Hélio Gracie

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Helio Gracie wearing his famous belt
Helio Gracie wearing his famous belt

Hélio Gracie (October 1, 1913 - ) is the founder of "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu," also known as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or BJJ. He is a master of the discipline and is widely considered as one of the first sports heroes in Brazilian history; he was named Black Belt Magazine's Man of the Year in 1997. He is the father of the world-renowned fighters Rickson Gracie, Royler Gracie, Royce Gracie and UFC co-founder Rorion Gracie.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Early history

Hélio Gracie was born in Belém, Brazil on October 1, 1913, the youngest son of Gastão and Cesalina Gracie's eight children. He was always a frail child, prone to fainting spells after physical exertion. After the completion of second grade, he convinced his mother to let him drop out of school. After the family's move to Rio, some of the children moved in with various relatives due to financial hardships. It was during this time, he found work as a coxswain for a local rowing team, eventually moving in to the team dorms. A few years later, when he was 13 years old, he moved into a house shared by his older brothers, who taught jiu-jitsu which they learned from Mitsuyo Maeda a former Kodokan Judoka. Due to Hélio's frail health, Hélio was recommended by doctors to refrain from excessive physical activity. Instead he spent his time watching his brothers (especially Carlos) teach. From the age of thirteen to sixteen, Hélio learned and memorized all the moves and instructions his brothers gave.

[edit] Beginnings of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu

When Gracie was 16 years old, he found the opportunity to teach a Jiu-Jitsu class, and this experience led him to develop Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The Director of the Bank of Brazil, Dr. Mario arrived for class as scheduled. The instructor Carlos was running late and was not present. Hélio offered to begin the class with the man. When the tardy Carlos arrived offering his apologies, the student assured him it was no problem, and actually requested that he be allowed to continue learning with Hélio instead. Carlos agreed to this and Hélio began as an instructor. Hélio realized however, even though he knew the techniques theoretically, in actuality, the moves were much harder to execute. Due to his smaller size, he realized many of the jiu-jitsu moves required brute strength that his physical nature did not allow. He began adapting the moves for his particular physical attributes, and through trial and error learned to maximize leverage, thus minimizing the force that needed to be exerted to execute the move. From these experiments, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, formally Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, was created. Using these new techniques, smaller and weaker opponents gained the capability to defend themselves and even defeat much larger opponents.

[edit] Arrest

Hélio was also involved in an attack on gymnastics teacher Manoel Rufini dos Santos in 1937. Hélio and three of his brothers went to Manoel's gym and attacked him in front of a crowd of cheering fans. Manoel suffered two fractures to his head, a broken arm and broken ribs. Hélio was arrested and sentenced to two and a half years in jail. An appeal was made to the Supreme Court by Hélio's lawyer Romero Neto and the sentence was upheld, as the court said "Today it was with Manoel Rufino dos Santos. Tomorrow it will be us". But a couple of hours after that decision Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas pardoned Hélio. According to Hélio, one of his students had a brother who was an ambassador and was very close to Getúlio, and he intervened in favor of Hélio.

[edit] Fight career

Hélio stated in an interview that he had around 15 fights. He began his fight career when he submitted professional boxer Antonio Portugal in 30 seconds in 1932. Also in 1932 he fought American professional wrestler Fred Ebert for fourteen 10 minute rounds until the event was stopped by the police. In 1934 Hélio fought professional wrestler Wladak Zbyszko, who was being billed as a "world champion", for three 10 minute rounds. That match was declared a draw. Hélio did win against Taro Miyake, a Japanese professional wrestler who worked for Ed "Strangler" Lewis in the U.S.

Hélio lost a match to Masahiko Kimura due to an armlock
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Hélio lost a match to Masahiko Kimura due to an armlock

Hélio also fought in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu vs. Judo matches. In 1932 he fought Japanese judoka Namiki. The fight ended in a draw, but according to the Gracies the bell rang just seconds before Namiki would have tapped out. Hélio had two fights with Japanese judoka Yasuichi Ono after Ono choked out Hélio's brother Jorge Gracie in a match. Both fights ended in a draw. Hélio fought another Japanese judoka Kato twice. The first time was at Maracanã stadium and they went to a draw. Afterwards, Hélio asked for a rematch. The rematch was held at Ibirapuera Stadium in São Paulo and Hélio won by choke. Hélio went on to fight leading judoka, Masahiko Kimura at Maracanã stadium. The match resulted in a clear victory for Kimura via bent armlock. In 1994, Hélio admitted in an interview that he had in fact been choked unconscious earlier in the match, but had revived and continued fighting.

Hélio holds the world record for longest match, a feat achieved when he spent 3 hours 40 minutes fighting his former student Valdemar Santana (also known as Adema Santa), losing by knockout from a kick to the head. That fight was held at the YMCA in Rio de Janeiro in 1955. At the age of 44 in 1957, Hélio attempted a comeback only to be stopped again by Adema Santa due to knee strikes to the stomach.

[edit] Helio Gracie Black Belt Professors

[edit] External links

[edit] Career highlights

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