He was a star athlete in various sports events during his student days and joined the Army after graduating from high school. It was while stationed at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, that he met his karate instructor, Sgt. Herbert Peters, who had just returned from Okinawa. Mike started in Shorin-ryu and earned his brown belt in three months. He then established a world record for achieving his black belt rank in only six months from the day he started training. He never lost in any of his individual black belt matches as well as in kata competitions. He is recognised as the only black belt to retire undefeated with 91 consecutive black belt victories. He was inducted into Black Belt’s Hall of Fame twice as Fighter of the Year in 1971 and Instructor of the Year in 1994.