Master Pak Teaches Success 


by Anne Dolan

It has to be 105 degrees in Harold Nichol's old wrestling 
room up on the third floor of Beyer Hall. But Yong Chin Pak 
seems oblivious to the heat and the Iowa July humidity. Pak, 
an adjunct instructor in the health and human performance 
department and coach of Iowa State's Karate Club, has spent 
years learning -- and then teaching -- dedication, discipline 
and self-confidence through the martial arts.

His quiet success at Iowa State might shame more than one 
coach: three national collegiate Tae kwon do team champion-
ships in the last 10 years and a spot among the top three 
teams nationally the last five years. Iowa State hosted the 
collegiate championship last fall and the Karate Club was 
named the club of the year for 1994-95 by the ISU Sports Club 
Council.

"Master Pak," as his students address him, has a seventh-
degree Black Belt in Tae kwon do, one of only 150 people in 
this country who hold that level. He will coach the United 
States team competing Aug. 11-12 in the Ukrainian Goodwill 
Games in Kiev. Three of the nine Tae kwon do athletes he'll 
take with him are students or former students at Iowa State.

Pak arrived on campus in January 1973, after a year at St. 
Mary's College in Omaha and a year coaching a high school 
Tae kwon do team in Hawaii. He was training to make the 1972 
Olympic team for his native South Korea when he had an 
opportunity to move to the United States, just five months 
before the team was named. He was one of the top four in his 
class at the time he left.

Pak's success at Iowa State wasn't immediate.

"I had a really tough time when I first came here. The 
impression of martial arts is violence," Pak recalled. "When 
people understand, they accept.

"I teach discipline, respect and self-respect, physical 
conditioning and citizenship. I don't count athletic ability. 
I only count one thing: dedication," he said. "I talk often 
of the rabbit and hare race."

Although Tae kwon do is a club sport at Iowa State and won't 
even be a full Olympic sport until the year 2000, a number of 
students come to Iowa State primarily to train with Pak. One 
of those is Tim Wiegand, an Appleton, Wis., native and Honors 
Program student who completed his bachelor's degree in 
psychology in May, and plans to go on to medical school.

"I couldn't have picked a better place for what I want to 
do," Wiegand said. "The academics here are good and Master 
Pak's program is the best in the country." 

An avid hockey player as a boy, Wiegand gave up hockey in 
high school to concentrate on Tae kwon do. He met Pak at the 
collegiate nationals during his junior year of high school, 
visited campus that summer and made his decision.

"He was not impressive yet as a freshman," Pak said of 
Wiegand, "but then he put out so hard and he developed. He is 
a leader now."

Wiegand is a third level Black Belt, the highest level 
achieved by an ISU student. He finished third in his class at 
the collegiate national tournament his junior and senior 
years and second in the U.S. Tae kwon do Union's senior 
national tournament last April. He qualified for the U.S. 
Olympic Team Trials in Colorado Springs in June and is 
participating in the U.S. Olympic Sports Festival, also in 
Colorado Springs, this week. He is one of the nine Tae kwon 
do competitors Pak will coach next month in Kiev.

Wiegand's success under Pak is all the more extraordinary 
because the last 16 months of his life also has included an 
all-out battle against Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the 
lymphoid system.

Following the diagnosis in April 1994, Wiegand received 
chemotherapy treatments every two weeks for six months. He 
usually went straight to the gym afterward.

Wiegand is absolutely convinced the sport made the difference 
in his fight. "The chemotherapy hurt my body badly, but Tae 
kwon do helped cleanse my system of it and it took my mind 
off the pain," he said. "There's probably a hundred ways it 
helped me."

The cancer has been in remission since October 1994 and 
Wiegand continues to look ahead. He hopes to be accepted to 
the U.S. Olympic training center in Colorado Springs for next 
spring semester, where he would work out daily with 10 to 12 
of the best competitors in the country. He also has applied 
to medical school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Pak said all his students can't turn out to be Tim Wiegands, 
but he believes most of the 24,000 or so who have taken one 
of his martial arts classes or joined Iowa State's karate 
club learned something valuable about making their lives 
better.

He knows that because his mail carrier complains about the 
volume of mail coming to Pak's home each Christmas. And 
because when he travels to tournaments around the country, 
typically he is greeted at airports by several former 
students. And because the annual Tae kwon do banquet for 
current and former club members draws a barn-busting 500 to 
600 people.

Pak has started working with the admissions office to help 
recruit top students who also have expressed an interest in 
Tae kwon do. He expects about a dozen of the students he 
telephoned during the last year to arrive at Iowa State this 
fall.

"Scholarships," Pak said, knocking his head in only partially 
mock frustration. "I wish I could give them scholarships. 
It's my second dream."

His first dream? He lives it every day.

"I came to America," he said, smiling. "I wanted to be a 
successful martial arts instructor in America."

_____
contact:  Anne Dolan, Internal Communications, (515) 294-7065
updated;  7-28-95