The Legendary Bill Butler
Okay, I don’t have any images of The Loop Roller Disco (The Loop) yet, but I have spoken with the owner, Greg Evans, and several other roller skaters in the city. Apparently, the Loop was hot in it’s day. Even legendary DJ Herb Kent gave it kudos.
The Loop was visited by local and national celebrities, politicians and other well-known people. But, it was more than just a roller skating rink. It was literally a community center. It served as an employer and safe haven for many young people in the community. In fact, a lot of them stayed out of trouble so they could skate. It was also a social center where relationships were developed. Most importantly, it was a place where people in the community connected with others.
Interesting fact: The Loop is now home to Trinity United Church of Christ. Know what that means? If not, that’s okay. You’ll find out when my roller skating book is published in the future.
Speaking of my book, share your Loop Roller Disco memories in the comment section below. Did you meet or skate with any celebrities? Did you become a local celebrity because of your roller skating skills?
Image: Unknown
Hey, what happened to this website. Is it jut my computer, or you can’t really read the comments due to the new background?
Hey Georgia, I’m about to update it. It’s more work than expected.
I grew up in Princeton Park from 1970 to 1980 my brothers and I attended Drew School. On Saturdays between 12-3 or 4-7 we were present every weekend at the LOOP, It was the place to be.
Hey Dr. McGinnis, did you ever skate at St. Thaddeus?
I skated at the loop at least 3 times a week. 4 to 7 on Wednesday then 4 to 7 and 8 to11 on Saturday back in the early 80’s. I remember going through the middle (between the walls) then coming out doing a big wheel. Peabody was one of the djs during that time. Afterwards we would go to Ali’s to grab a bite. I still skate to this day along with alot of people that skated during that time. It was a great era.
My partners and cousins and I used to go to the Loop Rink next to the tracks in Princeton Park back around 1976-78. You were taking your life into your own hands at that time if you were a rookie skater. You had to come out from the sides of the rink onto the skating floor with speed and immediate balance or else you would be ran over and flattened on the floor causing a 20 man pileup (Loved it!!!) The guys there who skated the best were called “Roller-Rats”…at least thats how we referred to them. Roller Rats ususally worked at the rink in some capacity and were like courtesy patrol in case you fell down on the rink…They could swoop in with blazing speed and control and help you get up off the floor before getting roller wheel tracks on your face like Wild E. Coyote!!! Best skating music, Body Heat, Schoolboy Crush, Roll Bounce Rock Skate….JBs “The Bucks”…etc..
I remember riding the train and bus from Evanston, Ill. to 95th. Station, then walking to get to the midnight ramble. ” The JB’s Hot and Bad, Same Beat, Pass the Peas, The Horny Horns, gangsta walkin, big wheelin, Oh !!! You better not fall and knock any one down, just not cool”…. The LOOP WILL ALWAYS BE IN MY MIND AND LIFE, Where I first learned to really skate- crazy leg, stop racing around the rink and get some damn smooth-ass moves going on. Let’s not forget our FINE ROLLIN WOMEN- just body for days, just put it down every week… Grown Grown. I am an old man now and still put s thing or two on my grandkids….. They still know I can roll…. Hey late 50’s and can stil big wheel….!!WHAT!!
we would leave the 8-11
then go to the 12-3 at Markham
to show them how The LOOP do it
Any remember Skate City on 62nd Racine? Please tell me stories cause these was the best years of my life!
Sheila, I’m hoping more people will chime in with memories. In what years did you roller skate at Skate City?
I love skating! I just found a pair of Chicago skates they look really old but feel so great at a Mississippi thrift store…I feel lIke i won the lotto… you can see they were worn in but still have a lot of miles to go! I plan on my 3yr old skating in them! My oldest is 22, 4 boys, and he wish they were his…skating will always stay alive!
I was looking for somewhere to skate here in LA and I found this site.
I grew up at the Loop and believe me it was something special! No, rinks
that I have been to as an adult were managed like
The Loop Roller Disco! It was in the Hood and it was always clean and fresh!
The music was great and those big speakers in the corners really hit hard!
But, it was more than that, the managers treated you like you were important!
Greg, the light skin manager was the best ! He was there all the time and gave away food
and free passes , that place was packed all the time! He drove a corvette and would take us
home if our ride didn’t come. I loved that place, I always wondered why they closed with all
The money they were making !
My only nickname Ms. Marcie was Diggs.
