It was 66 pages long and featured a bevy of legends on the cover: (from left to right) Peter Urban, Thomas LaPuppet, Joe Lewis and Chuck Norris.

(Note: Back issues showcased in From the Archives are not available for purchase.)

Vol. 6, No. 6, 50 cents

•       An American expatriate in Japan identifies the most popular striking arts in his new home: wado-ryu, goju-ryu, shotokan, shorinji kempo, shorin-ryu, shito-ryu, seishin-kai and kyokushinkai.  A step down from those live gensei-ryu, tai-jutsu, jiken-ryu, goshin-do, tai-ryu, isshin-ryu and shin jemin karate-do jutsu.

•       A Japanese expat in California weighs in on the actions of Americans who come to his native nation: “Every time they go to a foreign country, they end up stealing the girls... .”

•       The big news in the martial arts community continues to be the upcoming Black Belt Hall of Fame banquet, trade show and convention. Still months off, half the exhibitor space has already been reserved, and interest among instructors (students not allowed) is skyrocketing.

•       Chuck Norris tastes defeat at Aaron Banks’ First Annual East Coast vs. West Coast Championship Tournament. The man who vanquished him? Louis Delgado, who later lost to Joe Lewis.

•       Andy Adams, Black Belt’s Japan correspondent, reports on the intense training of the emperor’s bodyguards. It spans judo, kendo, karate, kyudo and modern weapons.

•       The editor of Black Belt laments that “an alarming number of dojo have been closing up” because of insufficient cash flow. The much-criticized commercialization of the martial arts, he says, may not be such a bad thing.

•     When asked for his opinion of Black Belt’s International Convention of the Martial Arts, Bruce Lee is enthusiastic but expresses some reservations about the skill level of some of the people he fears will attend: “You’ll get a lot of phonies, guys who want to come to a convention to say that they came to a convention. I think there are more phonies in the art of gung fu today than in any other art.”

•     Jhoon Rhee hits it big in D.C. Five years ago the taekwondo master had to borrow $400 to build a school, and now he runs five studios and boasts 1,500 students.

•       An Italian rag—I mean, mag—named Cintura Nera blatantly steals Black Belt’s text and photos. L.A.-based publisher Mito Uyehara reads them the riot act and threatens legal action if they don’t cease and desist.

•       Frank Smith bests Kenneth Funakoshi to win the All-America Karate Tournament in Los Angeles.

•       The late Black Belt Hall of Fame member Ki Whang Kim organizes an eight-day multi-art summer camp in West Virginia. The tuition is a reasonable $75.

•       Joe Corley, the martial artist who would later found the Battle of Atlanta, places first in the black-belt division at the 1968 Metro Atlanta Team and Individual Championship Tournament.

•       When a reader writes in to scold Black Belt for its dearth of coverage of the then-rare-in-America art of jujutsu, the editor replies: “If you admit that jujutsu is overlooked and needs revival, then you have to admit that the magazine must, by necessity, focus on the more popular martial arts. We report the field, not make the field.”