Past Events

-- excerpted from Against All Odds: My Story

 by Chuck Norris with Ken Abraham

Some know him as the star of Walker, Texas Ranger, others as the star of action-adventure films that include “Missing in Action,” “Delta Force,” and “Lone Wolf McQuade.”  Others recognize him as spokesman for Total Gym fitness equipment.

Before Chuck Norris achieved renown in the entertainment arena, he was renowned in the martial arts arena as a six-time undefeated World Professional Middle Weight Karate Champion.  He is also the first man in the Western Hemisphere to be awarded an 8^th degree Black Belt Grand Master in Tae Kwon Do.

Now, Norris turns his sites to helping youngsters achieve their dreams and goals, by equipping a new generation with martial arts skills that pay off in higher self-esteem and positive attitudes.  Norris explains:

“As a martial arts instructor for fifteen years, I taught thousands of youngsters – but these were students whose parents could afford to bring them to a martial arts school for lessons.  I often thought about young kids whose parents could not afford to send them.  How could I help them?  That question stayed in the back of my mind for many years.”

Norris’ dream of working with America’s youth would become a reality during lunch with friend and then President George H. Bush.  “He asked me what my future plans were outside the entertainment field.  I told him I would like to hire black belt instructors to teach in the public school system, specifically in middle schools, because those are the ages when many kids begin to drift into gang activity, drugs and violence.

I’ve always believed that a child who develops a strong sense of self-worth will have the inner strength to resist peer pressure.  Martial art training raises self-esteem and instills discipline and respect.  Although the idea for such a program had been in the back of my mind for over twenty years, I was literally developing it more clearly as I described the possibilities to the President of the United States!  The entire ‘Kick Drugs Out of America’ (KDOA) program began to talk shape.

The Houston Independent School District agreed to a trial run for one year at the M.C. Williams Middle School.  By the end of the year, they were totally sold on the program.  Within a couple of years, it became apparent from independent evaluations that the impact of KDOA was much more than helping youngsters resist drugs. Their grades improved and there were fewer disciplinary problems.

As we raised more money, we began developing and expanding the program into other middle schools in Houston.  By our fifth year, we were in eight schools and were teaching twelve hundred kids.  By our tenth year, we were teaching thirty-nine hundred youngsters in twenty-six schools.  Our program now enrolls over six thousand youngsters every year.

Today, KDOA has been renamed KICKSTART, a name that more accurately describes its mission of building strong moral character in our youth through the martial arts.  Our foundation has been recognized as a character-building, life-skills program with the fundamental purpose of giving a young person the tools needed to strengthen his or her self-image.

I truly believe that if we can get KICKSTART instituted nationwide in every middle school, we will eventually see a tremendous reduction in gang activity, school violence and the need for welfare in our society.

Over the last two decades, I’ve spoken on a volunteer basis to thousands of underprivileged youngsters.  The most common question they ask me is, ‘Mr. Norris, what is the secret to your success?’

I respond by saying there is no secret.  I explain that there are two paths we can follow in life – a positive path or a negative one.  On the positive path you don’t wait for things to happen; you make them happen by setting goals and working hard to achieve them, no matter how long it takes.

On the negative path you feel like you can never accomplish anything and that nothing good will ever come your way.  If you say to yourself, ‘I can’t do this or that,’ can’t becomes the operative word in your mind and results in a self-fulfilling failure.  The person who says, ‘I can,’ has already started on the path toward success.

There will always be someone who tells you that you can’t achieve something because you aren’t big enough or smart enough, or your skin is the wrong color or your religion is the wrong one, or you are not qualified enough or you are over qualified.  Few people become successful overnight at any endeavor.  Most successful people have learned to stick with whatever it is they wish to achieve and work step by step until they reach their objective.  That has certainly been true in my life -- I treated the initial rejections as temporary setbacks because I knew with enough time, determination and hard work – along with faith and a positive attitude – I would succeed.”

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Excerpted and adapted from Against All Odds: My Story by Chuck Norris with Ken Abraham.  Copyright 2004 by Carlos Ray Norris.  Broadman & Holman Publishers, Nashville Tennessee.

By BILL WEIR and SANDRA TEMKO

Oct. 18, 2006 — Chuck Norris has two speeds: Walk, and kill. There is no chin under the Chuck Norris beard, just another fist. Chuck Norris once visited the Virgin Islands: They are now known as "The Islands."

These are just a few of the thousands of Chuck Norris "facts" found on dozens of Internet sites that draw hundreds of millions of hits.

College students and bored office workers e-mail them to one another-and they are quoted during military briefings in Iraq.

"Life is like a box of chocolates," said Capt. Joe LaTendresse, who is stationed at Iraq's Camp Liberty. "You never know when Chuck Norris going to kill you."

Watch the full Chuck Norris interview on "Nightline" this Friday night.

"Never make fun of Chuck," said Major Robert Hart who is at Camp Victory. "You'll get a roundhouse kick."

Somehow, the bearded star of 1980s B movies and televsion has become a post-modern Paul Bunyon, a source of comedic myth-making. But Hart said Norris has real value as a symbol for Americans stationed overseas.

