMCA had a team out of the 40 students there was usually a handful, maybe 6, 7 people that were the official team and they would compete locally and regionally to see who would be going up to the state championship finals and the state championship finals because YMCA Judo was a big deal at that time not because there weren't really too many clubs and what happened was I trained as hard worked as hard, they had their team formed Brooklyn Central YMCA made it into the finals they were going to compete in Utica, New York at the state championship I wasn't going to be part of the team part of the former competitions but I was going to go up and root for the team and be part of it that way a couple days before the actual competition training one of the team members got hurt captain asked me would you like to compete I was thrilled I never in a million years thought I would be invited onto this team because I looked at this team I believe I was a green belt at the time and these were black belts and brown belts I mean just rank-wise I was in awe of everyone and plus technically some of them were really good and a couple of them even though they were brown belts I was basically I would say I was equal at least and they didn't the captain didn't tell me make sure your hand was short make sure your shoulders were big they were big at the time men could wear a t-shirt under their uniform because especially if they were hairy chest when you were gripping they would get their hair pulled so nobody thought a second thought about having a t-shirt underneath which naturally I would have to do went up to Utica the idea of the ace bandage around my chest was my idea not that I was so well endowed at the time but I figured healthy pectoral muscles or at least what I could get away with rather than sticking out boobs so it wasn't too difficult I got the ace bandage a t-shirt it was really raring and ready to go and finals they line us up two teams everybody's eye-bowling each other no one's talking about me with a female male irrelevant the other team I don't think had a clue my team is not talking about anything incidentally at that point a teacher had passed away so the captain was in charge we go into our competition I was told by the captain to pull a draw think of competing just pull a draw in team competitions that's important because the strategy you have this ace who's going to win and that one on this borderline but a draw is very important so okay I'll do the best I can although a draw means that you have to fight defensively nowadays you get big penalties for that but those days you can do that and get away with it we won say one match we got a half point the second match lost the third so we were winning anyway whether I won my match or not my draw would have certainly helped them if I lost it may have been a problem well my time came fella came up I went up to the boundary line we bowed in and everything that the captain told me and what my thought my plan was going to be went out the window soon as we bowed and touched I threw I couldn't wait I went for I went 100% and why I did that because I was so scared I was afraid I was afraid I didn't want to lose and the only way not to lose was to win so that's what I did and I surprised myself I surprised my team and then I followed the throw not just standing I followed it down to the mat and just smash and then I got up this is something I do on a daily team and we bowed out and I imagine my face was pretty red and went back and everybody gave me at a girl but without saying it and then I think there was one more match and we won they gave us the win the essential referee gave us the win and then we lined up and we got our medals each one of us got a gold medal and the other team got the silver medal and then the team trophy the tournament director which was the YMCA director the big team trophy to the captain and we were supposed to have a big celebration dinner and we were all happy and carrying on and the next thing I know is someone comes over to me and said Mr. someone so wants to see you in his office and I just had a feeling and I said uh oh so I didn't have the trophy but I did have the medal on my neck and I went into the office and it was the tournament director and he said look no hello nothing he said are you a girl and I looked at him and I said yes I'm a girl I said well you're going to have to give back your medal otherwise we're going to take the team trophy away so I just stood there I I had no feeling whatsoever it was I felt cold I took the medal off and I put it in his hand when I walked back into the dojo area my teammates can see there was no medal and they hey what happened to us so I said ah no big deal he knows I'm a girl you know I mean no one said you can't be a girl so I was being punished for being a female actually there was nothing in the rules nothing spelled out and the team you could tell and on one part of me felt really depressed because my team's spirit even though they were the champions the state champions their spirit went down and now I start cracking jokes and making fun out of it and to try to cheer them up but in my mind from the cold feeling to joking around I had two feelings one I was really pissed off two I said this could never happen to another female again and I put that on the back burner I didn't know what I was going to do I didn't have a plan but I just knew it was a horrible feeling and women should never have to experience this ever I continued training I don't know what I was training for training training training for the love of Judo I like what Judo did for me I like the extended family I like the self-discipline it was taking me away from the negativities I was turning the bad into good I was helping other people by teaching women their husbands and boyfriends came up and said hey we like this then had children's classes so I was teaching from the time I was almost a beginner and that helped me with my technique and learning but here I was doing this training without a purpose without a goal because I didn't realize I was on a mission after