Tribute to Big John Garcia: Profile in Courage On the day of his funeral, I want to share a very courageous, heroic part of Big John’s life that many who knew him probably don’t know about. What I’m about to relate may seem too incredible to be true, but there are witnesses – the only one I can remember is Gerry King, whom John called on to serve as his bodyguard for at least one of these occasions and probably more than that. At Saegert Middle School Big John was a man among boys in many ways. He matured early and was full grown and shaving long before the rest of us. He was not only gargantuan in body; his heart was even bigger. He was also very fast and unbelievably powerful, running over people on the football field like Earl Campbell. The football players would often eat together at lunch, and every so often a kid would come to Big John asking for help saying that one of the gangs had taken his lunch money or was threatening him. It wasn’t Big John’s responsibility or problem, but he took it upon himself to act anyway. He didn’t use his prodigious size and strength to bully, but rather to protect and defend. He’d ask a lineman or two to come with him and “have a little talk with so-and-so and his gang.” His bodyguards might have been scared to death, but like a sheriff in an old western movie Big John would approach the bad guys with no trace of fear whatsoever in his countenance. Badly outnumbered by hoodlums known to carry knives and who knows what else, he’d call out a friendly hello to the gang leader. John would start out talking to them in Spanish and it must have been quite funny because he would really get them breaking out with laughter. Then he would turn serious and speak in English to negotiate a return of lunch money or to negotiate peace between the gang and the kid they had threatened. He would use different negotiating tactics, but I remember one exchange that went like this – Big John said to the gang leader, “You and I are friends, right?” The gang leader said, “Oh yeah, Big John, of course, you bet.” Big John: “Well I want you to know that in addition to us being friends, any friend of yours is a friend of mine.” Gang leader: “Oh yeah, Big John, of course, and any friend of yours is a friend of mine too.” Big John: “Well you see that kid over there? (He’d point in the distance, as he had told the kid to hang way back and to run and get an authority if a fight broke out) He’s a friend of mine and he’s wanting to eat lunch, but he gave you his only money. I’m sure you just asked to borrow it and just didn’t realize that he needed it, but I sure would appreciate you giving it back to him.” Most of the time the gangs would give the money back or promise not to harm the kid they’d threatened. Nobody in their right mind wanted to fight Big John, no matter how outnumbered he was. More than that, I’m sure that the gangs did far less harm than they otherwise would have, knowing that Big John might show up anytime to make things right. In these confrontations Big John never pushed things to a fight. He wasn’t looking for a fight, he was looking to make things right. His courage and honor was too large to calculate and he was and always will be a hero of mine.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 14:06:14 +0000
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