Chuntian Academy International

Man - O - War School circa 1974
Master Banks pictured left in picture above.

Director's Si Gung (Teacher's Teacher) Nickolas Banks.

Below is an excerpt from a current book about Nickolas Banks, Jr.
Man-O-War: Autobiography by Nicholas Banks

Master Ho Lee: My memories of the year when I first met Nicholas “Nick” Banks: it was June in the summer of 1960. A tall, young, black man came into my class. He was very quiet. He was very dark in complexion and kind of olive-dark brown. He later told me that it was due to the fact that he was doing a lot of painting outside in the sun. He was a very well-mannered individual—quiet and very respectable. As time would go on, he proved to be one of my best students. He was well-built, very strong, and had tremendous fighting skills. I would later learn that he was once a street fighter. As time would go on, the top students in my class were not as good as he was in sparring and fighting. His speed and strength was unreal. He was simply the best fighter in the whole class. As big as he was—about two thirty, about six two to six three in height—he was just as strong as the larger students that were six five and six six, but he has a great advantage over them due to the fact that he was so much faster. They nicknamed him “Man-of-War.” No one wanted to spar with him.

Whenever we would go to a tournament and he was with us, we always won. And for some reason, when he wouldn’t be available to be with the team, we would lose. I remember one weekend we had a big tournament coming up with a group out of Detroit, Michigan, and I had the good fortune to speak to his mother one evening because Nick was nowhere to be found. It must have been the year of 1964. She was a very intelligent woman to talk to on the phone. Nick would go on to become a Zen Master—8th degree, Chinese boxing master of Chinese Martial Arts, President of Kar d Kar Martial Arts Association, Founder of Man-of-War Karate and Chinese Combat Schools, and President of Man-of-War Martial Arts Association.
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Master Banks is Samuel Cheeks Teacher.