YMCA then I was able to get into private club I was one of the teams I was on and my sensei is right in the middle Mr. Saganji and you could tell I'm the one with the red circle but you could see it wasn't too hard to blend in being a male because of the height because of the way training you kind of get a little thin in the face and I fit right in this was a tough team we had inter club competition and I believe you can see the team trophy so we did pretty good the next photo another team and still being the only female but none of these guys ever took it easy on me which I'm grateful for because if they did they would be on the bottom not me the respect was not necessarily how they treated you it was how they played you so it wasn't a tickle it was always a tough rendering which is free play and or fight at that time beside the YMCA championship most competitions were inter club and I was a viable player of my team at that time whatever club I was in now this is in Japan 1962 I'm in the back you could see the heavy duty people these are all legends of Judo especially in the first team the first line on the benches these were tough senseis in Japan they invited to practice in the main dojo when I first went to Japan in 1962 I became a problem because they didn't know what to do with me first normally they put me in the women's dojo and that was fun and I learned a lot of skills but I was killing the poor girls they were not used to somebody playing Judo the way I was playing I was playing regular Judo maybe at the time I was called exceptional it was men's Judo you're not doing women's Judo but what's the difference I didn't know I trained this hard this is the way I came up this is the way I trained people they invited me into this main dojo which affectionately called the meat house it probably has mats maybe hundreds and hundreds of armies actually that's where I met my husband at Korokan in 1962 and just like the old adage years ago the Japanese man walked in front and the woman walked behind well that never happened to us or with us we always walk side by side and I'm very happy to let you know that this November we've been walking side by side for 45 years actually when we first met at Korokan we were just friends and he had been scouted by several countries to go and teach he was on the Japanese Olympic coaching staff at that time in the early 60's and then what I used to do for beer was arm wrestle and I win because I'm left handed and the Japanese are right handed so I take the businessman and just knock him down one, two, three so I had my little gimmicks going on we always know how to get a beer in another country and it was amazing because I stayed for the summit training and he my husband went to back to his town which is in southern Japan in Kyushu and stayed with his family and father had the television on and he said, look, look there's this woman at Korokan, look at her he says, I know her, she's my friend I see her all the time, I don't have to look at her and father looks at her and she's a big strong girl looks like she could probably have good babies so I didn't realize my father along with Yenta at the time but it did work out and yes I did have big babies and some of these babies are still big so so Judo actually as an aside it gave me and still gives me my purpose it gave me direction, it gave me my family it gave me my life and how could I not ever want to stop doing things for Judo for people in Judo people around Judo because I had recruited and had more people and they don't even know how I got them involved helping Judo anywhere from the governor of New York to the former borough president they didn't realize they didn't even know what Judo was but I convinced them because of my passion not by my Coney Island patronized bitch it was because of the passion and what I believed in and what I wanted for other people so that was always a big help for the campaign and the crusade there's people in the room that they don't know how but I said I have a team coming from Germany I didn't say how many and I had this is a nice Jewish family from Germany really a team coming and I said can you house some of them well I think I put about 20 of them to judge Ruben's house there were thousands of boxes of cereal and we had she don't know why she did it she still doesn't know why she did it people don't know why they did things they helped me in the cause but they did and it's amazing and it all worked out well and in fact the hot dog eating competition in Coney Island and Nathan's put two girls in it and one from Germany one from the US and I coached them and at the time they beat the men and they won first and second place and one was like a little skinny pounder and the other one was a little bigger and they won the competition so you never know and we got more publicity for Judo that day from a hot dog eating competition because Alice Ruben was good enough to put this team up so you figured how it would evolve it was fantastic and Japan that experience was even though I thought I knew Judo before I went to Japan that's when I started to really learn Judo I love the principles I love the fact that these were strong people polite people humble people that you didn't have to run around with a bayonet on your shin to be tough you didn't have to run around the street socking people to get respect you had to first respect yourself and that's what you got from Judo you cannot train so hard you cannot feel animosity to your opponent I remember bowing in and we would go in this sare in this kneeling position and I would say this was the courtesy you would bow in and you'd say please help me and of course you got up and they threw you all over the place and beat you up and then you would finish and say what can you get and after a while I remember saying oh negation us, please help me and I say God, please help me it got to the point where you kind of your body became numb at one point but the experience it got thrown by the best and occasionally I would catch them and no one said she's a girl, I mean they knew it was I wasn't in disguise