Rolls Gracie

Rolls Gracie was born on March 28, 1951. A son of Carlos Gracie, he was raised for the most part by his uncle Helio and started Jiu-Jitsu as a small child. He was the first in the family to seek out competition in freestyle wrestling, Greco-Roman wrestling, sambo and judo, and he trained with the judoka Osvaldo Alves and with Bob Anderson, an American wrestling champion.

He won the Guanabara state Jiu-Jitsu championship in 1973 and 1974, was Brazilian freestyle wrestling champion in 1975, and won the Pan American titles in freestyle wrestling and sambo in 1979. To improve his conditioning, he also did gymnastics and surfed.

The head instructor at the Gracie Academy in the 1970s, he promoted only a few black belts, the last of them Romero “Jacaré” Cavalcanti, and directly shaped his brother Carlos Gracie Jr. and his cousin Royler Gracie. He died in 1982, at age 31, in a hang-gliding accident. The IBJJF inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2016.