Ms Marcie…Awww this us awesome,I might be a couple years behind on this topic,but a friend of and I were reminiscing on skating and The Loop came up and I said I would search for it and your blog came up, thanks for sharing, but we have to get photos,if I find any I will email them to you..why don’t you create a Facebook page called the loop skating rink Chicago? You will get a lot of followers and maybe pics,or Instagram? Cool!!! Keep me in “The Loop” we skated every weekend with my mom as kids and as I got older I stopped, but we went to Markham,The Loop, The Rink….whew!! Good Times!!!
Thanks for stopping through, Kyla. Time commitments will not allow me to manage a Facebook page. However, if you find that someone does start it, I’ll be happy to post it and support it on my site. Also, if you could send other roller skaters to my site, it would be appreciated.
I remember when they closed the A&P shopping mart and a while after that up pops the Loop. It was a trip to see all those cars in the parking lot especially on a Friday or Saturday night. Growing up so close to the Loop (Princeton Park) everybody from around the crib would go skating there. I was really young during that time but I truly enjoyed the Loop, especially the one occasion when I was able to get in the 12-3am session (I was with some older homies from the Park that got me in). I produce music now because I was so inspired by that music. I remember names like Big Mook, Law, Little Emir, Tony, Hank, Gam, Erica (employee), Cecil (skate guard), Marlon (skate guard & Dj), Kay, and so many others. I also used to enjoy the aroma from the men’s bathroom (ses bud, lol).
Thanks for sharing your memories of the Loop Roller Rink, Will Dig. Did you have a nickname?
I always speak of the Loop when talking about the past. My father would take me, my brother, cousins and friends on the weekends. I was so happy to go to the Loop. I got a pair of white skates with pink wheels for Christmas and I could not wait to roller skate at the Loop. I was not a great skater and often ventured on to the big rink. The white and black striped shirt workers would promptly lift me off the floor,reminding me of where I needed to be. I sure miss that place!
Hi Ms. Tiffany, roller skating is fun times. Do you have any pics of you and your father?
What memories, that was the best time of my young life.. i was only one of few “shorties” that could get down with the big boys… we would go to roller kingdom in jeffery manor in the morning, then skate at the loop all day…it was like family, all of my clique had black and white panthers. I remember batman, bologny, theopolus, and my first crush was this lightkinned girl named angel, she was the finest girl id seen at 9 . We slowdanced to let me be your angel by stacy lattisaw. Lmao, i thought she was gone be my wife!!!!!. Such great memories…. any have pics of the loop?
I skated at the loop from 1976 fhrough 1980, when I went away to college; and I had a ball! I grew up in the neighborhood- attending both Kipling and Gillespie elementry schools; and Trinity Church which is on the site now. We had REAL music back then! I was into the funk bands and I was never disappointed at the Loop. It was there that I first heard George Duke (r.i.p.)
I myself am a musician and two different bands that I was involved in played there- on the “little rink”.
Remember the lite sticks? Ever try putting yours in the fridge hoping the glow would last? I did!
I think Greg is now involved with Rich City Skate in Richton Park, Illinois, but can’f be sure. Peace!
Wow! What a trip! I skated at The Loop every Friday and Saturday. I met Sugar Ray Leonard there. He autographed my skates. Sylvester (One of the owners) was a very cool dude who was like our parents eyes. He was a police officer. Bet you guys didn’t know that. My friends Billy Batts, David Laquoor, Quick Draw, C.C Cynthia Mckinney and her sister Trina, Judy,Denise, Helen, Sow Wow, Mike(The Skate Guard, Luther(Skate Guard), Brian and Jim Evans were cool. Hey I am not gettin on no more skating rink floors. Man I might embarass myself! I loved The Loop though.
hey my name is charles cousin name pooky we had a freind name jabo we came there together know every name you wrote about
Wow! I have so many memories of this place. My first real job. I was one of the first Greg Evans hires. In fact, I actually started working for Greg to help get the place open! I was an ambitious young kid(15 years old) and I loved to roller skate. So I approached Greg as he was working on getting the rink ready. Long story short, he hired me to help clean up and when it opened the first day I was hired as a skate guard! I will stop here, cause i can go on and on about the friendships made and the good times had!!
Keith, thanks so much for sharing your history of the rink. Please spread the word about my site.
As a child I enjoyed skating and the big rink especially in the middle I was able to learn how to crazy lady and also it was a particular song that I like to hear it was listen to my heartbeat play itfunky I like to know who that song was by. It wasn’t James Brown play it Funky
Thanks for stopping through and sharing your memories, A.F. Be sure to send fellow skaters to do the same. Do you happen to have images or video cips?