anymore but the respect was there because of the way I was training and my attitude my attitude was 100% giving and no holding back and no trying to get them trying to prove anything it was I'm a sponge teach me, show me give me and I return we'll take it back to the United States and pass it on, which I did now negation the family that I stayed with in Japan actually with Kobayashi family, Dr. Kobayashi they gave me this yukata looks like people could call it a kimono but it's a summer kimono called a yukata for my birthday, that was my birthday and they gave me a geita these shoes I never wore high heels in my life they were sort of stilts with two wooden things that you stand on and if you don't have balance on these things, you're done well, anyway even though the house is tatami the fact that these geita were never used in the street and they wanted to take a photo of me this was great I had the geita on and the yukata the kimono and stood near the screen doors and Dr. Kobayashi was preparing his camera to take a photo he signaled me to go back a little bit and I did and I lost my balance I went through the screen door, lights wide open and geita is flying anyplace and I think they got their photo of my birthday and I put the geitas and I think I took them home probably still in the closet but it was a very nice gesture and nothing ever went normal with me but it was a wonderful experience this was the first US women's team we got to this point 1974 we had our first I had to actually fight with the amateur athletic union they would not let us have national competition I formed a competition in New York we had a club that allowed us the daily news put us in the color section we had several pages I threatened the AAU not with lawsuit at the time but threatened to have my own national championship and they go wait a minute this is getting out of control they're losing the control they have control of men's judo but not women's judo why are women in judo, you don't belong in judo and it was like, what do you mean we don't belong in judo so it was beginning of a good battle with the amateur athletic union finally after intimidation threats and the usual bag of tricks they allowed us in the national championships in 1974 in conjunction with the men's national championships well it worked out pretty well out of New York several members of the team were from our club and they won first place the women they did a couple thirds and I said okay it's time to move on now we have national championships I heard about the British Open let's go to international what do you mean you can't go to international where are you going to get the money and who's going to go I said well how about the team that won first place it took about a year and a half I raised money to get the team to Great Britain sold these bizarre looking badges with women's half flowing doing judo that one of my students fathers designed they were so ugly but everybody it was high rustic, give me a dollar I get my pen it was like some people that I have ten of these I said well you need 11 because this is the way it is but we raised the money we took the national agreed as long as they didn't have to give us money or do anything they signed then give us a sanction and a travel permit so to speak and we could take the top team and the first place winners we did including the coach which I was elected as and the manager and we went to the British Open which was the first the highest caliber of international competition until the first women's world judo championship and at the British Open our first participation in 1976 proudly I can announce that out of eight divisions I believe we took seven gold so US was right in that ball game there were only 20, sorry 12 countries participating at that time mostly European the Canadians were there and South Africa for the first time and you could see the uniform I believe I convinced Bruce Jenner's company at the time to give me those warm-up suits so I was like the begging coach we got the warm-up suits of course even though we didn't have the support of the AEU and the money we had to put the patch on and we came home with our medals and that was enough incentive for me not only did I think our team was doing great but I looked at the other 11 teams I said hey they're good women's judo was not just the United States but they're good let's do something, let's do more well by 1977 we had what was called the Pan-American Championships that was a prerequisite towards the future for the world and that we had the St. Louis and the way we had that was after the national championships so the women that competed just competed in one competition and the same day competed in the second and we did very well there also in 1977 because I knew now I was on a mission to get women's judo in the Olympics I didn't even realize I had a world championship I was on the mission and I said we need more international experience and I heard about the Macha Bia games in Israel and I said hey that should be good organized got three women they said no no we're not going to have women in the Macha Bia games you have to have the men and I studied their rules and laws and so forth because I now became an advocate of studying constitutions and bylaws of the International Olympic Committee, United States Olympic Committee the NGP, the National Governing Body or at the AAU at the time even though I wasn't a great student all of a sudden on this war thing because you have to know two things you have to know the rules of engagement but you also have to be able to have the guts to fight on the other side so the Macha Bia games I found out you only had to have three countries participate in order to qualify there were three, there were Israel, Netherland and the United States took three women over there one, two gold and one bronze and grip fighting I got a black eye but aside from that it was great, left them they wanted to go to Kibbutz and I came home with Arnold Schwarzenegger because we met and we had a mutual friend and he asked me how did you get that eye and I told him your upper