Steve Owen

Inducted Class of 2025

From 1971 to 1977, Steve Owen competed in more than 120 Judo tournaments nationally.
It went very well. Owen became Pima College’s first NJCAA national champion, part of Pima’s first varsity sport.
Along with teammate Dan Noli. Owen qualified to participate in the 1980 USA Olympic Trials and made the team. Unfortunately for Owen and Noli, the USA boycotted the Russian Olympics.
Owen won his first individual national championship in 1972, which was more special because Pima College had virtually no budget for sports and he still completed the training and development to become a champion. He won the 1977 national championship in Missouri and became a leading coach thereafter.
Becoming an All-American was not easy. In the 1972 nationals, for example, Owen and his teammate Dan Noli drove a 1962 Chrysler to Missouri for the finals. They ran out of money, had to eat popcorn for dinner and sleep two nights in the Chrysler when it was 20 degrees. They kept on winning anyway.
In the 2000s. Owen became one of the West’s leading Judo instructors at his Tucson facility, Tucson Dojo.
“What makes it all so special is that we began at Pima College from the ground level,’’ Owen said. “In 1970 while at Pima, the Arizona Board of Regents said there would be no varsity sports at Pima. But with Eli Noble, Ted Farhat and Larry Toledo leading the way, we got the ABOR to reconsider and we soon became national champions. We had 19 tournaments one year and 20 the next, even though we had no money. It was quite a Cinderella story.’’