John Cahill was born in 1912 in Honolulu, Hawaii. As a youth he did well in a variety of sports, including volleyball, baseball, swimming, rowing, Sumo and bowling. He was able to swim between the McKulley St. and Kalakaua Ave. bridges on the Alawai Canal in Waikiki -underwater. This is a distance of more than 600 feet!!
John worked as a machinist at the Pearl Harbor shipyards. In 1931, he married Abigail and was the father of four sons: John Jr. (died in 1982), Myrtle (died in 1942), Ben, and Wilfred. (Willy). They lived in the Kakaako section of Honolulu.
In 1934, John began attending the Jujitsu school of Prof. Henry Okazaki and in 1938, he received his black belt (Shodan) and a year later received his Nidan and the Mokuroku (catalog) scroll indicating that he was an instructor. On July 20, 1941, John received his diploma certifying him in the Okazaki restoration therapy, Seifukujutsu. In 1941 he was received a Judo Shodan diploma from the Budokukai in Japan. After he received his Mokuroku, set up his own class at the Kodenkan which he called the Hui Miki Miki (Hawaiian for "lots of pep"). He taught there throughout the war years and also trained many students including U.S. servicemen at Honolulu's Central YMCA. His Jujitsu students in the islands included his brothers, his sons, William Ah Moo, William Montero and Charlie Kalani. Kalani went on to compete in professional wrestling and act in motion pictures under the name, Professor Toru Tanaka.
In 1947, John moved his family from Hawaii to Pacifica, CA near San Francisco and opened a dojo in Daly City. He moved this dojo, now called Cahill's Judo Academy, to South San Francisco and taught here for 15 years. At this time, he and three other former Okazaki students Richard Rickerts, Bud Estes and Ray Law formed the American Judo and Jujitsu Federation. Since John Cahill was very interested in competitive Judo, he also associated his club with the Hokka (Northern California) Judo Yudanshakai (Black Belt Federation).
John Cahill died of kidney failure in 1962 at the young age of 50. His wife, Abigail passed away in 1972. His son Willy, built the new school in San Bruno in 1963 in honor of his father.
John's dream was to have one of his students compete in Judo in the Olympic games. This dream was fulfilled in 1984 when Brett Barron who had been trained by his son Willy competed in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Brett was the 2004 US Olympic Judo Team coach in Athens. Willy Cahill has twice been the Olympic Judo coach and is the U.S. Blind Judo Team Coach at the Para-Olympics.