body is good but your legs are too skinny so we became friends we had crumpets and tea and he threw a airport and as my husband picked me up he doubled you know where were you what do you do with him so you never know where sports takes you so that was our first official team and actually just going over the races the team the woman in the middle Sandy Cornelius who's since deceased so full blood in American and American Indian and our team consisted of for African American women and for Caucasian and an American Indian and Rusty this was at the Makabea games and this was how we uniformed because actually how I convinced them someone told me I could do it I wasn't sure if it was true they said I could put an injunction on the plane so I couldn't leave whatever it sounded good and I threatened with that and I think they believed me because they were discriminating but it worked and they said go we're not giving you a dime but go. Well we went one metals had a chance to look old in my ear out of the corner of my eye and watched at Diane during opening ceremonies and I think a dove fell on my head as we were going on but it was great, a great experience and another international record for women's judo the wedding that was at the American Buddhist Academy and the man who married us Reverend Seki all I remember he was standing with this beautiful Kimono on this is of course we were dressed modern style I didn't know one word he said at the time whatever incense was in there I was going wow I don't know I don't remember if I said I do or I don't but we were married and it was quite exciting we had our reception at the home club which was Japan society club at the time and sushi was kind of rare in New York so as the platas were being carried the judo community vultures were just grabbing them and we never even got a piece of sushi at our own way but that was it we made the move and in those days in 1964 there was still quite a bit of discrimination on interracial marriages and we did occasionally have to verbally not defend ourselves but kind of tell people off and I remember when the kids were younger at one point I had the two of them at the corner bank and one woman was saying oh how nice you adopted these Vietnamese children and that was one thing and I think the most amazing point was as my husband is a good guy and says hello to everybody and a gentleman in a one family house he would look out the window upstairs and one of the neighbors and then he'd wave and then one of the neighbors said to me oh that man that lives in your house you know she couldn't imagine he was my husband that man who lives in your house and I said yes he's very nice I go to bed with him once in a while so my mouth opened like that so times have changed thank goodness but you'd be surprised and I don't know in Japan when we went back in 1968 we did get some strange looks fortunately my brother my mom at the time my family of course embraced my husband his family I mean it was just fantastic my father in law was thrilled when we were there in 1968 we were already he took me to all the judo schools he wanted to show me off look my daughter in law can kick you a butt we ran around and he had his chance to meet his granddaughter and it was just great so there was always a good relationship between the families this is our dojo in Flatbush Avenue and some of you in the room may even be in the photo you may not recognize yourself but we had this club for about 25 years so Flatbush Avenue Glenwood Road had all the community kids in there and they grew up with us and turned out some of them have their own clubs now and doing well I mean they have regular jobs and school teachers or attorneys or they all turned out at least the majority pretty good there's a great photo of Jean who's in the audience you see the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree I taught her early on what to do with men and I have a little video that was at the Kyushu Club and some of the athletes are being interviewed and maybe we can show that video and this was some of the athletes that actually were discriminated against because of the lack of participation in the Olympics at that time that for many years has managed to keep women away from its competition many men believe that judo was a sport that women should not try to master they considered it to be too difficult but after many years of struggle one lady has changed all that now what you have to get in the habit of doing is when you complete it in the time you were trying and almost 20 years ago when Rusty Konokogi wanted to enter the New York State Championship judo tournament she had to pretend she was a man I had short hair and no makeup and from training I guess there was something but it really fit and I entered as Rusty Stewart who passed and I went into the competition and I won indeed she did at one time she was perhaps the most famous female judo performer in the world she dominated international matches gave clinics for men in Japan and was treated like a star until she came home then she had to wear a disguise just to do what she did best my teammates were like hysterical they were going falling down not that I beat me out but just the fact that we got away with it and I was found out and they brought me in the room and asked me to give my medal up and I didn't want to give it up and it was a matter of then the team would be disqualified so I gave it up and then the next application that came out from even the AAU or the YMCA started putting on their applications they never put on their applications before that after that they put must be a male Rusty Kanikogi has been on a lifelong crusade to bring women into what is usually considered a violent male sport she created the first women's world championship and got a US women's judo team for the first 10 years pan-american games William Simon the president of the US Olympic committee says it was Rusty who persuaded his committee to field a women's judo team for the 1988 Olympics all this from a woman who teaches judo on weeknights in a small brooklyn storefront right in