43
‘Spider’ among Ebony Lifeline HOF inductees
YOUNGSTOWN
Because most of Morris “Spider” Kennedy’s life has been about competition, corrections and care, he’s being inducted into the Ebony Lifeline Sports Hall of Fame tonight at the Mount Carmel Social Hall.
Now 66, Kennedy started in martial arts at age 21 after he saw the Bruce Lee movie “Chinese Connection” at the Sky-Hi drive-in on McCartney Road in Coitsville.
“Wow, I like that,” Kennedy recalled of his reaction to the film. “I’m able to do that,” he thought.
After his initiation in the karate discipline of TaeKwonDo, a friend introduced Kennedy to the McGuffey Centre on Jacobs Road, and karate classes under Howard L. “Buster” Faison, Jr., a Mahoning Co. deputy sheriff.
“I walked into the gym and saw a lot of students kicking and doing forms and sparring, so I asked Mr. Faison if he goes to different tournaments to compete. When he said ‘yes,’ I said ‘sign me up.’ ”
In 1976, Kennedy earned his first-degree black belt. Spider said that he and another student, Lee Taylor, were instructor Faison’s first two black belts.
As the years evolved, Kennedy’s reputation was that he was known as “one of the fighters to be feared.”
Morris, who came out of The Rayen School in 1970, eventually achieved a seventh-degree black belt in TaeKwonDo and was ranked fifth in fighting among black belts in region seven of the United States Karate Association.
“Mr. Faison taught me everything I know, but I also picked up lot of different things in martial arts on the circuit,” said Kennedy, who is also in several other halls of fame, such as the Cleveland Dan Sword (1985), Erie King Cobra Open (2016) and MAASV (Martial Arts Against Street Violence) HOF in Pittsburgh.
On Nov. 11, Spider will also be inducted by the PKRA (Pittsburgh Karate Rated Association) during its 45th Pennsylvania Karate Championships.
Since bowing out of competition, Morris became an instructor.
“I just take students to compete,” he said. “I did what I needed to do over the years,” he said of 40 grand champions, more than 200 awards and five HOFs.
Spider explained that the Korean system has nine degrees, while other systems have 10. He said that Faison, also an Ebony inductee, is an eighth-degree black belt.
Now, Kennedy has classes for the MTC Hornets (McGuffey TaeKwonDo Council) at the former St. Edward’s gym on Redondo Rd., where he also has sessions for UMCC (United Community Methodist Center) students. In addition, Spider does karate training for the city schools’ after-school programs.
For 17 years, Kennedy worked at the Juvenile Justice Center as a Youth Leader II.
His unit in Lynch Hall on the fourth floor had more serious offenders.
“I had the tough kids,” Morris said, “but a lot of them knew my martial arts background and wouldn’t try anything with me. Even to this day, some of them tell me that I gave them good advice.”
To encourage better habits among the residents, Kennedy said he used incentives like a best-room contest.
“It got them to clean their rooms to get extra food or to stay up late, but I had to get the OK from the director.”
Along with other floors, Spider’s group would get the same reward if teachers’ grade reports were good.
“We had a 368 program for kids who earned points. At the end of a week, we might have two or three who got 368 points. They’d have to earn that. If they got lockdown or started a fight, they’d lose points and may get locked up in their room.”
Among his other jobs, Kennedy worked at the Boys & Girls Club on Oakhill for seven years as a karate instructor and athletic director and he’s been with Comfort Keepers as a caregiver.
“I cook, clean and bathe and have been doing it going on eight years now,” he said.
What made Spider a good martial arts guy?
“A lot of practice, sparring against a lot of tough black belts, travel and competing on the circuit,” he said.
“In my light heavyweight division, there’d be at least 30 black belts and we wouldn’t get back home [from tournaments] until 11 at night. The competition would be fierce. Now, you might get 10 black belts in one division and be back home by 3, 4 or 5 o’clock.”
Despite the drop in numbers, Kennedy thinks martial arts are still strong.
“It depends on which one you go to, especially if it’s a money tournament” he said, noting that the All-Stars Karate National in Cincinnati in August paid $200 to black belt grand champions.
Once, when in the eighth grade, Kennedy said a group of nine kids ridiculed his last name and then jumped on him. But Spider managed to handle himself.
Although Morris knew how to street fight, he wanted to learn something else and martial arts helped develop confidence and humility.
“I was always the quiet one who stayed to himself, but if someone jumped on me, I’d fight. Being in it [MA] 45 years, I didn’t have that anymore.”
If his last name was offensive to some kids years ago, Kennedy said is proud of the fact that his wife Debra’s birthday is Feb. 12 (Lincoln’s birthday) and that his 67th birthday will be on Feb. 22 (George Washington’s birthday).
Spider and his wife celebrated nine years of marriage on Aug. 30.
“I used to work at St. E’s and I met my wife when was I transporting her mother.”