Doug Rogers (judoka)

Men's judo

Representing Canada
Olympic Games
	1964 Tokyo	+80 kg
World Championships
	1965 Rio de Janeiro	+80 kg
Pan American Games
	1967 Winnipeg	Open
	1967 Winnipeg	+93 kg
Pan American Championships
	1965 Guatemala	Open

Profile at external databases

IJF

54617, 54551

JudoInside.com

8736

Updated on June 25, 2023.

Alfred Harold Douglas Rogers (January 26, 1941 – July 20, 2020) was a Canadian Olympic competitor in judo, and the first Canadian to win an Olympic medal in the sport. He was an honoured member in the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.^[3] His best results were a silver medal in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and a gold medal at the Pan American Games, in 1967. He was a student of Masahiko Kimura.^[3]

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Transcription

I was almost a champion of the world in something that was worth being a champion in when you're that close you don't give up easy looks good after the Olympics I want a great future and he said if you train for three hours a day and become champion you should immediately begin to trend six hours a day good but should it's good the the but on ok but ok mom Carl me me boo to well bad more well I'll me well mmm me my mother wanted me to be a piano player my father wanted me to be a professional manner everybody wanted the best for me and so did I I still do when I came to Japan I was nineteen it was for six months now I'm 24 and I'm still here when I landed an eighty five dollars and some pretty funny ideas about this country well but I found work as an extra in movies teaching English I'll my sisters helped the folks for Jody out five dollars in a letter even my rooms improved the first one had no light at our next was like living in a wind tunnel got a real power well I can even stand up an Italian for judo is a tough time suddenly I was in the big leagues fighting the best police and university judokas the I was injured all the first year well but by the end of it I was doing some other throwing well on done the said that the there the meet I'll sometimes I get homesick I miss fresh air and the family in there but when I'm on for a championship a fine in this raw fish income on us quite a few things here makes me wonder how japanese girl feel playing hockey in Canada when I finally made up my mind to leave home who is hard to explain even to myself but I was running away from anything but that I was running toward something on on was all a publicity in being a little on the large side you tend to stick a you can get self-conscious like when they come up behind you can compare foot sizes in and they talk about but that doesn't bother me I like the Japanese I guess I should in a way I grew up with a in 30 skirt in the state said when the people is ready the teacher will come humor as the greatest fighter Japan ever produced I think he was national champion about a dozen times in 10 years it was never off his feet he say no one before Kimora no one after and the only western movies over time he says I can be champions the fact he says I must be checked and what I don't think amor recognizes physical limitations be just Rangers beyond any that happen to come up what for me he says he stays up late thinking of ways to make me stronger better move with him I can win now got a lot more to lose you know the lewd its for said each member I University and a six hundred pushups today once in a while we just ask up this is unreasonable I know that but pushes us beyond the physical limit to another place way outside to inside I don't know where exactly but I've been there 0 all its for run on train hard I feel guilty because even if I do when I know there's someone some glitch in Japan on europe et who can beat me because he's training harder set or ok usually as the numbers increase so does the height for my behind which is considered something of a Japanese landmark each good for fed I yeah I was mistaken the beginning I suppose may be expected some secret weapon from the east but there's no mystery about it as many believe for would like to believe good you know as a matter of hard-working concentration the best you know well maybe I don't know yet at doesn't she okay who to do it it prison for on for on with cash its ish this is gonna be the goofiest job in the world wooden guns rubber nyse: their weight around but nine hours for five minutes work I don't believe in movies anymore hook so far my film career I've been an SS trooper a submarine commander and the first is going on the east but I'm getting tired of being the villain I wanna be a hero for a while him out he I y'all I hey page option but not I my dunno with me for the of why regarding CYO Japanese correspondence okay I can handle it all and yeah on p yes or no record hip third show ya know %uh I found my Olympic boats in the book on arena I like to go back there whenever I can especially defied big Japanese a little ones have style but you need power my readers people he's a wrestling champion and about the best police to look in Tokyo he keeps me honest I crap on I in competition about over with the first fall but to get in shape for a world championship casing for the big russians you have to post up some practice make a few mistakes and fight like hell over I but up that was brought up to turn the other cheek so to speak it's funny but I think going into juneau at one time gonna be tough I wanted to be strong but I found as you get more and more skillful a desire to act big and tough so it works the other way it I know I and the skill now I don't have to talk about I'd still rather show a few physical demonstration what I can do over and i know i can do fake but pack for right good I on okay happen but I can still remember most to the Olympic finally the last two for 15 minutes in Okuma the Japanese champion was very powerful for size he's probably the first big man injured 0 but after a few minutes with him I gain confidence feel stronger than ever had against I lost a decision but it wasn't one sided by any means in fact the moment I grabbed all of them I knew he was a little worried too the in but thick right I feel stronger now than I ever have only wish had been done by Kimera before the Olympics a year ago morita could take me now that's not quite the case he's not getting any worse so I must be getting better weird about once a month camera lets the University in relax a bit some songs a little Sakhi nothing very complicated close to my country boys straightforward while and just about anyone would be a champion in his weight class in North America go you know him in here here they may not be with kids but it made me feel more at home and I didn't two years ago whose or you're bound to call total are you da mare Martita I'll la cage aux koi she on all he to all y'all mom arnie you know I do not owe he I judo he soulmate arcade a mole I E I E are of here although you all law all movie Golmaal cool blog he moved or more all all some other songs are pretty rambled waterfront although when this serious placing a min strongman country but maybe we used to the school needs you cool you sOooo easy goal pool law heaney call loves logo when more more you my love here cool of it old Walton me lol meaning me scheme way C he OL he was I this more was I'm cemented the money %um you know me who are you the heat who after one if I'm in a mistake coming to Japan he I want to give up security McCartney and be a $10 million other guys who can premise good things too failure as a rock I don't know I've got a good girl me I live in a country like 11 two countries are like sometimes it only too well and sometimes I love pretty high my friends are good people my teachers the best there ever was because so many work and as for more than an hour day boys G yellow E heaney your day editor

