Taekwondo Grandmaster passes the sword to son in continuing the family business.

By Jamie Markham

11/21/2025

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After 40 years, Grandmaster Terry Brumley of Taekwondo University is stepping down as owner of the organization and is handing the reins to his son, Alex Brumley. 

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Earlier this November, Taekwondo University held a special training event called “Spar with the Masters” that offered a chance for students to spar multiple masters from around the Midsouth. The event was not just for the students, but as a retirement ceremony in honor of Terry Brumley’s 40 years running the organization.

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After the event, all of the masters gathered together in a special banquet held in Brumley’s honor where each of the masters, his former students, and family members gathered to honor the legacy that Brumley was leaving behind and while Terry Brumley will always advocate that Taekwondo University isn’t about him or his family, the name of Brumley lives on in the thousands of students who have walked through his doors. 

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In 2018, Terry Brumley became a ninth-degree black belt in Taekwondo and recognized as a Grandmaster of the International Taekwondo Federation. 

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However, the quest to become a Taekwondo Grandmaster isn’t just a matter of dedication, but becoming the epitome of the Taekwondo code. The pursuit of courtesy, showing integrity, showing persistence in one’s actions, embody self-control, and manifesting an indomitable spirit. 

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Whereas prior levels of black belts require intense training, the ninth-degree requires

important contributions to Taekwondo as a whole and after dedicating 34 years to the

art, Brumley was recognized for expanding Taekwondo through the Midsouth. 

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When Terry Brumley turned 60, he received a gift from his old friend, Master Bishop, who

came from his own martial arts studio in New York. “Bishop came down here and when he

did, he presented me with this sword,” Terry Brumley said. “You’ll always receive a bunch

of swords in this business, but there was something special about this sword to me. I put

it up in our back room for students to see.”

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And as Terry Brumley discussed the idea of retirement, he read about the concept of passing the torch as a practice for the Olympic games. “I studied this passing of responsibility and when it came to retiring, I knew that for me to pass the torch in this case, the sword had to be that torch,” Terry Brumley said. 

The decision to retire was not a light choice, but Brumley recognized that he wouldn’t be able to do this forever. “I had to make a choice for who should run Taekwondo University after I stepped down and the only person that made sense was Alex,” Terry Brumley stated.

Alex Brumley, Terry’s oldest son, was the only choice that Terry could think of. “There was this time that I had taken Alex and his younger brother, Eli, to a tournament out and Eli didn’t score well in it,” Terry Brumley stated. “Eli was understandably upset and called them biased, but Alex stepped in and told him the truth: Eli was a great fighter, but he was outskilled in technique.”

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Terry Brumley thought about that moment for a long time, because it was the earliest showcase that Alex Brumley was meant to be his successor. Instead of criticizing his brother or being outright harsh, Alex took his position as an older brother to tell the truth to Eli and tell him how he could improve. 

 

Alex Brumley currently operates as a fourth-degree black belt in Taekwondo and plans to pursue his fifth-degree in March of 2026. “I had to take a break from Taekwondo during the pandemic, but I wanted to study other martial arts too,” Alex Brumley said. “I had already spent 12 years doing Japanese martial arts like Jiu Jitsu and traditional karate kyokushin.”

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While Alex Brumley had trained in other martial arts, Taekwondo stays as the roots of his martial art knowledge. “I was three years old when I started training in this place,” said Alex Brumley. “Taking this over feels like I’m home again. If you grew up in a pizza shop and you came back to it, you grew up in that atmosphere and know what that’s like.”

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For Alex Brumley though, the story of Taekwondo University will continue. “Someone owning it for 40 years is a big change,” said Alex Brumley. “It’s a big, big change and I want to make sure that my foundation is rock solid. I want to expand out and go down south into Lewisburg, but I don’t think I’ll go back to Memphis with the real estate up there.”

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While expansion remains a potential opportunity for Taekwondo University under the guidance of Alex Brumley, this wouldn’t be his first time teaching Taekwondo. As a teenager, Alex Brumley and his friend, Andrew Assad, had oversaw a Taekwondo club within their high school. “We had over a hundred kids in there with us,” Alex Brumley said. “We were two teenagers running a school. We were getting out of class and practically every day, we went to train these kids.”

