02/04/2024
Chicago Sun-Times
June 23, 2002
Portage Park has its own Tarzan
Mike Houlihan
Ald. Thomas Allen (38th) told me "Tarzan" grew up in a house in Portage Park. The wild man's name is John F. Kola.
"The coolest thing about Portage Park, when I was a kid on the 5800 block of Dakin, there were at least 10 to 15 kids on the block--same with the next street over, Byron, same deal there," John says. "So you had instant football games, softball games. It used to be like the Dakin Street kids against the Byron Street kids. We used to play jailbreak with about 30 people, and that really got crazy. I broke both my arms, both my legs, hoppin' from roof to roof."
John misses the old days in Portage Park. "If you got in trouble back then, you could get cracked by somebody's mom or dad. Nowadays you can't do that. You get sued or thrown in jail."
John's a guy I wouldn't want doin' the crackin'. His martial arts resume reads like the menu at Tommy Wong's. He owns Big John's Club Belmont, a bar in Jefferson Park, and is president of the Chicago Chargers semipro football team. He makes Steven Seagal look like Richard Simmons.
"I can fight very well; that's why I handle this business very well," he says. "I'm very level-headed, I'm business-oriented, and I don't take no bull----."
John looks like a Viking as he grabs a couple of beers and slides one across the table to me. Ask him about the tattoo on his shoulder, the one that reads "John." He says, "When my dad got killed, I got a tattoo of his name, and then everybody busts my stones, 'What'samatter, you forget your name?'"
He laughs and says, "I know what it means, and my good friends know what it means."
His dad, Big John Kola, was killed in an accident on the Kennedy when John was in fourth grade at St. Pascal.
John couldn't play football in high school at St. Pat because he had to work to help his family and widowed mother. He came up with an angle. He photographed every major bodybuilding show in Illinois. Magazines bought some, but most of the pics he sold right back to the musclehead contestants. Vanity, thy name is Arnold.
John played linebacker on the Chargers for eight years. Today he is president of the organization.
"Now I just run it. I'm 35, I got kids out there 20 years old that are 6-foot-9, 350 pounds; that's a whole lot of hurtin' for a guy my age." He pretty much does everything for the team. Their motto is "no agents, no contracts, no endorsements, just pride in the game."
The team is made up of Everyman. "We got cops, firemen, stockbrokers, bankers, detectives; one of the players got his face split open, and one of the other players was a doctor and stitched him up."
The Chargers practice at Portage Park twice a week. "Besides playing football, I make it mandatory that we go out and help others," he says.
Cade McNown, did you hear that? The Chargers give back to the community. The parties after the games might even be better than the games. "We get a little wild, get a little crazy, but otherwise no one gets hurt."
Those who cast their bread upon the waters will wind up lucky. "Everyone that comes on the Chargers, the people that get involved, they give back, and it comes back tenfold. It's really wild; this thing has got a horseshoe up its a--." (That means really lucky.)
John has another tattoo of an eagle on his back and the words, "Honor, Loyalty, Pride. Jake 10-20-94." It's his personal philosophy and the birth date of his 7-year-old son. "He's a real good guy. I'm proud to be his dad."
In 2000, John F. Kola was inducted into the Minor League Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. The same year, he met Chicago Bears Coach Dick Jauron at the Bears convention at the Hilton.
"I gave him my card and challenged the Bears to play the Chargers. He laughed. It would have been like Rocky and Apollo Creed."
Everybody knows who won that one.
Mike Houlihan wrote and stars in the plays "Goin' East on Ashland" and "Mickey Finn."
Next week: Canaryville
PORTAGE PARK
*Portage Park: Belmont to Lawrence, Cicero to Narragansett.
*In the 19th century, Native Americans used natural ridges (now Cicero and Narragansett) as portage routes.
*In 1889, the town of Jefferson was annexed by Chicago, and what is now Portage Park was included.
*By 1930, Germans, Poles and Scandinavians were the leading immigrant groups in this mature neighborhood. Italians, Hispanics, Filipinos and Koreans eventually arrived.
*Forty percent of homes are well-kept, single-family bungalows.
Copyright 2002 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
