Clyde Newton Jr., known as “Quiet Elephant” in the karate world, is heading to the Battle Of Atlanta this week to fight in his first major karate tournament.
The Battle Of Atlanta is an annual international open karate tournament, with six different divisions for attendees to compete in.
Newton is yet another branch in the karate tree started by local karate practitioner and instructor, Master Rudy Rogers. Rogers was raised in Plant City by Sadye Gibbs Martin, the first female mayor of Plant City and the first African-American elected mayor of a major city in the state of Florida. At 16, Rogers moved to Denver, Colorado where he attended Manual High School. After graduating, Rogers ran track and field at Northeastern Junior College, transferred to Arkansas State for a semester and ran track and field, finished his bachelor’s degree in health and physical education with a minor in biological science at Colorado State University and ultimately earned a master’s degree in therapeutic counseling from the University of Colorado.
While he first began practicing martial arts in high school, he began to really take it seriously in 1976 after completing his service in the U.S. Navy. Rogers moved between Colorado and California for several years, continuing to practice and teach karate before relocating back to Plant City in 1999 and opening up his own open-air dojo at his house, teaching Goju Gung Fu karate through his Nisei Karate Federation.
One of his most accomplished students, “Rhino” Mike Thomas, began training in 2015, earned his blackbelt in 2018, was inducted to the Sports Hall of Fame at Plant City’s Bing Rooming House Museum and later opened a dojo of his own in 2021. It was through Thomas that Newton first began training.
A Brandon native, Newton has long served the Plant City community through his Newton Home Care, Inc., a company that provides independent living services, adult day training services, transportation and group home services for adults with disabilities.
When he was young, Newton’s mother was a manager with Sunrise Community, another organization centered around working with adults with disabilities. As a single mother, she often brought Newton and his siblings along with her to work. This exposure, along with a growing up with a close family member who had an intellectual disability, grew into a love for making a difference in the lives of those who are affected.
“When I was in high school I always told myself that once I graduate, if I can make a difference in someone’s life, that’s what I want to do,” Newton said. “A lot of people say that they want to make a difference in people’s lives, but I wanted to make a difference where it mattered and to me, that was this population because this is a population that a lot of people forget about, it’s a field that not a lot of people want to work in. That’s what pushed me to go this route. It was something that was instilled in me from the time I was a little boy all the way through the time when I had grown up.”
Newton and his wife first began offering home care in 2015, going to the home of adults with disabilities to offer personal support while parents or caregivers worked. In 2016 they opened Newton Home Care, an adult day training center in Plant City, and in 2019 they opened South Himes Group Home in Tampa.
“This population can go to school up to 22. Once they hit 22 they graduate out and a lot of times there’s nothing to do but sit at home,” Newton said. “Some end up getting jobs, some of them do well but some of them struggle because of their disability. Then that can conflict with the parents’ schedule so they find a place like us where they can come here to learn daily life skills, basic cooking skills, basic skills so that if something happens to their loved ones or the ones who are taking care of them, they’re able to survive somewhat independently. We also teach them basic money-counting skills, computer skills, reading skills, the basics that they will tend to use at home. Coming here it’s giving them a refresher so that it all stays fresh on their minds and if they want to get a job this helps because they’re getting those regular learning experiences.”
Newton had some previous boxing experience and Thomas, a long-time friend, began pushing him to practice karate. After some persuading, Newton agreed under the condition that Thomas teach him, and it didn’t take long for him to grow a love for the martial art. His training increased and before long, after Thomas had introduced Newton to Rogers, he was studying under two different instructors.
“I was training with Master Rudy in the morning and then in the evening I was training with ‘Rhino’ Mike,” Newton said. “I just kept at it and the more I trained the better I would get and it’s just something that I fell in love with.”
Soon after, Newton started additionally working out with another dojo closer to home in Brandon, practicing the Uechi-Ryu discipline. Newton has now taken a spare room at his business and converted it to a dojo where he trains, now roughly a year-and-a-half into his training with a white belt in Uechi-Ryu, preparing to test for his next belt, and a purple belt in Goju Gung Fu.
As an underbelt – signifying a division of fighters below a brown belt – Newton has already fought in several tournaments throughout Clearwater, St. Pete in Orlando. His first tournament win came in Orlando as he faced 11 different opponents over a two-day span, but the Battle Of Atlanta will be his biggest challenge yet.
“Clyde can be a beast,” Rogers said. “I’ll just sum it up like that. Clyde can be a beast, man. He’s already got a following.”
Together, Thomas and Newton will headline the First Annual Strawberry Open Tournament, presented by Rogers’ Nisei Karate Federation, at the Sadye Gibbs Martin Community Center on September 10.