THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JACK KEARNS

By Bennett Cohen

             Jack Kearns, born in Hollywood, California on March 31, 1933.  Father, Jack “Doc” Kearns, a fight manager who managed many worlds’ champions, and Mother, Lillian, an actress who was beautiful, but could not act.

            Jack Jr. was raised in many towns and countries, the majority of which was in the City of Chicago.  Where he started boxing as a young lad of thirteen and spearfishing in

Lake Michigan and Lincoln Park Lagoon.  He used a glass bottom bucket and a conventional slingshot and curtain rod to spear carp in the lagoon and Perch and Bluegills in the lake, without a mask.  When he received his first mask, It came from France, and was rock hard.  He was in heaven, he thought, “I can actually see underwater and it’s not all blurred”.  However, it leaked badly.

            His first tournament win came in 1957 when he, Don DelMonico and Paul Dammann, won the Southeast Council Spearfishing Championnship and were now eligible for the National Championships.  

           Jack, did not use a snorkel when he first started diving.  Neither did his dive partners, Art Pinder, DelMonico, and Dammann .  None of them did until well into the fifties.  Actually, not many sling divers used snorkels in the beginning, not too smart.  Must have been oxygen deprivation.

          Kearns and DelMonico found snorkels when they went to California for their first

National Spearfishing Championships in1957.  They were given the ability to breathe while looking for fish, when Jim Christensen of California, gave them their first snorkels. 

          It helped Kearns, but only for a while.  Kearns froze up after an hour of diving.

He then crawled up on Seal Rock and warmed up for twenty minutes.  This is how the competition went for him.  They did not do well, Florida was much warmer.

           Jack went on to compete in many National and International competitions over the years.  He had a second and two thirds in his national career, and a first and a second in his International events.  He won the Cuban International Spearfishing Championship in 1987 as the top individual diver.  His team consisted of Pepin Fernandez, Mike Malvasio, and lEugenio. an Italian diver from Italy.  Jack shot most of his big fish in 120 feet of water. 

          Jack’s favorite dive partners were Luis Perera and Pepin Fernandez in the deep water and Art Pinder, Carl Starling, Don Meyers, Mike Malvasio, Marcel Piz and Jack's sons Tim and John in the shallower stuff.  Jack’s former wife Ellie was the first womens National Champ from Miami.  Although he says that Pinder could dive any depth, he preferred the shallower stuff because he could use his great speed and strength to his advantage.

          Jack has held world records in Sailfish, in which he broke Art Pinders record, and in Cubera Snapper, ninety pounds gutted and one hundred four pounds ten ounces intact.  In the early fifties, Jack, Art and Don shot many fish that were of record weight.

          There were many world records broken by Florida divers of the past, however, “the idiot from California (Jack’s expression)  that was in charge of records, never paid much attention to the South Florida divers, especially DelMonico and Kearns.  Everyone else was fine, he seemed to dislike the Miami Skindivers teams”.

          Kearns was the only diver that used a gun in the deep water and carried a sling and a free spear in his weight belt.  He would shoot a fish with his gun and then second shoot it with his sling, or shoot another fish that swam up.

          Jack said ”The reason I carried the sling and free spear was the same reason Al Pacino gave in the movie The Godfather”.  Jack said when he left his gun on the bottom in the deep.  “I want to have something more than my children’s future in my hand”.

Think, shoot a fish with a sling in 120 ft of water and bring it the surface, no tank.