Biography

Doug Rogers arrived in Japan in 1960 at the age of 19 with the specific intention of working on his judo.^[2] As a youth he had won the Ontario Minor Hockey Championships, where he finished the tournament's highest-scoring defenceman. At age 15, he had joined the judo club at the Montreal YMCA. It was not long before his sensei there told him there was nothing left for him to teach and directed him over to Fred Okimura's Montreal Seidokan dojo. He continued practicing while in high school, winning the Eastern Canada brown belt (ikkyu) title in 1958. The following year he won the black belt title. Although Rogers was accepted by McGill University, having been accepted to the Kodokan, Rogers boarded a plane for Japan in 1960.

The best judo competitors at the time in Japan were coming out of the police academy and universities. These competitors would visit the Kodokan for practice on a weekly basis. Training at the Kodokan, Rogers made an effort to train with the judoka from the police academy and nearby Takushoku University (Takudai).^[3] It was in this way that he got to meet Masahiko Kimura, who was the coach of Takudai University and one of its more famous alumni.

Able to hold his own against top judoka in Japan, the Canadian Olympic Committee, in search of medal hopefuls and, moreover, pleased that he was already in Japan where the Olympics were to be held, recruited Rogers.^[3] Rogers decided, however, to return to Canada to compete in the national championships, and the Olympic Committee were at first reluctant to pay for Rogers' airfare back to Japan. Eventually they settled for paying for a one-way ticket.

Rogers' day at the Olympics is best described by Frank Moritsugu, a contemporary of his:

With coach Frank Hatashita at matside, on that October 1964 day at the Budokan, Doug had an easy time in the early rounds. In the semis he clearly decisioned a tough opponent, the bull-like Soviet competitor P. Chikviladze, eliminating one of the possible winners. Then came the heavy weight finals where his opponent was Isao Inokuma, the all-Japan champion. Inokuma was shorter and many pounds lighter but much more experienced and perhaps Japan's supreme judo technician. And he was an occasional training partner of Rogers at the Kodokan. Theirs was a hard-fought match which we watched agonizingly on our TV sets here in Canada. Neither man could throw the other cleanly although both managed to complete throws which ended off the tatami. At the end of a truly championship bout, it was a narrow decision for Inokuma but with his silver medal, Doug Rogers had become Canada's first judoka to mount the Olympic medal podium at the first Olympics where judo was included.^[4]

Parts of Rogers' silver medal-winning performance against Isao Inokuma at the Tokyo 1964 Summer Olympics are included in the documentary film Tokyo Olympiad (1965) directed by Kon Ichikawa.^[5]

Post Olympics

After the Olympics, Rogers trained full-time with Kimura and the Takudai team. In the summer of 1965 Rogers participated in the All-Japan University Championships as a member of the Takushoku University team and helped them bring the winner's pennant back to Takudai for the first time in several years. Not only was Doug the first non-Asian foreigner to take part in this tournament, he was also named the tournament's best fighter.

Rogers felt very close to Kimura, regarded him as a father figure and stayed in touch with him until his death in 1993. Kimura demanded a very high level of physical fitness and concentrated on training simple, strong judo moves. His training style was somewhat informal compared to the strict etiquette and bowing rituals practiced in the western world to this day. Kimura often came onto the mats in sweat pants and threw on a judogi only as needed to demonstrate a technique.

Despite being encouraged by Kimura to stay another year, Rogers decided to return to Canada to pursue becoming a professional pilot, having attained a private operator's license at age 16. After a summer tour with the Takudai team to a number of Japanese universities, Rogers left Japan in 1965, seen off by his teammates carrying their winner's pennants and by his coach Masahiko Kimura.

Doug Rogers went on to win gold at two Pan-American games and several Canadian National championships. Another mark of his judo skill is his taking of 5th place at the 1972 Olympics despite having been out of serious training for many years. Once in Canada, he was spending hours a day in a cockpit rather than on the mats. He no longer had Kimura as a coach nor did he have the quality of practice opponents that a world champion needed.^[3]

Rogers retired from a career as an airline pilot.^[2] He was married with four grown children. Although less active in judo later in life, he still went to local tournaments and was often an invited guest/coach at clubs throughout Greater Vancouver, British Columbia.

References

^ ^a ^b DeGeer, Vern (October 29, 1964). "Good Morning". The Montreal Gazette. p. 19. Retrieved September 20, 2012.
^ ^a ^b ^c Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Doug Rogers". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Doug Rogers". Canada Sports Hall of Fame. 2008. Archived from the original on November 25, 2013. Retrieved May 20, 2009.
^ Judo Ontario: Tales From the Postwar Era When Judo Changed Forever, Judo Ontario, 2004
^ "Tokyo 1964 Official Film". Olympics.com. 2013 [1964]. Archived from the original on May 9, 2021. Retrieved October 16, 2021. Rogers' appearance begins at the 1 hour 45 minutes mark.