Lower Burrell’s Nancy Caliguri celebrates 50 years in martial arts
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Nancy Caliguri has been training in a dojo for 50 years and racked up a multitude of accomplishments.
The Lower Burrell resident is celebrating half a century in martial arts this year.
In October 1980, Caliguri became a first-degree black belt and worked her way to becoming a ninth-degree black belt in November 2023. To put it in perspective, it’s estimated that less than 50 people worldwide are ninth degree black belts in taekwondo.
In 2001, Caliguri was inducted into the Tri-State Hall of Fame. She and her husband, Frank Caliguri, also were inducted in the Alle-Kiski Valley Sports Hall of Fame in 2004. In 2018, she also was inducted in the Hawkes International Society, a worldwide Hall of Fame for the sport.
“It’s just incredible to be put into something like that,” Caliguri said. “There are so many good athletes in there, and just to be in the crowd with them, it’s just really an honor. I just feel honored to have that. And then my husband and I are both in the Alle-Kiski Hall of Fame. We’re the only husband and wife in that one, and we’re the only ones for karate in that one.”
Caliguri also won three straight Professional Karate Commission Women’s Black Belt national titles from 2008-10 and was IKKF Competitor of the Year in 2008.
Nonetheless, her success didn’t happen overnight.
“I was a young girl in the living room and the ‘Green Hornet’ was on TV, with Bruce Lee, and Bruce Lee was in a fight scene,” Caliguri said. “I stopped, and I was like, spellbound, and I looked at my mom, and I said, ‘I have to learn how to do that.’ And then one day, my brother came home and he said, ‘Hey, a karate school just opened up on Main Street,’ and I went.’”
The next day, Caliguri and three friends signed up for the class in Butler in which Frank taught.
“I am extremely proud of my wife for her accomplishments and, most of all, her dedication to the art of karate,” Frank Caliguri said. “She has never missed her training or teaching at the Academy since she started in 1975. Some people start training and then they come and go and finally get their black belt but hardly ever do they stick long-term and never miss. That is why she is a ninth-degree black belt. One out of 1,100 people who start training make it to the black belt.”
In addition to individual accolades, she teaches with Frank at Caliguri’s Academy of Martial Arts in Lower Burrell.
“It’s just 50 years of training,” Caliguri said. “I always train. Every year I go to training, and I’m learning new things. One thing about karate is it never ends. You can always learn new things, always working on new things and I really enjoy teaching the students and the kids and the women’s self defense, and that’s all part of it, too, your involvement.”
Caliguri remembers when she was inspired to teach her own self-defense class.
“I was in college, and I was a yellow belt, which is maybe six months of training and there was a woman who did a women’s self-defense class at my college,” Caliguri said. “Of course, I went to that, and as I’m sitting there listening to her, in my head I said, ‘When I know how to do this, when I learn enough karate, I have to do women’s self-defense training.’”
In 1980, she became a first-degree black belt and has taught customized self-defense classes to church groups, schools, Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops, nurses and, most recently, her street smart class for the “little dragons,” who are 4-6 years old. She instructed at the Jazzercise Convention too.
Caliguri is glad her self-defense teaching has helped her students in times where it was needed.
“I had one of my students go to Pitt Oakland campus, and she was there just a few weeks, and she called me,” Caliguri said. “I asked what was wrong. She said some guy came up behind me and grabbed me from behind. She said ‘I could hear in my head, you saying ‘empi, empi,’ which is elbow smash. She elbowed him in the face to the ground. I can’t tell you how proud of her I was at that instant to know one thing saved her. One elbow saved her.”
Her husband admires her work as a teacher.
“She is a great asset to the dojo,” Frank said. “She’s a devoted instructor and leader and knows how to deal with all types of people.”
With all her accomplishments in karate, she has one accolade she loves the most. In 2018, Caliguri returned to competition and went to Buffalo, N.Y., to compete in the 24-woman tournament Master Adams and Gorino Martial Arts Open, in which the majority were young adults.
“I’m standing there looking at them, and I’m thinking, ‘Well, OK, there’s 24 of them. Today’s my birthday. I’m 55 years old. This is going to be my birthday present,’ ” Caliguri said. “I went out there and poured my heart into it, and I took first place and I have that cup that I got from first place right here at the karate school. I look at it every day because that was a very special day.”
She is most grateful for her husband Frank.
“He’s taught me everything I know, but he hasn’t taught me everything he knows,” she said.
They are both proud to have a karate and martial arts oriented family. Their daughters, Kelli and Chrissy, both competed, with Chrissy taking a liking to gymnastics as well.
“Kelli is a black belt, and she has a lot of titles as well,” Caliguri said. “She’s been an awesome competitor. My youngest daughter, Chrissy, she trained for about five years. … I have my granddaughter, her (Chrissy’s) daughter’s here now, Zoe. She’s been here four years, and she’s really developing into the arts. She’s getting really good.”
Frank is proud of the entire family and will continue to spread the arts.
“I must also be very proud of both of our daughters,” he said. “We will continue to pass on our knowledge of the martial arts for the students and enjoy our children and grandchildren and family.”
Nancy Caliguri has one message for those who are contemplating training.
“I would just tell people to not be afraid, to go in and try it,” she said. “I think a lot of people are hesitant. Know what to expect, but I would say the door is always open and just go in and try it. My self defense class, it’s a really good program. I’m just being able to pass on my knowledge to the students and the people who come in. My husband trained with Robert Trias. He always wanted the art to spread. So that’s what we’re trying to do, is continue his goal is to spread the art.”