"I think it's kinda going back to the World War Two days when you have Kilroy was here, and Kilroy's not around anymore I guess," he says. "We got Chuck Norris instead."

Strong and Silent

Chuck Norris is a full-on phenomenon, and this all amuses — and confuses — the man himself.

"I think, 'How do these kids come up with these?' It's incredible," Norris says of the "facts." "It's mind blowing, truthfully, but I take it as an extreme compliment from these kids."

His favorites?

"'They wanted to put Chuck Norris on Mt. Rushmore, but the granite wasn't tough enough for his beard,'" Norris says. "Or, 'When Chuck Norris does pushups, he doesn't push up. He pushes the earth down.'"

These kids might never recognize the kid Norris once was: scrawny, uncoordinated, raised by a single mom in Oklahoma.

He joined the Air Force in 1958, after high school, and discovered martial arts while stationed in Korea. He came home with a black belt. He began competing in order to drum up business for his karate studio and went on to win six world titles.

But contrary to the one-liner superlatives, Norris doesn't consider toughness to be his greatest attribute.

"If I use one word, I would have to say timing," Norris says. "Timing I think was my key thing. I was able to figure out the timing to close the gap between my opponent and myself and move back, and that was I think the key."

He also carried a quiet confidence noticed by one of his students, Steve McQueen, the film icon who encouraged him to try acting.

After a host of failed auditions and bit parts, he created his own character and had a friend write it into a script titled "Good Guys Wear Black."

"When I did 'Good Guys Wear Black,' I had a lot of dialogue in that movie," Norris says. "So Steve said, after he saw it, he said, 'Well, let me give you a suggestion. Cut your dialogue down dramatically.'" "I had no acting experience. I'm — you know, I'm not a good actor," Norris says. "What am I going to portray? So, I decided I was going to play a very strong positive image of a character. And that's what Steve McQueen actually suggested I do. He said, 'You know, try to make this character as much of you as you possibly can and … and play that strong silent type.'"

Less talking, more kicking became the hallmark of a career that spans more than two dozen films and one television series that's recently emerged as a pop culture touchstone — even though it's long been in reruns.

It's a frequent joke on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," and in the recent movie "Talladega Nights," Will Ferrell's character, Ricky Bobby, named his two sons Walker and Texas Ranger.

The show "Walker, Texas Ranger" ran eight seasons, but his character has achieved syndication immortality. The late-night reruns are regular dormitory fare in an era when Orlando Bloom is considered an "action hero."

A Campus Phenomenon

When an 18-year-old freshman at Brown University created the first Chuck Norris "fact generator," the response was overwhelming.

"Overall, we've gotten about 140, 150 million hits," Ian Spector, now a sophomore says. "There was students in universities, there are people in jobs where they are bored, and there are people in the military, and then there's just everyone else who I just can't figure out….In Poland, for instance, I think in around April or so of this year, as far as search queries go, on the Internet, number two was Chuck Norris, number one was Bird Flu."

One floor of a dorm at the University of Texas is devoted to all things Chuck. The students there seem to worship him.

"He's like this elevated superstar, badass, bucking, kicking dude, but he's also a good, nice, normal guy," Johnna Andiorio says.

"As a kid, I grew up thinking we won Vietnam because of his movies," Tiger Scheu says.

Though many indulge an ironic appreciation of Norris, there is a genuine respect here.

"He actually brings us together. We really enjoy watching his show," Sean Foster says. "We sit down and be quiet and watch his show."

At Camp Victory in Baghdad, trading Norris facts is called "upchucking." Odes to his prowess have been scrawled inside latrines there.

"If we brought Chuck Norris over here, the war would end a lot sooner," SFC Stephan Battiest, who is based at Camp Liberty, joked. "Send us home."

"Well, you know, I'm the spiritual leader of about eight platoons over there, and that's a real compliment," Norris says. "One particular group, I'm their icon … I'm on their weapons.

From Roundhouse to Charity

He is also the icon of the World Combat League, which has teams in eight major American cities. Kicking and punching as a team sport was his idea, and all profits go toward his real passion: teaching martial arts to inner city kids across the country.

"I've graduated 40,000 over the last 13 years and many of these kids, going on to college and becoming successful in their own right," Norris says. "And if they were here right now, they would say to you it's because of this program that I'm not in prison or dead today."

Some might question Norris's efforts to teach violence to young people — isn't that the worst possible thing you could teach them?

"You would think so, but actually it is just the opposite," Norris says. "It's the bullies who are afraid, are the ones that do all the fighting. It's not the secure kids that get out there and fight. It's the insecure kids. And when you develop that security in these youngsters and all of a sudden they have no reason to fight… This is to me the most gratifying thing I've ever been able to do."

Norris is now 66 years old — or, as he says, "39 with 27 years experience."

According to the Chuck Norris fact generator, "Chuck Norris does not age. He roundhouse kicks time in the face."

"Yep, that's what I do," Norris says. "Actually, that's what I do."