In the summer of 1979, before her freshman year at East Allegheny High School, Tammy Zsemko learned she would become a student of science teacher Bill Viola.

She had never met him, but she knew his reputation.

“My friends and I heard rumors that this teacher, Mr. Viola, was a black belt in karate. We weren’t bad students, but we all made especially sure to sit up as straight as we could during his class.” Ms. Zsemko recalled.

Little did she know that 40 years later, the name Viola would become synonymous with martial arts in Western Pennsylvania.

Mr. Viola’s karate school, Allegheny Shotokan Karate, celebrates its 50th anniversary in the eastern Pittsburgh suburbs this year. Heinz History Center has displays of Mr. Viola’s contributions as an early martial arts pioneer, and Allegheny County marked Monday as Sensei Viola Day. Sensei is an honorific term in Asia that means teacher.

“Back then I never thought any of this would be possible.” Mr. Viola, 71, of North Huntingdon, said.

Born in Brownsville after WWII, it wasn’t until he was in high school that Mr. Viola first seriously encountered the martial arts.

A friend had picked up some karate while training in the ROTC and offered to show him some moves.

“I had a little exposure to boxing when I was younger, so I thought I was pretty tough. But that first day at the gym [his friend Medick Capirano] was just throwing me around the room.” Mr. Viola recalled. “I was immediately addicted.’’

A few years later and while studying education at California University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Viola achieved his black belt, a rank of expertise.

In 1969, Mr. Viola was hired at East Allegheny, and that same year, he opened his first teaching space, called a dojo, in Turtle Creek. While searching for a name for the then unique school, Mr. Viola happened upon an unlikely source of inspiration: the phone book.

“In the early 1970s karate started to explode across the country.” Mr. Viola recalled. “We all used phone books back then, so I knew I needed to come up with a name that was both easy to find and would catch the eye. We were based in Allegheny County, and the A’s would be the first section in the book that people turned to, so Allegheny Shotokan Karate was born.”

The name Shotokan refers to the traditional Japanese martial art that develops intense physical and mental capabilities.

Eventually, his school grew so popular that Mr. Viola opened studios in North Versailles, Irwin and North Huntingdon. And, some of his students would go on to achieve extraordinary accomplishments.

Among them is Jack Bodell, who was Allegheny Shotokan’s first member to attain a black belt. He went on to became a member of the U.S. Secret Service and protected President Jimmy Carter during his administration.

‘Godfather’ of MMA

In 1979, Mr. Viola and then business partner, Frank Caliguri, came up with a bold idea: an open competition between practitioners of karate, wrestling, jiujitsu, boxing and everything in between. It was called mixed martial arts, often referred to as MMA.

“Frank and I had started CV [for Caliguri and Viola] Productions to promote karate tournaments all over the state,’’ Mr.Viola recalled. “But we knew a lot who practiced other martial arts outside of karate and couldn’t participate. One morning, we sat at a Denny’s and literally wrote out the rules of the first ever mixed martial arts tournament.”

One year later, in March 1980, the first MMA “Tough Guy Contest” was held in the ballroom of the New Kensington Holiday Inn. Finals were later held at the Stanley Theater, now the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts, Downtown.

However, because of the competition’s nature, it operated outside of the purview of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission, which regulates boxing and wrestling. Then, coupled, with public confusion around the accidental death of a competitor at the similarly named, although unrelated, “Tough Man Contest” in 1981, the state Legislature passed the Tough Guy law in 1983, which outlawed mixed martial arts in Pennsylvania. The sport was legalized again in 2009, and today mixed martial arts shows fill arenas everywhere as well as pay-per-view events.

Although Mr. Viola is no longer involved in mixed martial arts, he is widely considered to be one of its founding fathers. In 2011, the Heinz History Center unveiled an exhibit of Mr. Viola’s contributions. His influence was also noted in “Godfathers of MMA,” a book that was the inspiration for the film “Tough Guys,” released in 2017.

Shotokan today

In the 1990s, Mr. Viola’s son, Bill Viola Jr., of North Huntingdon, won local and national karate competitions across the United States and is recognized as a former USA Karate Federation national champion.

Although Bill Viola Jr.’s competitive career was cut short after a car accident in 1999, and his father retired from East Allegheny later that same year, Allegheny Shotokan continues to flourish.

Trophies and plaques line the walls of its offices, including a 2003 induction certificate to the USANKF Hall of Fame and pictures with fitness icons, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme, both of whom have publicly noted the Violas’ achievements.

But to the Violas, they’re little more than decorations on the wall.

“The people we’ve helped along the way are what really matter,” Bill Viola Jr. said. “We still have students who started in the 1970s come in; our oldest is nearly 80. And it’s an amazing thing to hear the accomplishments of those we’ve taught over the years. It makes it all worth it.”

The younger Mr. Viola has taken over much of the daily responsibilities at the dojo in North Huntingdon these days, but his father still instructs black belts on Monday nights.

In 2020, Allegheny Shotokan is planning to send a team to compete at the Irish Open in Dublin, as well as visit the Olympic Games in Tokyo, which will be the first Olympic Games to recognize karate as a medaled sport.

Nick Trombola, freelance writer: suburbanliving@post-gazette.com.

First Published: September 26, 2019, 4:00 a.m.