'Mr. Oak Forest Bowl' Retires After 55 Years In The Bowling Business: 'It Was Practically In His DNA'

OAK FOREST, IL — Chuck Cahill remembers how on his first day at Oak Forest Bowl, his shirt caught on some equipment and ripped.

The 14-year-old was working on the unit that hides the pinsetter machine, and the tear seemed an initiation, of sorts.

"Yeah, you're a lifer," his coworker quipped.

He wasn't wrong. Cahill worked there until he no longer could—until all that remained of the iconic south suburban bowling center were charred walls around the place that held decades of his memories. The fire that burned Oak Forest Bowl took with it decades of Cahill's ingenuity, dedication and hard work building the business. A cherished employee who rose from teen pin chaser to respected and beloved general manager, Cahill found a home there—and a second family in the bowling business.

Retired last month at 69 years old, Cahill looked back at the job that never felt like one.

"That was the one thing I gotta tell you about Oak Forest Bowl," he said, "it was a magnet for people. Very seldom did you have a problem there with anybody. God, I loved that place."

Cahill logged more than 50 years at Oak Forest Bowl, building the business beyond and around its bowling base.

"Quite frankly, he was the heart and soul of that establishment and was often called ‘Mr. Oak Forest Bowl,’" his daughter Sara told Patch. "OFB was practically in his DNA and so many big family events took place at 15240 S. Cicero Ave. I’ll always remember the phone number, 708-687-2000, and hearing him proudly say ‘Oak Forest Bowl,’ or ‘Hello! This is Chuck!’"

After it no longer existed, its owner Keith Tadevich welcomed Cahill to a manager role at his other bowling alley, Burr Oak Bowl in Blue Island. Late last month, Cahill stepped back from that role, too, embracing retirement.

His love for Oak Forest Bowl—and the bowling business in general—is still palpable.

"It’s been a good ride," Cahill told Patch. "You work at a place all those years, and you have a bunch of friendships. Anything that ever mattered in our family was done there: bridal showers, baby showers. Anniversaries, big birthdays."

Cahill and his daughter Sara can easily tick off all the milestones—individual and family—that took place at Oak Forest Bowl. Parties—for birthdays including his 40th and 60th birthday, his wife Marge's 50th, daughter’s 30th, granddaughter’s 1st—and for his daughter’s college graduation, and his wife's retirement. Sara bowled her first 300 there (on lanes 31 and 32 in 2009).

He even met his wife there, when her parents bowled in the "Kings and Queens" league. On a Super Bowl Sunday, they hung out during a party held at the alley's lounge.

"By the end of that game—we both felt like, 'This is the one,'" Cahill said.

They stopped at the alley after their wedding—pulled up in a '52 Buick convertible—and took pictures on lanes 5 and 6. Years later, they'd even hide their family's puppy in the bowling alley overnight before gifting it to their daughters—Sara, now 38, and Nicole, 42—on Christmas Day in 2001.

Still, he knows he's not alone in the the poignancy the bowling alley holds.

"Oak Forest Bowl was a special spot for a lot of people," he said. "Everybody still talks about it."

'That place was meant to be'

Professionally, Cahill poured everything he had into the bowling center. He started new leagues, hosted tournaments, revamped the menu at its Jake's Bar and Grill.

"Our pizza was everything made in-house," he bragged. "Our own dough, own sauce. Three-cheese blend made ourselves—we took blocks of cheese, shredded and mixed it. Made our own pizza sausage."

He organized candlelight fundraisers for various charity organizations, or to raise money for friends and loved ones going through crises to support medical bills.

He'd already been there nearly 30 years when the Tadevich bought it in the late-90s, and was one of just a handful of employees they kept on. Cahill then met Keith Tadevich, with whom he'd work to expand the business into its ultimately last iteration.

"I’m gonna call him a kid, because he’s 20 years younger than I am," Cahill joked. "Me and him hit it off really well."

Keith Tadevich said their partnership was key in making the bowling center a success.

"Chuck was instrumental," Tadevich said. "A lot of the ideas came from him. He thinks outside of the box, and is willing to take chances. He made me take more chances, and gave me the confidence to try more things."

Adjoining outdoor recreation space The Park opened in 2000, featuring a beer garden, bar, sand volleyball and cornhole pits. Indoors and outdoors, they hosted live music and fundraisers. The outdoor venue hosted volleyball and cornhole tournaments. For 20 years, the volleyball leagues filled up fast, teams filing in nightly and providing a steady flow of business.

The Park was a huge hit.

"When we had an idea, we went for it," Tadevich said. "We just made sure it was going to work. If it didn’t work at first, we’d alter the formula and make it work. Persistence, and hard work."

Cahill's work ethic could not be matched, Tadevich said.

"The energy, and the will to make everything better—be better tomorrow than you are today," Tadevich said. "He’s one of the hardest working people I’ve ever been around, if not the hardest working. Never takes a shortcut."

Cahill, who was raised in Markham and used to pass the bowling alley while riding in a car with his dad, can still clearly picture how he felt the first time he set foot in it. But he never could have known how big a piece of his heart it would hold.

"It was really something the first day I walked in there," he said. "That place was meant to be."

