Terry Evans was born on the 18th of November 1959 in Australia, emigrating to Auckland a year later. His first experience of the martial arts was as a youth starting Judo in 1974 under Joe Samuel, winning a silver medal at the Judo Nationals in 1978. He started Kawaishi Ju Jitsu under Duncan Kingi at Rongo School of Jiu Jitsu in 1976, a satellite club of the South Pacific Jiu Jitsu Society. In 1977 Terry started training with Tom Twydle, at the Auckland Studio of Jiu Jitsu, under Laurie Olliver, another satellite club of the South Pacific Jiu Jitsu Society (SPJJS), which was an off shoot of the New Zealand Jiu Jitsu Association. In 1982, when Duncan Kingi’s club closed, Terry moved to train solely with Jack Bailey under the SPJJS banner. Terry obtained his Shodan under Laurie Olliver and Jack Bailey in 1984, and in 1986 graded to Nidan in Australia through the Australian Ju Jitsu Association.

Terry fought in many tournaments between the NZJJA and South Pacific Jiu Jitsu Society (SPJJS) clubs during the 1980s and 1990’s. Tournaments of the time were very judo-oriented with limited-contact strikes allowed. Terry fought in the Under 100kg category, and above, and was renowned for good throwing and ground-fighting techniques. It was around the early 80’s that Terry started to get involved in Trans-Tasman Ju Jitsu competitions between Mark Haseman’s Tohkon Ryu Ju Jitsu Club and the Australian Society of Ju Jitsuans (ASJJ), which later split into the Australian Ju Jitsu Federation (AJJF) and the Australian Ju Jitsu Association (AJJA) around 1984. Terry was a New Zealand representative four times, coached the New Zealand team twice against Australia and was the National Ju Jitsu Heavyweight Champion from 1980 to 1994. In 1992 Terry graded to Sandan under Jack Bailey and Phil Sharp of the AJJA. It was also around this time that Gary Polwart began training at Terry’s SPJJS club (known as Barobics West Auckland Martial Arts Centre) in Hepburn Road. Two years prior the SPJJS had folded, and Terry renamed his club Waitakere Martial Arts.

In 1995 the World Council of Ju Jitsu Organisations held their world championships in Auckland New Zealand. However, following the Games, American Ernie Boggs formulated a new version of sporting ju-jitsu, coining the phrase 'sport ju-jitsu' and formed the International Sport Jujitsu Association (ISJA). Their competition format allowed for full-contact ju-jitsu, alongside the more common semi-contact version, and introduced demonstration and grappling-only events. The first ISJA World Games was held in West Virginia in 1996 in the United States. Terry Evans as NZ Team coach and team manager attended with Tom Twydle and Scott Van Gils, Silver medalist, with Terry returning as New Zealand's ISJA director and a Gold in the veteran’s grappling division. In 1997, with the involvement of Terry, the tournament rules format changed to a better balance of striking, throwing and ground-fighting. Terry and Chris Easley, a former 3 time World WJJO Champion, then set up the New Zealand branch of the ISJA at the beginning of 1997.

During the mid-90s the Waitakere club travelled to other ju jitsu and grappling tournaments around New Zealand. One such tournament was Dave Millar’s mixed martial arts tournament at Hunterville in 1996, and it was there, Terry and Gary Powlart met Doug Bailey of NZ Jiu Jitsu School of Self Defence (NZJJS) who was one of Dave’s main referees. They all met again at Hunterville the following year and in 1998 Terry and Gary led a team from Waitakere Martial Arts to Doug’s Jiu Jitsu Unlimited tournament in Hastings. That tournament gave the Waitakere team good preparation for the 1998 ISJA World Games held in Canada, where Terry won a sport jujitsu silver medal and operated again as team coach and manager. In 1997 Terry graded to 4th Dan under Phil Sharp.

At the start of 1998 Terry, Gary Polwart and Doug Bailey ran with the idea of unifying the various ‘national’ ju-jitsu tournaments into a single national sports ju-jitsu circuit. The team embraced the idea, and the International Sports Ju Jitsu Association (NZ) was formed installing Terry as chairman with Gary Polwart as Secretary/Treasurer. They gave themselves just one month to get the first tournament under way and the inaugural tournament was held at Auckland with Gary Polwart as tournament director. By the end of the year ISJJA(NZ) had held four tournaments and 30 clubs had participated. A ranking system was also developed, based on accumulated wins across all 3 divisions, to allow grading to Black Belt in Sport Jiu Jitsu. The first ever true NZ representative team was selected from the top-ranked competitors on this unified national circuit and travelled to England for the 2000 ISJA World Games. Gary Polwart was team manager and refereed at the Games. The team excelled, returning with two gold, four silvers and a bronze medal. At home, Sport Jiu Jitsuans Neil Swailes and Chris Easley refined the full contact Sport Jiu Jitsu rules and ran organised full contact tournaments, which became one of the pathways to MMA in this country, as we know it today.

In 2001 the ISJJA(NZ) changed its name to SJJ(NZ) and Doug Bailey took over when Terry stepped down as Chairman. The ongoing growth and talents of the SJJ(NZ) saw the foundation of the New Zealand Ju-Jitsu Federation (NZJJF) in August 2003. Much of the initial success of the Federation was due to the accomplishments of ISJJA(NZ) and the SJJ(NZ), and in forming the NZJJF, SJJ(NZ) allowed itself to be absorbed as a sub-branch of that organisation. Terry was graded to Godan by an NZJJF convened grading panel on 19th May 2012 when he taught at the National Seminar, he was subsequently graded to Schichidan on the 24th April 2021 by another NZJJF convened grading panel of Gary Trail 9th Dan, Paul Reti 9th Dan and the NZJJF Chairman.

Terry’s dedication and leadership, in conjunction with Gary Polwart OSA, and Doug Bailey OSA, was instrumental in the unification of sport ju-jitsu in this country, that eventually lead to the formation of the New Zealand Ju Jitsu Federation. The influence of Terry as a key figure in New Zealand’s Ju Jitsu history cannot be underestimated and he can be considered one of the “founding-fathers” and leading coaches of Sport Ju Jitsu in this country. Terry has taught over fifteen students directly to black belt and above, and his own career has spanned nearly five decades.

written by Simon Ogden, OSA
12 January 2023