Jim Maloney named to North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame
Martial arts fighter and longtime instructor was raised on Sipekne'katik First Nation
Jim Maloney is still going strong at the age of 77, and still being recognized for his athletic accomplishments.
While he continues to hit the gym regularly to train martial arts fighters, last week he added yet another honour to an illustrious career when he was inducted into the North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame.
"This for me is very prestigious because it's a huge hall of fame," said Maloney, before a session with his students. "This is actually the fifth hall I've been inducted into, and they're all exciting."
Maloney was born in 1945 on the Sipekne'katik First Nation. But when he was 16 years old, he left the reservation and hitchhiked to Boston.
Living in a big city for the first time brought lots of changes, and it was in New England that he discovered martial arts.
"Boston was such a big city for me because I think I had only ever been to Halifax once when I was maybe 14 or 15," Maloney said. "I met a man there named sensei George Mattson, who had studied in Okinawa, Japan."
Soon after Maloney began training with Mattson at his martial arts school, he was singled out as an up and coming competitor. He went on to be an undefeated New England champion in free-fighting and cement-breaking competitions from 1967 to 1973.
"We didn't have any protection on, it was bare knuckles and nothing on our feet," said Maloney, who once trained with martial arts legend Bruce Lee while in Boston. "A point was when you drew blood, so it was a pretty crazy time to be involved in the sport."
Maloney spent 10 years in Boston before deciding to return home to Nova Scotia, where his father was in poor health. Unfortunately, his father passed away before he made it back. But Maloney decided to bring his martial arts knowledge to Halifax, and operated his own martial arts school in the 1970s and 1980s.
"In those first years in '73, '74 and '75 I would have had 400 students, with another couple hundred on a waiting list to get in," said Maloney. "We had politicians, lawyers, surgeons and dentists, all the professional people."
Fast forward to 2023, and Maloney is still instructing. Many of his current students have been with him for decades.
"He's just a kind, generous heartwarming human being," said Lloyd Fisher, who has trained with Maloney for more than 35 years. "He respects everybody who comes through the door whether they are male or female, a boxer or anyone from another discipline, he is always welcoming them with open arms."
Travis Parsons, who started training with Maloney in 1998, said he's "never met anyone with so much talent."
Asked what Maloney would have been like to compete against in his prime, Parsons said with a laugh: "I hear he was very ruthless and deadly."
Maloney's wife, Bridget Stevens, is the boxing coach at Tribal Gym in Dartmouth. She grew up on the Eskasoni reservation in Cape Breton and first met Maloney when he started to train her. She said the hall of fame induction is warranted.
"He deserves this, after the amount of work that he's done for his community, for my community," said Stevens, whose team of boxers recently brought home several medals from an event in Ontario. "He is just over and beyond, and goes to the max in everything he does."
Maloney is now into his 61st year of martial arts training, and doesn't plan on stopping.
"I never drank, never smoked, never did drugs," he said. "I still love it and it's great to still get out on the floor, and I can still throw people around."
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