'One of the worst phone calls'

Cahill, Tadevich and a limited staff took on the COVID-19 pandemic, fighting to keep the beloved business afloat.

"It was a very scary time as a business," Cahill said. "Most of our employees couldn’t work. Keith and I worked every day. We had one of my mechanics, my cook. That’s when we built the two gazebos up on the deck, and the tiki bar."

He's referring to the standalone bar that went up in the middle of the beer garden—closer to the volleyball courts. It saved players a trip up to the main outdoor bar—though waitresses popped over to the courts, too, to take orders.

“Everybody knows that tiki bar," Cahill reminisced.

Navigating the pandemic was a challenge unlike any they'd faced.

"I gotta be honest with ya," Cahill said. "You wondered how he (Tadevich) could still pay the bills."

They made it out the other side, but in 2023, a fire would strip them of all they'd rebuilt. Cahill was vacationing with his wife in Mexico when he got the call from Tadevich.

"'Oak Forest Bowl is a full blaze right now,'" he remembers Tadevich saying.

"Terrible," Tadevich said. "Chuck, he WAS Oak Forest Bowl, through and through. It was terrible. It was one of the worst times—one of the worst phone calls I’ve had to be on. Just devastating.

"...Knowing he was there over 50 years, at the time of the fire—knowing he’s even been there longer than me, knew the building in and out—it was just devastating for us all. It was terrible.”

<<A Look Back: Destruction At Oak Forest Bowl Captured In Drone Photos >>

Cahill can recall seeing what was left of the building.

"It was just devastating," he said, "the first time we pulled up."

Sara Cahill felt relief that her father wasn't there at the time of the fire.

"While this tragedy was, without question, a huge loss to the Tadevich Family, it was to the Cahill family, as well, especially to Chuck," Sara told Patch. "He was so upset he was not there, but we are grateful, because we know he would have tried to save anything and everything, possibly endangering himself."

Tadevich knew what it had taken to make Oak Forest Bowl what it was, and how big a role Cahill had played in it.

"Bowling can be stale—I think we weren’t, there (at Oak Forest Bowl)," he said.

In 2024, Tadevich announced he wouldn't rebuild Oak Forest Bowl.

"It breaks my heart, but the truth is it’s not feasible at this point," Tadevich previously told Patch. "I don’t see how it will become feasible."

Several factors came into play in his decision, Tadevich said, including discrepancies between insurance funds and the cost to rebuild, and Cook County building codes and requirements.

Ultimately, it was risk versus reward. A rebuild is an undertaking Tadevich isn't ready to face. With two other alleys—Burr Oak Bowl in Blue Island and Mardi Gras Lanes in DeKalb—his time and effort are already divided.

The loss of the bowling alley hit not only the Oak Forest community hard, but also the south suburban bowling landscape. In 2022, Orland Bowl closed after its owners sold the building and property to Tesla. It was a fate many bowling centers met—a shame to those who love the game for its competitive and social aspects.

Northbrook-based bowling and restaurant chain Pinstripes Holdings has filed for bankruptcy, closing a number of locations across several states in the process. The company announced in September that 10 of its 18 locations would close, as they sought a new buyer. While typically more social of a setting, the business gave people a place to develop a love for the sport.

Maybe, that got them hooked. And maybe, they'd look for a league. But where can they go now?

"There’s so few of them left," Cahill said, of bowling centers. "And it’s devastating.

"You think about all the centers that are gone. We’re (Oak Forest Bowl) gone, Orland closed. There’s gotta be 50 bowling centers in the Chicagoland area that have closed since 1970."

There's nothing like a bowling center, he swears.

"If you never stepped foot in a bowling center, you don’t get it," Cahill said. "When you walk through those doors, you come in to all people—all walks of life, difference races, different religions—and now you’re family. Never judge a book by the cover, or you’ll miss out on the best people if you do."

Cahill eventually finished out his career at Tadevich's Burr Oak Bowl on Oct. 30.

"We went through a rough year, and it opens your eyes," he said, of his decision to retire. "I want to spend time with my family. Working nights, you don’t see as much as somebody who works days. I hold on to my family. My kids are great kids. And I have the best wife. She is the rock of the family."

Two recent medical diagnoses in the family left him reevaluating his priorities.

"Things change," he said. "We got a phone call one day that changes your life. Two of those phone calls this past year."

He and his family plan to travel more—they just got back from Europe, with Spain and Germany on the list and Turkey also one of his must-sees.

Cahill didn't want a big fuss made over his retirement, Sara said, but she insisted. His announcement of "We’ll turn your lanes on, and we are ready to roll!" at the start of league nights still plays in her head.

"My dad has touched so many lives over the years and he deserves to close this chapter on a high note, although he doesn’t want it made to be a big deal," she wrote to Patch. "However, I feel it’s a story worth telling, worth celebrating."

If fate hadn't dealt them such a brutal hand, Cahill might have been retiring from the Oak Forest alley, instead.

"If it hadn’t burned down, we’d still be there reinventing the wheel," Cahill said. "I never, ever wanted not to go to work."

And he'd still go back.

"... If something would happen, and he decided he wanted to rebuild that place, it would be me and him running it. I’d come out of retirement for that."