the heart of the flatbush neighborhood I came into judo to calm down because being born and raised in brooklyn I didn't need judo to teach me how to defend myself I was kind of in gangs myself and what judo did was the opposite it calmed me down I needed some kind of physical outlet and rather than fight in the street and go out and bother people I found a sport that I could let that out in more and more women are coming into judo for the sport part of it we welcome the people that come in for the self defense they soon find that through the techniques that they could enjoy the sport it is not a very glamorous life the workout room is small and steamy there is little space to move about yet Rusty does not let out if you have never watched judo then you will be stunned at the impact of a body slamming against the mat but there is little discrimination the women fight just like the men this woman Heidi Bauer sacks won a gold medal at the pan-american games Leslie Conte has been the New York state women's champion in her weight division for the last six years Rusty's daughter 17 year old Jean is ranked second in the nation in her age group Rusty's husband Yohei Kanekoji teaches as well this family obviously intends to spread the message of judo there is nothing harder to teach women than men in judo there is no difference as far as their learning capabilities one plus for women's anatomy is the fact that their center of gravity is lower because of the way they are built it is a plus because they kind of get their hip out a little further than men because their hip is larger than men's hips after each year goes by you learn that you have bettered yourself not in the sport you have gotten better at the sport and now you can throw as opposed to not being thrown but your grades and school go up your family life is very good very respectful to your parents you do your chores around the house things like that the mental and physical together is more emphasized in judo than in basketball volleyball sports like that I started out dabbling in judo when I was about 11, 9 years old 9, 10, 11 then I really was 12, I enjoyed it very much I enjoyed the full contact and it gave me good results outside maybe in 7th grade the boys would bother me and you know how 7th grade is are when I just hate them or I wouldn't be afraid to verbalize back meanwhile most of the girls they would run and cry to the dean, cry to the teacher I beat them up first and then I start crying seems to help you even having a baby because you know you're a judo person and the average athlete or another person in sport the pride of judo goes right through you and you carry that to every phase of your life but still for the women there is an underlying sense of bitterness that they are not being given an equal chance it's not clean it's not just pretty to be going to get them down Heidi Bowersacks who is 24 in a registered nurse is at the prime of her career but she will not get a chance at the 1984 Olympics the United States is not fielding a women's team although there will be a team for the men oh it's very upsetting I've worked so hard to do it and I feel that I'm in the prime right now I worked very hard and if I could go to the Venice one I'm representing the United States in the Pan Am Games I'm very homical why can't I go to Los Angeles when it's right here and also try to do the same thing again on men are in the Olympics as you see we train with them we do the same thing the only difference between their judo and my judo is I wear a t-shirt on them and they don't stay with us coming up next Judy Jordan with some of the latest women's sports news every single stage of competition for the women had to be either litigated for including getting them into the sports festival including getting them into the Olympic training center the prerequisites were very important for the world championship after the British Open after the Maccabean Games and other competitions I was never satisfied I wanted the world championships and when I actually wanted the Olympics and was told that the world championships was definite prerequisite well I said okay it has to be done I wanted to hold the world championship they were afraid of the financial loss they were afraid of lack of participation there were all kinds of threats if the women competed in it there were scare tactics how they would get hurt whereas women already had been competing internationally now for maybe five years at the British Open British Open and other countries were having competitions well in February of 1980 the International Judo Federation finally awarded the United States the first women's world judo championships I had to sign the papers with the United States judo that they would not be responsible for any part of it they would accept the award of receiving it but they would not host it pay for it or be involved well I signed the papers signed the papers for that signed the papers for my house being deposited let my husband know that a little later that wasn't a key point at the time thanks to my friends thanks to my dojo my family we pulled it together because I didn't realize in February when we opened the first bank account that was $116 that's what we had and the cost of the first women's world would be $180,000 and well the monies would come from different sources and I tell you thank goodness for Coney Island the wheeling and dealing and the chutzpah because whatever I had to pull I had I got a deposit for the International Judo Federation I was selling television rights on behalf of the International Judo Federation they were selling television rights I sold too many television rights CBS kicked the ESPN out of the room because they said you can't do both that helped I got sponsorship from selling the journal convinced everybody in fact as I don't know if any of you women or men for that matter in the room get crank calls from crazy people who ask you what you're wearing in the middle of the night or breathing deeply and there are some folks that actually like you're a strong woman can you hurt me oh you bet I can until