Allen Coage, My Hero, Our Hero by Jim Bregman

It was an odd set of circumstances that day so long ago in Philadelphia. The venue was alive with the excitement of the Judo Trials for the 1976 Olympic Games to be held later in the year in Montreal. The event was about 90% completed when the “tournament officials” made an announcement about a late breaking decision they had just made concerning the selection process and the tournament. The exact details blurred now by time matter very little, but to these athletes who had spent their entire lives trying to make an Olympic team it was devastation, a crushing tsunami which meant that some deserving winners might indeed not be selected!

After the ‘official announcement”, there was a long moment of stunned disbelief and silence. The ABC camera crews where baffled as were the directors and producers. This was to be the first time the Olympic Judo Trials were to be covered live. Then the noise level rose steadily to a vibrating din and the athletes were milling around agitated, angry, hurt, confused, and astonished at this “stupid” last minute “switch” which would completely determine their future Olympic hope and dreams. An athletes’ revolution was brewing and they were “mad as hell”. They were not “going to take this crap” any more. But what on earth to do to rectify this “official blundering fiasco”. How do powerless athletes reason with “unreasonable officials” who are “dictatorial in their edicts” and domineering.

Allen Coage and Jimmy Wooley were to fight next and, although, the confusion, milling around and athlete disgust and disappoint were being voiced now by shouting and jeering, yelling and screaming at the “tournament officials,” Ben Campbell, George Harris, Paul Maruyama and I were dumbfounded and standing on the floor by the mats completely taken aback by the announcement and the loud “revolution” which was gaining momentum.

Allen and Jimmy approached us for advice and guidance and, as we were talking, the other athletes gathered around and the boiling noise level began to simmer. Then it turned into dead silence. You could have heard a pin drop. Allen and Jimmy asked us simply, “What would you guys do in a situation like this?” It wasn’t Ben’s, George’s, Paul’s or my Olympic birth that was on the line. It was Allen’s and Jimmy’s and all the other Olympic Dreamers who came to fight that day. The four of us were awe struck at the question, at the dilemma and speechless. The five of us talked quietly and logically and explored options. All of which were, to say the least, not good. Finally, the call came out from the announcer commanding Wooley and Coage out to the mat for the final match. Allen and Jimmy respectfully asked one more time, “What would you guys do?”

A second call to the mat came with a threat of disqualification. Time had run out.. We four told them “we” would not compete in this situation and we would demand another trials with consistent and fair selection criteria published at the start and immutable throughout the tournament. I said that the USOC/AAU will be sued by the USJA and that the four of us would work with the USJA Board to correct this mess and get a retrial under a court order if necessary! We also told Allen and Jimmy that it must be their decision and their decision alone as to what course to follow because the personal stakes were too high for us to “tell them what to do” not that we ever really would have tried to do that.

Allen and Jimmy, two of the greatest American Judoka of all time had great senses of humor at this moment of “truth” and with impish smiles on their faces they said “Just watch this!” The ABC cameras were rolling, the very nervous officials were all in their chairs and places of honor and the venue was hushed. As they walked to the mat together, friends and competitors at the same time, they whispered quietly to each other and then took their respective places to compete opposite one another on the mat.

They stepped onto the mat and bowed to the officials. Then stepped up to the line to wait for the hajime. And then, it came, loud and clear from the referee, “hajime!”. With dignified grace these two men of the mat, bowed and walked slowly to the center of the mat. They shook hands, walked back to the line, bowed humbly and walked off of the mat.

What followed can only be described as total chaos, a loud cheer went up from the athletes and the audience, flags were waved and cheering and yelling continued for a long time. Allen and Jimmy made there way over to the four of us and we all hugged and jumped joyously. The athlete’s revolt, which had been brewing for a long time, erupted like a volcano.

I quietly and slowly made my way through the crowded floor to an exit. I was cornered by four officials who said in essence, I was to blame for this and that I would pay for this “disrespectful behavior”. I smiled and excused myself. I needed to find a pay phone. Cell phones had not yet been invented! I called Michael Rosenberg, the USJA attorney in Washington, D.C., and related all the shocking events in detail. Michael said his firm would do everything possible to see that there was a retrial. A case was filed in the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia. Short story, they settled, agreed to a retrial under consistent rules and procedures. Allen and Jimmy at the retrial entered separate categories and made the 1976 Olympic Team.