War
that song is by the group war my name is charles my cousin name pooky we skated at the loop back in the 80s
That song is “Heartbeat” by WAR 🙂
Do any body have any Pictures of the Loop Skating Rink .
i grow up skating at the loop skatng rink it will always be home for me i meet so many good people there it was the first rink i have ever been to wish it was still here i miss that rink so much had alot of good times there
Wow! I have not thought about the “Loop”, as we called it for twenty years. I lived at the Loop and would pay the Devil, to go back to those times.I was reading the posts and they were right, it had a special something about it.I was just a kid, but the management was really nice and it was different than Markham and Skate City. What I remenber,the Loop was always clean and smelled fresh.Larry Reed and Greg,did a great job, keeping things in order!They had a machine that sprayed a fog that smelled like cotton candy,after every session they used it.They always gave away free popcorn and had all kinds of people come there.We skated with Mayor Washington and Walter Payton one Saturday!Times were better back then and the music was the best.It was the best time of my life!
The world has changed a lot since then.I loved the rink inside the rink on the big floor. Mike Tate was the best DJ on Sat 1-4 pm. We cried when it closed.As I look back, Greg could have been no older than 25, but we thought he was 50. We were just kids and he was only 12 years older than us.Those days will never come back with all the guns and gangs.
Ms. Kathy, thank you for the Loop memories. You shared them like it was yesterday which is too exciting! Do you have any photos that you can share?
The Loop was something special ! It was run better than any of the other rinks! It was always clean and just well run!
I remember Greg , the owner he was always trying to make things better. I will never forget the time Greg took me flying, he was a great pilot and really cared about his staff. All the employees wore uniforms , which was unheard of in a black business . At the end of every session they played “Here we go loop Dee Loop” I thought it was dumb, but I grew to love that song! I still sing it today. I wonder what Greg is doing now.
I remember coming all the way from 39th street and catching the train and then the bus from 95th or we would walk to the Loop. We had lots of fun and the people then were so friendly and my girlfriend and I use to love it!!! Those memories will always be cherished and I still love to skate. Man, what a time me and the fellas had at the loop. It was a great place to go especially on the weekends.
I remember skating at the Loop from the 1970’s until they closed. We had a good time there. i think I spent my whole weekend there skating every session. Especially on the Wednesday afternoon session from 4-7. I still skate now , but no rink was like the Loop
my name is charles my cousin name was pooky i think we was going together back in the early 80s
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your memories, Charles.
There was a group of guys who always skated together in two’s 6 of them. They wore black satin jackets with a white playboy rabbit on the back trimed in white. They were the JB’s skaters. Their moves were awsome always together, they had names like Gangster Walk, Big Wheel, Airplane and Godfather. I remember those guys because I was one of them. There was Ron, Tyrone, Steve, Big Mike, Artesian, Avance, Miles and Derrell. They were my friends and a good bunch of fellas. And boy could we skate.
There was a group of guys who always skated together in two’s 6 of them. They wore black satin jackets with a white playboy rabbit on the back trimed in white. They were the JB’s skaters. Their moves were awsome always together, they had names like Gangster Walk, Big Wheel, Airplane and Godfather. I remember those guys because I was one of them. There was Ron, Tyrone, Steve, Big Mike, Artesian, Avance, Miles and Derrell. They were my friends and a good bunch of fellas. And boy could we skate.
On a Sat. night, if an adult didn’t drive us there, then we’d walk from 89th Vincennes all the way to The Loop. If necessary, we’d walk home late at night too and always felt safe! Sometimes, we’d play at the park right behind The Loop so we could be 1st in line when the doors opened. We loved skating that much! The more I skated (even in our basement at home), the better I got skating backwards, doing the back bend, the crazy legs and other tricks. Other great moments were watching the gangstas on the floor (near the DJ booth) stepping to James Brown. They stepped hard and fast! None of that pitty-pat stepping you see today. And it didn’t seem strange to anyone to see two guys stepping together. It was amazing how they’d switched up and kept the rhythm flowing. Every now and then, a sistah would jump in and she could roll just as good as the fellas. Oh and how can I forget a tall, light-skinned, curly hair guy by the name of Bootsy! He was very popular not only because he was pretty, but could also skate his butt off. I swear every Monday when I went to school there was always some chick claiming she was his girl. Everyone had big dreams back in the day. Lol
you are right
would watch This Guy Elvis & Casper step under the speakers
i remember guys like Planters , Bam-Bam, The Phonze, Spider Hurc
I remember the dance parties after skating was over at the Loop. We would skate for 3 hours 12-3 4-7 or 8-11. Then we would take our skates off and dance. I remember when they had the battle of the dee=jays!!! And back then there were not too many female spinning. I remember “Hotmix” Chrissy Henderson winning the dee-jay competition! I also remember skating with “Pink House” of WKKC radio.(r.i.p.)