you realize that something's wrong with them this is the way they want you to speak well when I was getting those calls I was actually selling them tickets to the world I said wait a minute you like strong women you can get tickets so wherever wherever I could hustle I was hustling when my most important ally Dr. Shigiyoshi Matsumai who was the president of the International Judo Federation he became my number one ally in the whole world and a dear friend who I love and miss well because he was so important and the president of the university and he initially invented the underwater cable so he was a pretty wealthy guy and all the companies wanted to know him and the politicians and wanted to take care of him well every time someone called me to luncheon date for when he came into town I said well I'll do my best but in the meantime I know he would be very happy if he bought 30 tickets for Madison Square Garden so I was hustling whoever I could hustle I think I even asked Dr. Matsumai to buy a page in the program it was whatever I could do because I had to get this money raised we had t-shirts I had to give the referees a stipend every day I was having people run around the hotel outside the hotel selling t-shirts I remember being in Tiffany's because the Japanese ambassador at the time that was in New York said we want to make a presentation at the first women's world judo championships and they said select something and give us you know, bill us well I got the idea Sterling Silva Apple for the best technician of the day I don't know who ever that was going to be and I was kind of raggedy and running around like crazy and I had myself and my Indian companion Sandy who I introduced you to before and another woman by the name of Gigi a nice lady from Jersey but Gigi was like, you know Laverne and Shirley, she was like Laverne and here we are in Tiffany's and I have on shorts and Sandy's standing there like the wooden Indian and Gigi is going to make stuff here and in the meantime I find the Apple and I pick it out and the salesman was huffed and puffed and I said okay I need that this is what I need engraved and he said how will you be paying I said no bill it to the Japanese ambassador well he had one finger ready to go on the button for the great robbery because and he finally convinced him to make the call and he worked out fine and the athlete that won that was 48 kilo woman from Great Britain her name is Jane Bridge who still has her Apple on her mantle so that was just one little thing even the warm up suits every phase of that well got the world championships done one of the hot attacks of the whole overall picture was prerequisite that the Olympic committee said you have to have 25 countries minimum heart attack every day the male I need another country I need participation well it turned out we got 27 countries actually I'm the Dutch registered but they never showed up and we think maybe they just took a bath some place and disappeared we figured that one out but we actually had 27 countries participate so we hit the prerequisite and it took a while we got everything done and it was a historic event with great support it was the beginning and after that okay we did the worlds now we want the Olympics well there's still questions well what's the questions how did it affect the women's health and their bodies well okay specifically IOC's question they were very concerned that it would hurt the women's reproductive organs I said well I've been in judo for 30 years and I have kids and they may have been dysfunctional but they were born so you know so okay well what about the breasts well what about them not a problem with the reproduction organs remember women were inside men is the not the women you're going to be concerned about the men you know you've got a little problem here well also we're very concerned once women are doing mat work and they're lying on each other it may encourage lesbianism oh especially if they're choking or ripping your arm out of your sock but certainly you're going to fall in love with somebody so whatever they were coming up with the stupidest things that we could really blow them out of the water they really didn't know what to do so again it was not a given it had to be a campaign it had to be litigation it had to be once we were told in 1984 when we expected to get the not of approval that we could not be in pulled in the American civil liberties union in California we had a massive a massive press conference pulled in whoever I could when further than that ACLU was representing us we're going to go to the Luzern Switzerland the International Women's Law headquarters because they're in Luzern they could sue the IOC for discrimination I had already proved it in New York Governor Cuomo and the Division of Human Rights helped me prove that so I was getting this education as I was going step by step I had a lot of people helping giving me direction and correct direction we got politicians on my side people coming in financially to help me pay for some of the phones and different things I was using and finally of course there's so many stories in between and finally the Dr. Matsumai he came in the legitimate ways for the International Judo Federation with the International Olympic Committee I came in with everything from putting into junction on the 1988 Olympic money in Seoul because corporate headquarters we're here in New York NBC at the time and we already proved that cooperation could not go into a contract with any company that has already been found guilty of discrimination so I had a lot going on none of it hit the court everybody conceded before it hit the court because it was like I was getting under everybody's nerves the president of the International Olympic Committee Samarancha I gave his mailman a hernia with the mail he had to trudge back and forth and IOC couldn't make their points anymore they even said no no women's judo it's a new event I said no it's the same old judo it's from 1964 that has been in for men and with just another gender going into judo so whatever obstacle they could throw