In 1971, Neal Kottke walked into Club One for the first time, not as a donor or a trustee, but as a volunteer looking for a way to help. At the time, the organization was known as the Union League Boys Club, and the Club served as a place where boys could go after school to find structure, competition, and community. Neal met Executive Director Emil Syngel at a function and soon found himself in the gym, stepping into a coaching role with a group of young men who were not varsity athletes, but who were committed to improving and eager to be part of a team.
He remembers those early days with clarity. “It was very enjoyable, and you get to know the kids well, and you get to know the Club. It is a real participating way to understand what is going on.” Coaching quickly became a deeper commitment. Neal traveled with the team to tournaments in Champaign, Peoria, and other cities, creating opportunities for the players to compete and to experience something beyond their immediate surroundings. Through that work, he developed a clear understanding of the role the Club plays in young people’s lives.
“When you really think about it, what we are doing is giving these kids a safe place during those vulnerable hours between school and when a working parent gets home,” he says. “That is when a young kid is very vulnerable, and when we do that, I think that is a great service.”
After spending time abroad in the mid-1970s, Neal returned to the Chicago area and reconnected with the Club. His involvement evolved, eventually leading to his role as a trustee and today as a Life Trustee. Over the years, he took on leadership roles that strengthened both access and long-term impact. As Chairman of the Scholarship Committee, he ensured that support extended beyond financial awards. “We instituted a follow up on the people to whom we had given scholarships and encouraged them to come back and kept contact with them,” he explains. As Chairman of the Membership Committee, he worked to bring new trustees into the organization, recognizing that sustained impact depends on consistent leadership.
One of the most significant chapters of his involvement came during the reconstruction of Club One. Early in the planning process, there was consideration of temporarily relocating programming, but that idea quickly proved unrealistic. “What we ran into were gang turf markers,” Neal recalls. “Any place that we could physically go was not going to be able to serve the kids because of crossing turf lines.” Closing the Club, even temporarily, would have created a serious gap for the young people who depended on it.
In response, the leadership team made a deliberate decision to keep the Club open throughout construction. The project was executed in phases, with one portion of the building operating while another was rebuilt, then shifting and continuing the process. “It became very clear that we really needed to keep the Club open,” Neal says. “That was very, very important.” The result was a fully reconstructed facility without interrupting the daily support the Club provided.
That same clarity guided Neal’s decision to underwrite the East Gym at Club One. His approach to philanthropy has always been grounded in practicality and impact. “When one considers philanthropy, there are a lot of worthy causes out there,” he explains. “What has always stood out to me with the Club is the efficiency of the dollars that are spent and the immediate impact that it does have on some important lives.” For Neal, the value of the investment is measured in outcomes that can be seen and felt by the young people who use the space every day.
Today, Neal lives in rural Oklahoma, where he operates a cattle business that spans multiple states. His environment is very different from Chicago, but his philosophy on community has remained consistent. “I prefer that people look in their own backyard,” he says. In Oklahoma, that same approach has led him to support a local Boys & Girls Club serving a rural population facing its own challenges. “There is a lot of rural poverty. It is different than urban poverty, but the kids are the ones who suffer.”
When asked what message he would share with a young person at the Club today, Neal offers a perspective shaped by decades of experience. “You are there to pursue learning,” he says. “Any job that you start with will not be the same job that you finish with. The only way that you can be productive is that you have to learn and continue to educate yourself.”
For Neal, legacy is defined by contribution. “Family first, profession second, and then what did you do with the people around you,” he says. His decades-long relationship with the Club reflects that belief, beginning with a volunteer coach in a gym and continuing through leadership, investment, and ongoing engagement as a Life Trustee.
Neal’s story spans more than five decades, but the need he first responded to has not changed. Every day, young people walk through our doors looking for a place to go, someone to guide them, and an opportunity to grow.
The East Gym stands as one example of what is possible when that commitment is put into action. It is used daily. It is filled with energy, discipline, and potential.
They exist because someone decided to step in.
For those who are ready to be part of this work, there is a clear way to step in today.
Your support ensures that young people have a place to go, someone to guide them, and the opportunity to build what comes next.