At 68, masters martial arts Greg Tearney still practicing, teaching

By Mary Beth Roach

Greg Tearney’s been studying, practicing and teaching martial arts for more than 40 years, but he still gets a “kick” out of it.

At 68 years of age, he has the title of hanshi; two area karate schools, or dojos; thousands of students; the distinction of being the first African-American martial arts instructor in Central New York; and a 2004 Post-Standard Achievement Award under his belt—or more accurately—under his five black belts.
He has earned 10th-degree black belts in Okinawan Goju Ryu and American Nisei Goju Ryu; an eighth-degree black belt in Okinawan Shorin-Ryu; a fourth-degree black belt in Shotokan; and a first-degree black belt in Okinawan Kobojutsu.

He has received his black belts under some of the most well-known instructors in martial arts, including Grand Masters Frank Van Lenten, Peter Urban, Frank Hargrove, and Fredrick Hamilton.

He also trained with a Central New York karate pioneer, Peter L. Musacchio.

Among the many other systems he has trained in are boxing, Aikido, Jiu Jitsu, Arnis, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Kenjustu, and Krav Maga.

earney’s interest in martial arts goes back to the 1950s and 1960s.

A student at Nottingham High School in the late 1950s, Tearney was very athletic and competitive, having starred on both the basketball and football teams.

“In high school, I was all out. Anything you can do, I can do better,” he said.

However, upon graduation in 1959, circumstances did not allow him to continue on and play basketball in college.

“I was very discontent that I didn’t have the opportunity to take advantage of my basketball scholarships because economics and other problems in my life didn’t allow for me to pursue my college career the way I wanted to, so I was a very angry young man,” he said.

But martial arts helped him channel those feelings into a more positive direction.

He stumbled across Central New York Karate School in the mid-1960s, and since the school was near his then-place of employment, Syracuse’s Department of Public Works, Tearney enrolled.

“Once I got into martial arts, it literally saved my life,” he said. “This gave me a new motivation. It helped me to center myself. I felt as though I had achieved something. I felt the equivalent of any college graduate when I got to my fifth black belt.”

Such was the motivation that after starting his formal training in 1965, he was awarded his first black belt in 1966 and was certified in 1967.

Two years later, in 1969, he ran a program through the Bishop Foery Foundation, and moved two years later to the downtown YMCA. His first independent dojo opened in 1973 on North Salina Street.

From there, he moved to Mattydale three years later and in the mid- to late 1980s, he had two schools going: the one in Mattydale and a second one in Fairmount.

In 2004, he bought a building on Onondaga Boulevard, across from Westhill High School, and opened up Greg Tearney’s Karate and Fitness Center. In 2007, he opened up a second facility in Elm Hill Towne Center on Milton Avenue in Camillus.

His business partner is also his wife, Judy Modafferi-Tearney, 55. She began her training in 1974, and holds black belts in Okinawan Goju-Ryu, Shorin-Ryu and Kobu-Justu.

She was in the regional ratings of Karate Illustrated in the 1970s and 1980s in both Kata (forms) and Kumite (sparring).

The Tearneys’ dojos focus on the Okinawan Goju-Ryu style, which means hard-soft style, combining hard striking, such as kicks and closed hand punches, with soft open-hand circular techniques; Okinawan Shori-Ryu; Thai kickboxing for adults; karate; self-defense; Gotende-Okinawan pressure points and grappling.

Through the years, Tearney’s career has been marked by much success, and he is considered by many to be a pioneer in American Karate, with lineage in both Okinawan and Japanese Karate.

While martial arts may have helped him turn his life around in the 1960s, he also credits it with saving his life, or at least facilitating the recuperation from three major health scares in recent years.

In 1995, Tearney suffered a heart attack, which, he said, was more the result of genetics. Four years ago he had to have a hip replaced, and this past March, he had colon surgery.

Yet, the recovery from all three was enhanced by his years of being physically fit.

“Any time I’ve gone in for serious medical procedures, I’ve always had the fitness on my side,” he said. “From heart attack to my hip replacement to my colon operation, every one of those procedures, when I went in to be operated on, I was in very good shape, and my recovery was phenomenal. I was able to recover faster and more completely.”

As people get older, he said, they are going to face these challenges, but he believes that if people stay even moderately active, they will improve in every area physically as well as mentally.

“I suffer the same stiffness, maladies—my knees hurt, my hips hurt, but they don’t hurt as long because as soon as I start moving, things start to improve,” he said. “I go to the gym three to five times a week. I love to work out.”

“The thing that I’ve learned over the years, as long as you’re moving, you’ll be in better physical condition than if you’re just sitting around taking medication, not doing anything,” he noted.

“I still have my goals,” he said, one of which is to get a 10th degree in Shotokan. And in two years, when he turns 70, he will earn the title “hanshi sei.”

In order to be a good instructor, he said, one has to have the love and passion for martial arts.
Martial arts might be considered the family business. For example, Greg and Judy’s daughter, Alexis, is at their centers, and his oldest son, Gregory Anthony Tearney, opened his own dojo in February.

To avoid confusion with his father’s schools, Gregory A. opted to play off his middle name, “Anthony,” and call his facility Tony Tearney’s All-Star Martial Arts, which is located in the Sacred Melody Plaza on James Street in Eastwood.

“I am going to continue the legacy which my father started,” the younger Tearney said. One of Greg A.’s sons, Louis Jamar, is earning a black belt this year. A grandson, Gregory A. Tearney II, who is 8, is training with his grandfather.

And when speaking of family, both Gregs—father and son—credit patriarch James “Big Jim” Tearney as  being a source of great strength and inspiration behind so much of the family’s success.

“The Big Jim Theory,” as Gregory A. calls it, is: “If you’re going to do something, be the best at it.”

It’s a theory that is obviously serving the family well.