in the way they did and fortunately finally they conceded we went in for the first time in 1988 it was an awesome event there was history the world of judo now the participation has doubled because the amount of women Japan most of the medals they win now an international competition is by the women although their name is still superb the women are coming home with the gold and the United States our recent medals have been again from the women from the last olympics we took a bronze and the junior world we took a gold so by not having women participate you're doing a couple things you're undermining women you're undermining their credibility undermining them as athletes and as human beings and it may be judo but basically it's the social life throughout the world and there isn't a country in the world even in muslim countries now even in iran women are wearing a legitimate type of head covering and they're competing and this is just the beginning and to me sports opens up the world because I remember before formally East Germany DDR it wasn't appropriate to be friends with them I was friends with them Soviet Union I was friends with them, not the government I don't hold the athletes responsible for their government just like they don't hold us so the communication through sports is incredible whether the communication through maybe your jobs is important but through sports when you sweat together when you bleed sometimes together when truth comes out whether it be on the mat or the playing field there's a release that happens in a mutual respect so to me I've had a fantastic life it's been hard not just on myself and my family because how many times it was like oh don't bother me again but Donald's is three blocks away I'm busy on the phone I'm setting up so I had the support of the family sometimes whether they wanted to support me or not it was like I appreciate that you pay a price but you don't think of it you never think about a reward if you're looking for thanks forget about it it's like this is amazing you're amazed the recent award that I received from Japan was absolutely amazing the people that received it was former vice president Wundell who did a lot of Japanese relationship and so forth and then Tommy LaSorta who did a lot of the baseball stuff for Japan and why we have so many great Japanese ball players and myself so it was a pretty good company and it was probably the highest on it to me it's the Academy Award before Dr. Sackler mentioned Lee Krasner as my aunt you know anything a little bit about art Lee was one of my role models in the sense of I liked that I didn't like that she was hit over the head and I liked the way they couldn't keep her down and no matter what I mean she had of course Pollock that's enough to really knock somebody for a loop and the first time I met Pollock I met him at my grandmother's house in Huntington, Long Island and I remember I liked Lee's boyfriend Igor a heck of a lot better he was a good looking guy and very personable and I was a little kid he was always nice to me I don't see Igor but who do I see this Pollock guy and I took one look at him and he said hi Rene I said oh I don't like him he didn't even call me by my right name and I was almost about to say something and my mother gave me a little pinch and I shut my mouth that was obviously they hit it off and then their history is very well known and several years ago I was asked to coach and watch a gay card who played Lee Krasner in the Pollock film and I did and when she came to our home and laid down in Lee's bed and I filled the red and we kind of covered the Brooklyn accent a little bit which I don't have anymore I I told Marsha she was going to win the Academy Award and she said oh yeah she didn't think of it actually I thought Pollock not Pollock good had asked me what I thought of her initially and I thought she was a good match Lee had a very hard time as a painter because one she Lee would tell it the way it is she would not mince her words when it came to the critics she didn't schmooze him she told him the way it was and they didn't like it critics loved to be stroked they loved to be handled and she didn't do it she was honest, forthright her work was very strong her teacher Hans Hoffman actually we'll maybe get on to that in a few minutes on the powerpoint told her she was great that she painted like a man at the time she took it as a compliment I thought I was complimented when I was told Rusty and Judo you're good, you're right like a man we never at that time thought anything negative of that that was the best compliment you could be or receive rather be compared to a man and be equal, holy macro it doesn't get better than that of course now later years you realize even though the intention was not to hurt you but the intention was good but why couldn't you paint like a good woman or fight like a good woman see so times have changed and with Lee maybe we can go on we can have something on Lee if we can get to that okay this was the trials for the first woman's world judo championship it was at the Penta Hotel which is the Plaza which was the Statla that now I think has bed bugs that was the last I heard that was the last I heard this was at the first world championship Dr. Matsumai and had Paul Gez who owned Sasone at the time he got him involved he don't know how or why but got him very involved and he was a big sponsor and I was convincing Mario Cuomo to help us first verbally and then physically and some of the articles in the newspaper with the press I was the darling of the press everybody wanted the story of what was going on with women's judo and this discrimination bit and they really really helped the power of the press was magnificent a few articles one of the IOC was discriminating against us and what we would do about it and this was at the American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles 1984 the huge press conference I referred to a little while ago and this was our inclusion in the Olympics 1988 that's my team Margaret Margie Castro Ivarinov Travella myself and the other photo is of our warm-up