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The Detroit Judo Club

15-Year-Old Story of the Largest Dojo in the Country

Judo Illustrated, February 1968

In 1952 the Detroit Judo Club consisted of 15 members meeting one night a week at the local YMCA. Today the DJC is the largest non-profit club in the country, operating its own 10,000 square foot dojo. What transpired during those 15 years is an interesting story.

The beginning of the club was not unlike that of hundreds of other clubs. A lone instructor introduced a basic course at a YMCA, a handful of students showed up and the first course ended with some interest in advanced studies.

It was at this time that Hiro Fujimoto decided to expand his idea by offering both beginning and advanced courses coupled with plans for the formation of a club.

The early days of the newly formed club were uneventful since, as in most clubs, the players were more interested in practicing judo than in the bothersome business of building a club. This detachment from reality, however, was to be short lived, as Fujimoto began to incorporate organizational meetings with regular practice. As the club's first presidents he searched out individuals and prodded almost everyone into taking an active part in the organization of the club.

For its first four years, the club was quartered at the YMCA. As the number of Black Belts increased, so did the classes, until judo was being offered at all of the nine Detroit metropolitan areas YMCAs.

1962: Northwestern YMCA - Harry White, Instructor

Although the club was headquartered at the Downtown YMCA, its activities rotated among the various Y branches to take advantage of each day of the week. Activities were planned on a monthly basis, with calendars issued to each member outlining the different Ys and the days of the week.

The club and Y were drawn into a close-working relationship with membership in the club requiring both the beginning and advanced (8 week) courses. The club and the Y branches cooperated in jointly financed advertising campaigns and the Y was encouraged to interest all judo students in the benefits of full YMCA membership.

One innovation, which was inaugurated at the outset, was the monthly mailing of a club news bulletin. Born of necessity due to the daily change of location, the notice kept every member informed and also provided him with a monthly statement of dues.

The monthly notice has since been credited with keeping the interest of the members who might otherwise have dropped from the rolls because of work schedule, school or other temporary involvements.

The notice was also considered invaluable in insuring timely payments of club dues which otherwise would lapse to a point where the member would elect to drop rather than pay a substantial amount in arrears.

So successful were the multi-Y classes and advertising program that the club soon outgrew YMCA facilities. Confronted with the increasing activities of other Y programs, the club was forced to move its operation out of the “free” YMCA to a low-rent second-floor factory loft.

Faced with a new problem, that of rent and utilities, the club intensified its Y-recruitment program by jointly financing newspaper advertising and outdoor billboards.

The new home of the Detroit Judo Club, although less than desirable, was still home. The members took pride in ownership and collectively renovated the facilities. As each of the nine Detroit area Y classes graduated, students were invited to a club novice shiai and get-acquainted session.

Although the club had enjoyed four years of financial stability at the Y the move to private quarters and its attending financial burden were considered necessary as the club had become stagnant due to the increasing limitations placed on its activities.

It was at this time that the club decided to take advantage of its annual shiai as a means of additional revenue. The first shiai had been held shortly after the formation of the club and the date, the first Saturday in June, had been picked more out of convenience than for timing. Four successive shiais followed and the June date was beginning to catch on.

A survey of the first four years of ticket sales had revealed the obvious — half of the members sold few if any tickets, while the bulk of the activity resulted from the hard work of a few. It was at this time that the policy changed. Every member would be given 10 tickets which could not be returned.

As an additional incentive, a list of attractive merchandise was offered for ticket sales in excess of the minimum ten. Prizes ranged from transistor radios and cameras to expense-paid trips to New York and Florida.

All awards were valued at 40% of the ticket value, so the club realized a 60% profit on all sales over the minimum assessment. In addition to individual awards, a chance on a $500 savings bond was incorporated with the ticket to help melt sales resistance.

Members who did not wish to shoot for any particular prize could convert their additional sales into future dues credits. All-in-all, the sales incentives quadrupled ticket income and been responsible in large part for the overwhelming success of the tournaments.

A move to a second dojo, and an increase of 550 square feet of mat area came four years later when the city condemned the original location. As with the original club, the members renovated the new dojo.

Four years later, faced with an acute shortage of space, the club moved to its present location at 15351 Livernois. One half block from the city's major freeway, the dojo has a 400-car parking lot at the rear of the building, solving one of the major problems of the past.

John Osako, 6 dan, former Pan American and National AAU Grand Champion and head of the USJF Standards Committee, joined the Detroit Judo Club in 1961 and is head instructor for the club's 700 members.

Classes under Osako's expert guidance are conducted six days a week and include maximum effort classes for the fighters; White, Brown and Black Belt classes and instruction in refereeing, grading and other facets of the sports.

Osako's goal is to develop more well-rounded judokas — which accounts for the emphasis placed on refereeing, kata's, terminology, and the other requirements of the sport.

Like most coaches, he presses hard to develop champions but never at the expense of the well-rounded judoka. Osako takes great pride in the caliber of his Brown Belt referees.

Backing up the club's 400 junior members is the Parent Boosters, whose organization supervises junior activity, and raises money for out-of-town shiais. The Booster Club, patterned after Chicago's Uptown Dojo Boosters, holds dances, sells hot dogs and soft drinks at the dojo and does the clerical work of the club. All revenue derived from their activity goes to the betterment of junior judo activity at the club.

Hiro Fujimoto, 6 dan, USJF President, was the original founder and first president of the club but has since taken a back seat, preferring to entrust the operation of the club to what he likes to call the "future leaders of US Judo."

When asked about the phenomenal success of the Detroit Judo Club, Fujimoto declines to take any of the credit says "it's the smart men he keeps around him who deserve all the credit."

After 15 years and four locations, the DJC has settled in what they consider their permanent home. The club has purchased the building and future plans call for expanded locker room, a fully equipped kitchen, tiling of the men's and women's shower and steam rooms, new lighting, expanded lounge and office space and a face lifting for the front of the building.

The club is a Michigan non-profit corporation with all officers serving without compensation. Adult dues are $10 every three months with junior dues $5 per quarter. Black Belts and club officers are exempt from dues. Operation of the club is vested in the elected officers and general members who hold monthly business meetings at the club.

For the past six years the club has served as the national headquarters for the United States Judo Federation with a considerable amount of its resources going to national judo development.

Innovations developed by the DJC, and now incorporated on a national basis include the national rank registration system, the color coded shiai scoring card system, membership application folder, self adhesive officials' badges and many other administrative and technical aids.

The rise of the Detroit Judo Club from a 15 member organization to the largest non-profit club in the country is more than a coincidence — it is the by-product of organization and hard work.

As Don Pohl, the club executive secretary for the past 15 years, remarked, "the Detroit success, if you want to call it that, was born out of hundreds of meetings and get-togethers where everyone was encouraged to participate and contribute."

Don Crane, the club's energetic president, feels that the future of judo rests with the junior development program with immediate activity and support coming from the parents of the juniors. Given the proper leadership, Crane feels that the parents can take any given club and transform it overnight, "if you can interest the kids, you can sell the parents, and if you sell the parents on the value of judo your club is on the road to success."