What is Champion about?
Champion is the memoir of Roy Kurban, a bullied 12-year-old who grew up to become a national champion in the golden age of American sport karate and then spent 50 years redefining what the word champion means—as a Texas peace officer, as an elected justice of the peace, and, finally, as the man running a reentry program inside a county jail.
Is this a martial arts book or a criminal justice book?
It’s both, and it does not switch genres halfway. The discipline Roy learned on a dojang floor at 16 is the same discipline he brought to a patrol car, a courtroom bench, and a jail. Readers who come for the sport karate stay for what he did with what it taught him; readers who come for the justice story get the 50 years that formed the man.
Who is Roy Kurban?
A ninth-degree taekwondo grandmaster and a 10th-degree black belt in karate. He’s a 13-time Hall of Fame inductee, the Black Belt Hall of Fame’s 1980 Man of the Year, one of the first professional kickboxers in the country, and the founder of the American Black Belt Academy in Arlington, Texas, where he trained more than 10,000 students. He went on to become a commissioned Texas lawman and served 16 years as an elected Tarrant County justice of the peace. Today he is Chief of Reentry for the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office and teaches at Strawn Martial Arts Academy in Strawn, Texas.
What is Pathways to H.O.P.E.?
Pathways to H.O.P.E. (Helping Offenders Pursue Excellence) is the prisoner reentry program Roy leads inside the Tarrant County jail in Fort Worth, Texas. It is open to every one of the more than 4,000 men and women held there on any given day—nobody is assigned to it. Those who walk through the door are the ones who have decided to change the course of their lives, and the program exists to make those second chances real: housing, work, identification, and a team that does not give up on them.
Who wrote the foreword?
Aaron Norris—director, producer of 168 episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger, and Chuck Norris’s brother. He and Roy met at a taekwondo tournament in Seoul in 1970, when both were serving in the U.S. Army in Korea. Both were disqualified that day for punching to the face in a kicks-only world, and their friendship has lasted more than 55 years.
Are there photographs in the book?
Yes: 120 photographs, most from the author’s 50-year personal archive, and many never published before. They run through the book rather than sitting in a plate section, and they are reproduced in black and white on cream paper.
What formats will Champion be available in, and when?
Paperback and hardcover, publishing Tuesday, November 17, 2026, with a Kindle edition coming soon. The paperback is $26.99 and the hardcover is $37.99. Booksellers and libraries can order through Ingram.
Is Champion suitable for younger readers?
It is written for adults, but there is nothing in it that a martial arts family would want to keep from a teenager. Instructors and parents who have handed students a book about discipline before will recognize what this one is doing.
Can Roy Kurban speak to our school, department, dojo, dojang, or organization?
Yes. He speaks to martial arts, law enforcement, judicial, civic, and faith audiences. Inquiries go to melinda@fivecrowpress.com or 682-540-7379.
Who trained Roy Kurban?
He earned his first-degree black belt under Allen Steen, the first man to win a national karate title for Texas, at the Meadowbrook Recreation Center in Arlington. He earned his second degree under Grandmaster Won Chik Park while serving with the Eighth U.S. Army in Korea, and he came up through the tournament circuit training alongside Larry Caster and many others in the golden age of American sport karate.
What does Champion say about mentorship?
Mentorship is the through-line. Roy Kurban was mentored by men who asked nothing back, and he spent 50 years doing the same—first for students in a dojo, then for deputies, then for other judges, and now for men and women leaving jail. The book is a 50-year argument for servant leadership made by someone who never uses the phrase.