suits and the only thing I can compare although I was grateful to receive it we look like Quakers Margie some articles it was I think appealing to the public to see a woman taking a man's arm off but so it was always a dynamic photo besides a throw this was an arm bar and this was the center fold of sports illustrated and this is our club that in fact this is not trick photography that is one of my students who has gone on to become his students and now making the Olympic team and he's doing a roll out right over my head I think he had to do it about 80 times and he had a coal that night and the point of the whole thing is I didn't blink this was a center fold Esquire magazine and anything to the press and there's something about six women who can wipe you out they had everything from a woman with a whip to a motorcycle driver and myself and we utilize any type of magazine if they asked us to do something we did it and we got attention whatever we were promoting and this is up on the hill it's Billy Jean and one of our friends we go up on the we go up on the hill every February to get Congress and Senate not only to continue to support Title IX but also to enforce it because even though it has been very helpful and many women have benefited we always like to keep reminding them because it's not always a given this is an article that I thought should have been included here because being lonely as an outsider like Judo even my mother didn't even know because somebody said what does your daughter do well my daughter does Judy what the heck is that you know she couldn't even get the term right the finally the big lead with pro football basketball and the like and calling myself and a couple of women in the photo sports legends so that really put Judo up on a pedestal which I thought was about time not necessarily for me but for the sport itself and this is at the Women's Sports Foundation this is when I was inducted into the International Women's Sports Wall of Fame and the Women's Sports Foundation is the main international women's entity that helps athletes not only not only elite athletes but athletes, girls to teach them how to stay fit healthy to grow properly to participate in sports to be helpful advocacy so if you ever have a chance go to their webpage Women's Sports Foundation they have a lot of good stuff going on and this picture is kind of rare that's Lee Krasner painted by Hans Hoffman at the time I think she was his friend girlfriend so Hans Hoffman could have been my uncle too so in and out and then my uncle that really bugged me and Barbara Streisand was going to do a film with Robert Dinero about Lee and Pollock and somebody mentioned a story and there was a man out a critic out in East Hampton is probably still annoyed with Lee and turned around and said well Streisand is going to have to get funnier looking or worse looking to play Lee I got in touch with Cindy Adams and I blew my top and I said what's wrong with Robert Dinero Lee is his godmother how can he let this guy get away with that anyway it was a little article but it's a shame because nobody ever said Pollock's looks Pollock's you know he's this or he's that it was Lee why because she's a woman so same thing the struggle in the sports world is the struggle in the art world is the struggle in the business world of course we're rising we're rising up there's still a way to go I'm sure nobody in this room is trying to repress anyone let alone women but we're still in the ball game where we got to prove ourselves and be the best that we can do whether you're in law enforcement or whether you're in the legal system or whatever you're doing you have to always be better and I hope when my granddaughter and maybe her granddaughter that will all be done and the that's Masha Gay Hardin and my husband and I in front of I think the name of the painting is Celebration it might be over at the Whitney one of Lee's works and that's when Ed Harris and I met at the house at East Hampton which is the museum Paula Krasner house and we were talking about the film he was coming up with and I have a friend I think Ernest Sting is she still in the room Masha oh okay we were in the Rose Garden at the White House and I have that photo hanging up with the former president Clinton and everybody said what are you telling him well that's the question what am I telling him and if anybody can come up with the answer there's a final bill in there for you think you best thought and your worst thought because I'm not going to reveal it until somebody hits upon it the last photos I believe are at the reception at the ambassador's residence when I was presented the emperors award and then a dinner that the black belt association of New York at Hudson Yodanchukai actually held for another award that I received and my distinguished partner over there I think this might be the end of the films yeah the pictures we may have a little time for questions we don't have any time for questions okay so thank you very much this was going to be a very great presentation and I thank you thank you Rusty not only for a great presentation but for paving the way for recognizing really the challenges and difficulties we still face but having made such enormous enormous strides for women in sports I also want to let you know that the stars have come into another alignment it was my former husband that produced Pollock first is our second anniversary we're going to celebrate with a speak out in the auditorium women's visions for the nation what's it going to take I think we have a little bit of a preview today March 21st between two and four and then at four o'clock up here in the galleries we're going to have a reception and an opportunity to speak with all of the wonderful people who are participating in that panel including Laura Flanders who is going to be our moderator for that day so thank you all for coming Rusty thank you so very much my pleasure thank you back at the room about our programming here and you can come on to the Lisbeth-Sackler Center for Feminist Art and see all the things that we're doing thank you