was organized in 1923 by a group of
Europeans living on Chicago’s South Side. One of the charter
members, Ed Merkner, was a National Champion in both 1925 and 1926.
Several of the club racers were professional participants in the
six-day events that were so popular in the 1930's. Mike Rodak rode
several races as partner to the six-day world record holder "Torchy"
Penden.
The WWII years and the late 1940's
found the South Chicago Wheelmen in a period of very low activity.
During the 1950's the club was in the hands of Mac Bottema, a board
member of the Amateur Bicycle League of America, which later became
the United States Cycling Federation (USCF), the official national
sanctioning body. Mac was part of the effort that brought the Pan
Am games to Chicago in 1959.
During the early 1950's, the Kron
family came to Chicago from Germany. Willy Kron was a national junior
champion in Germany. The Krons were associated with the Express
team, the largest team in Germany. The South Chicago Wheelmen was
reorganized by Theo Kron and Mac Bottema in the late 1950's. The
reorganized club used 30 jerseys from the Express Team brought over
from Germany in a trunk by Theo. At first the South Chicago Wheelmen
lettering was added to the blue-gray Express jersey. Then the stripes,
which are now one of the nationally recognized bicycling logos,
were incorporated. The next and final steps in the evolution of
the famous jersey were to put the lettering and the stripes on a
red jersey.
During the 1960's, the South Chicago
Wheelmen put on the first national cyclocross championship. Also
during those years, a club member set the national record distance
for riding 24 hours.
For many years, the Illinois racing
calendar was mostly comprising races promoted by the South Chicago
Wheelmen. During the 1970's and into the 1980's the club produced
many state champions, both men and women. One of these, Mike Farrell,
went on to become the coach/manager of the Schwinn professional
team. Another member, Bob Reynolds, was part of the veteran’s
team that established the cross country record. We were active in
the past with the Lance Armstrong Junior Olympic Race series.
Each year, for many years, Theo Kron
brought to the country top European racers to ride here for a season.
He had them as guests in his home and would see that they got to
the important races around the country. This influence also helped
to establish the South Chicago Wheelmen as one of the important
bicycle organizations in the U.S.
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