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Terry Brumley considers this moment as one of the defining moments that helped him choose Alex to

continue Taekwondo University. “People look through that window all the time and see students kicking

and doing all this fun stuff, but the real mission is to make leaders out of these young people,” said

Terry Brumley. “Alex’s friend, Andrew Assad was in this program and they ran that club.”

 

At Terry Brumley’s retirement ceremony, Assad had returned to speak in the ceremony and thanked

the leadership program at Taekwondo University for helping him get to where he was in life. “Andrew

is a professor at a university now, he’s the head of his board and in a role you only see the grey hairs

in,” said Terry Brumley. “I was a blubbering mess because Andrew came up and said that everything

he’s accomplished in his career came from the leadership skills he learned from Taekwondo University.”

 

To see all of his life work through this ceremony, Terry Brumley described it as humbling, but it made him recall the journey that led him to becoming a Grandmaster.

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Terry Brumley started training in Taekwondo in 1974 after an incident in school escalated to a physical confrontation. “I decided that I was gonna learn some way to defend myself so that I could get revenge,” said Terry Brumley. “I went into this for the entirely wrong reason.” 

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However, entering Taekwondo was not an easy task back in the 1970s. “I was 16 and they wouldn’t let me enter the class until I was 18.” Terry Brumley added. “I talked to the head of the school, Mr. Petty, and he told me that I could sit there and watch, but if I made a single noise, I would be kicked out.”

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 Taekwondo’s impact on Terry Brumley’s life cannot be exaggerated either. “I was not bound for college, I didn’t

like school,” Terry Brumley said. “I didn’t have a lot of friends and I had this big chip on my shoulder. Taekwondo

changed all of that. I gained more discipline, more confidence, and I started to like myself better.”

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After pursuing a degree through college, Terry Brumley had started his first Taekwondo Club in

Glenwood, Arkansas. While training and growing their club, Brumley had received a national write-up

by the organization they were working with and were given several offers to train in different cities. 

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After leaving Glenwood for Birmingham in Alabama, Terry Brumley was given an offer for a long-time

position in either Georgia’s Savannah or Tennessee's Memphis. “We spent a long time trying to decide

whether we’d go to Savannah or Memphis and while we studied the other cities offered, those were the

only two real choices,” Terry Brumley said. “Anytime something happened, any celebrations with my

family, we had to drive through Memphis, so we made our choice.”

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After arriving in Memphis in 1985, Terry Brumley noticed signs everywhere from the city’s Chamber of Commerce

that offered to help and start newer businesses in the city. “We decided to open up Taekwondo here and named it

Memphis Taekwondo,” Terry Brumley said. “Our first location was in the Appletree Center off Mt. Moriah.”

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The company started to expand quickly afterwards with locations popping up in Bartlett, Cordova, and Olive Branch.

“We couldn’t keep the name Memphis Taekwondo because those cities didn’t want the Memphis name on them, so

we changed it to Taekwondo University,” Terry Brumley said. 

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Like most businesses, Taekwondo University felt the weight of the pandemic on their shoulders. Their locations in

Bartlett and Cordova were forced to shut down with distance regulations inside buildings. For them to maintain

payroll and expenses, Taekwondo University needed a minimum of 20 students in each class. With the six-foot

distance regulations in effect, each room of their other branches could only train six students at a time.

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Olive Branch provided a safe haven for Taekwondo University during the pandemic. “One day, the chief of police walked through the door and asked how we were doing.” Brumley added. “ He checked to see if the markers on the floor were six feet apart and told me that if I had any problems to just give the chief a call.” 

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As retirement settles in, Terry Brumley doesn’t plan to leave the studio, but to help guide his son through the tribulations of owning a small business. “I spent years with this monkey on my back,” Terry Brumley said. “It’s hard to let go, because I spent all this time running this and now the monkey is on Alex’s back instead. It’d be unfair for me to put all of that on him at once, so I’m slowly helping him figure it out.”