Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

A Tribute to My Friend John Morrow - A Dedicated Martial Artist

I first met John Morrow in 1990 at a tournament in Omaha, Nebraska.  He came from the Quad Cities to compete. I was not yet a black sash. so I was very interested in watching the black belt division.

Watching him compete in black belt sparring was like watching the Tasmanian Devil. John was spinning and jumping and backfisting and kicking and laughing -- he displayed skill and real joy at competing. We were both in our thirties. I thought, "Who the heck IS this guy?" It was clear he loved martial arts and I enjoyed watching him compete. Because we had the same teacher, Phillip Starr (author of several martial arts books), I introduced myself to him.

Flash forward three years and I moved to the Quad Cities. His school was in Moline, Illinois. I remembered him from the tournament, so I stopped in to the school and we became friends. I studied with him a bit, but then I earned a black sash in the system I had been studying, so we became mutual supporters. I attended some of his classes just to work out and to spar with his students. A couple of his students came to my classes sometimes to spar. We were all kung-fu brothers.

When I first started teaching in 1997, I started in Muscatine, Iowa, because I didn't want to compete against John. After a year-and-a-half, I realized our arts were very different and it wouldn't really be competition, so I began teaching in Bettendorf, Iowa, part of the Quad Cities where I lived.

In the late 1990s the tournament scene was hopping in the region and in Chicago. John and I took our students to tournaments. He and I competed against each other at times. In fact, at my very first tournament as a black sash (black belt), in Cedar Falls, Iowa, John won Grand Champion. 

We sparred each other two or three times in tournaments. In one match, I threw a kick that he clearly blocked, but the judges gave me a point. John gave me some grief about that in a good-natured but competitive way after the match, and I just shrugged. "It happens," I said. "It's part of the game." 

I always wanted to beat him, and the feeling was mutual.

In a big tournament in Keokuk, Iowa, which drew martial artists from several states, John and I competed against each other in forms and weapons. He did the staff and I did broadsword. I forget who won which, but he won first place in one competition and I won first in the other. We were serious about winning, but also friends. I still have the video of our performances.

He also hosted great tournaments in his school in downtown Moline. He didn't compete in his own tournaments, but great martial artists came, and they were a lot of fun. The photo at the top of the post shows John and I after one of his tournaments in 2002. He was 50 and I was 49.

Each year on January 6, his birthday (he was a year older than me), I said, "I hope I'm as good as you when I'm your age." He would reply, "You better get busy."

After I lost my lung in 2009, and continued having a-fib, I didn't feel physically stable enough to start another school, so we made a deal. I would do his media relations, videos, photos, YouTube, Facebook and help with his blog, and in exchange I could use his school to shoot my videos for my online school and DVDs, and I could use it if I needed it to practice with my students. We typically still go in on Sundays at 11:30 a.m. to practice and/or shoot video.

John Morrow was one of the nicest people I have ever met. He was not a tall guy, but he was as tough as they come -- muscular and determined. In the 35 years I knew him, I never heard him badmouth another martial artist, and you probably realize how unusual THAT is. He and I took different viewpoints on politics and religion, but it didn't matter. We were friends. Once or twice, we discussed those subjects when we met for lunch, but usually, our conversations were about martial arts or ideas on videos, Facebook posts or blog posts we could do to help promote Morrow's Academy of Martial Arts. And, of course, we cracked jokes. 

I attended some of his classes as a friend and to take pictures. I worked out at many of them. His classes were physically intense, with a lot of exercises and stretching during the first twenty minutes or so, then drills, forms and self-defense work, and sparring.

The promotion tests he gave were really baptisms by fire. When you earned a belt with John Morrow, you earned it. 

His sense of humor could be quite goofy, and he would crack up at lines from "Airplane!", Monty Python or the Marx Brothers. We traded jokes and puns often, even in class, where, despite the intensity of the workout, laughter was also part of it, usually coming from him. He triggered my inner Class Clown. 

My favorite photo of John Morrow

I held workshops at his school. I shot the workshops for DVDs and online lessons, and gave him the money from the attendees. It was a real win-win friendship. He always attended my workshops as a student, even though he didn't study the internal arts. He loved martial arts and liked to learn new things.

John was also a philanthropist. He liked to hold a Fitness Challenge on his birthday, and he would do 1,000 pushups, 1,000 situps and 1,000 leg lifts in one hour. He raised donations for local children's charities and over the years he raised many thousands of dollars. The impact this man had is simply amazing.

Last year, he was diagnosed with Stage Four lung cancer. It hit all of his friends, students, and family like a hammer. He asked me to come down to the school to talk. I thought we were going over some marketing ideas, but instead, I sat across from his desk while he told me, a little emotionally, that he had been diagnosed. My centering reflex took hold, and we talked about it. The diagnosis stunned him, but he shook it off and became determined to beat it. He continued teaching classes even while recovering from hospital visits. I wanted to tell him, "Take it easy. Let some of your students teach." But he was determined, as usual.

Even battling lung cancer, this past May -- in 2025 -- he held a Fitness Challenge and did 880 situps, 880 pushups and 880 leg lifts in one hour to celebrate turning 880 months old. The money raised was matched by the Quad Cities Morning Optimist Club (of which he was a member), so just this past May alone he raised more than $6,700 for area children.

He seemed to be improving. We thought he was in remission. Then, a couple of months ago, he was diagnosed with a new, aggressive lung cancer. I said, "Well, that's not good news, is it?" He said, "No, it's not."

About two weeks ago, I talked with him after he decided not to do more chemo. The first treatment was so rough on him, once was enough. 

By this week, when he was slipping away, his wife Katie and daughter Jennifer let friends and students come to see him and say what they needed to say. I visited the day before he died, held his hand and said, "We had fun, didn't we? Thank you for being my friend." I don't know if he could hear me, but I hope he knew I was there.

By the next morning, October 15, he was gone. I was in shock the first day. By yesterday, the emotion hit and I tried to keep busy helping the family by reaching out to local news media with the story. I knew that thousands of people had been impacted by John, so it was a story of public interest. Last night, local TV news ran with the story, and it was the lead on KWQC-TV, the number one station. On WHBF-TV, where I was news director when I moved to the Quad Cities, sports director Jay Kidwell ran some wonderful video of a time just a year or two ago when John invited him to Morrow's Academy to do some stickfighting. It was so great to see John joking and laughing with Jay. Here is a link to the page where you can find Jay Kidwell's excellent story on the stickfighting challenge, and there is also the WHBF news story about John. Both videos are at that link.

And here is the story that led the newscast last night on KWQC-TV.

John Morrow died on the 47th anniversary of launching Morrow's Academy of Martial Arts in the Quad Cities. He has been a mentor and teacher and inspiration to thousands of Quad Citians. He was a wonderful teacher of children, a generous philanthropist, a loyal friend and a kind, funny man. He was a dedicated martial artist and one tough, determined man who turned his passion into a lifelong career. 

I'll miss his laugh, I'll miss making him laugh, and I'll miss his dedication to the arts.

My heart is breaking for Katie, Ryan, Jennifer, and the rest of the family, but also for his students and friends. In my mind, he will always be that guy in the black belt division jumping and spinning and backfisting and kicking and laughing and having an absolute blast doing martial arts.

John was 73 years old. The world needs more people like John Morrow, not fewer. His departure leaves a void in my world, and the world of many others, that can't be filled.

--by Ken Gullette