Jerry Smith (martial artist)
Jerry Smith is a former professional full-contact fighting coach, as well as co-founder of the Black Karate Federation (BKF) and founder of The Five-Level Method/Shorin-Ju Kenpo.
In addition to being a three-time international champion (Wall 2003, p. 112-113) in semi-contact karate, and a former trainer of world-rated full-contact fighters, Senior Grandmaster Jerry Smith is one of the original founders of the Black Karate Federation (BKF) in Los Angeles California. (Corcoran and Farkas 1993, p. 379)
In the late 1960s, a group of young martial art enthusiasts including Jerry Smith came together to train and exchange techniques. These included Jerry Smith, Cliff Stewart , Ron Chapel , Steve Sanders , Donnie Williams , Karl Armelin and Curtis Pulliam.
"Smith recalls the group: 'We were the right mix of people at the right time' he says. 'We created a great and unbeatable mix of techniques.' At a follow-up meeting, several names for an organization were suggested. Jerry Smith, whose background was in graphic design, created a few logos for the group containing the initials "BKF", which stood for the Black Karate Federation. During the meeting, several logo designs were introduced to the group. The organizational structure of the BKF formed with Steve Sanders, the most prominent and visible member of the group. Therefore, he was unanimously selected to be the organization's first president. Jerry Smith became the first vice-president, Cliff Stewart the secretary, Ron Chapel the technical historian and Karl Armelin was treasurer. From this core group, which included Donnie Williams and Curtis Pulliam, the Black Karate Federation was officially founded." (Muhammad and Williams 2002, p. 51-53)