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Te’Jaan Ali returned to Chicago in the summer of 2020 to spend time with his family and focus on basketball after a disappointing freshman year at Portland Community College in Oregon. A foot injury had sidelined him this season and his condition had deteriorated during the pandemic.

While in Chicago, Ali texted his college coach, Tony Broadous, to tell him he was working out and planning his comeback.

“That was the last I heard from him,” Broadous said on the phone, swallowing his tears.

On July 18, 2020, Ali and a few other young athletes gathered for five-on-five basketball at a school gym on Chicago’s south side. It was the last game Ali played. He collapsed in the gym and died that afternoon at a nearby hospital. He was 19 years old.

More than 50 friends and relatives gathered on Sunday at Ellis Park near Bronzeville to release balloons and ride their bicycles to commemorate Ali, who was also a standout athlete at De La Salle Institute in Bronzeville and Alan B. Shepard High School in the southwestern suburb of Palos Heights. The commemoration comes seven months after a report from the Inspector General of Chicago Public Schools revealed the tragic events leading up to Ali’s death.

Janet and David Ali prepare to release a balloon in honor of their son, Te’Jaan Ali, on Sunday at Ellis Park in Bronzeville during the third annual Let’s Ride memorial event. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

“It was really traumatic because it was totally unexpected,” Diane Ativie, one of Ali’s aunts, said of losing him. “He had just returned from Portland, Oregon, just before the summer, with plans to return to school in the fall. So it was devastating.”

As it turned out, no one was allowed to be in the Emmett Louis Till Math and Science Academy gym that day. The school district had closed indoor facilities early in the pandemic, according to the report by CPS Inspector General Will Fletcher.

A Till employee who worked as an assistant coach for a college in suburban Chicago reportedly disarmed Till’s security system and sent at least 15 people, including Ali, to the gym for an unauthorized college recruiting event in the suburbs, the report said.

Ali’s father, David, declined to comment to the Tribune about the circumstances of his youngest son’s death. Ali’s name was not disclosed in the Inspector General’s annual report, which went public in January and highlighted major investigations the agency undertook in 2020 and 2021. The Tribune brought together what had happened to Ali through public records and interviews.

David Ali sees balloons float away in honor of his son, Te’Jaan Ali, at Bronzeville’s Ellis Park on Sunday during the 3rd annual Let’s Ride memorial event. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

Tony Chiuccariello, who coached Ali at Shepard High and taught him American history, described him as an outgoing boy who always had a smile on his face. He praised Ali’s ability to sink three-pointers as center and play a strong defense, blocking his opponents’ shots.

“He got better over time. I really wish I had him for another year,” Chiuccariello said by phone. “He was supportive of his teammates. He was like, you know, that perfect person that if someone was emotional when they came out of the game, he would talk to him. He was loved by all his teammates.”

A few weeks after Ali graduated from Shepar, Portland Community College announced that he was one of three recruits to join the 2019-20 Panthers squad. In a statement to the news, Ali said he “chosen PCC to get offers for basketball and to improve my skills as a player. I also chose PCC to get my GPA and get ready for college. ”

Broadous recalled that Ali had a relative who lived in the Portland area, which helped him transfer to college so far from home. As a 6-foot, 8-inch walk-on, Ali didn’t play his first year because he suffered a hairline fracture in his foot, but Broadous said he practiced with the team.

“He was a unique player because he’s so tall and he likes to shoot three-pointers. The players laughed and joked with him and said, ‘Come in and post like a center,'” Broadous said with a chuckle. “He would say, ‘ Let me play my game.'”

Off the field and outside the classroom, Ali worked part-time at Walmart and joined the soccer team for home games, according to PCC, who recalled him in an August 2020 obituary.

Darius Gary, who became Panther at the same time as Ali, said he liked exploring Portland by bus and wearing colorful clothes. He described him as an energetic, happy teddy bear.

“He loved video games. He loved music,” says Gary, who now plays for Western Washington University.

Gary said Ali had his sights set on playing professional basketball. Broadous said he expected Ali to return to Portland in the fall of 2020, so it appears that Ali wasn’t trying to get recruited at the Till gym, but just logged some practice time on July 18, 2020.

That morning, the temperature outside fluctuated between 88 and 90 degrees, and the school’s gym was not air-conditioned, the CPS inspector general said. Till’s security cameras showed the event started at about 11 a.m. Ali collapsed around 12:40 a.m., according to a report from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.

“According to witnesses, the deceased said he felt hot before standing in front of the fan and then collapsing,” the coroner’s report said. “Witnesses called 911 and were told to perform CPR, but upon arrival from Chicago Fire Department Ambulance #55, paramedics saw no one performing CPR.”

Ali was transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead in the emergency room just after 2 p.m., according to the coroner.

It’s unclear whether Ali knew he had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an inherited disease characterized by the thickening of the heart muscle. The heart is forced to work harder to pump blood. It is estimated that about one in 500 people have the condition, but a “large percentage” of patients are undiagnosed, according to the American Heart Association.

The medical examiner report stated that hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is an important risk factor for sudden cardiac death in young people, especially during exercise. The 1990 death of college basketball phenom Hank Gathers from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy raised awareness for the condition. Testing and treatment options have evolved in the decades since.

The coroner noted that Ali tested negative for COVID-19. There was no evidence of trauma to his body. He had a medical history of asthma, although the report said it’s unclear whether Ali was using or even carrying his albuterol inhaler that day. He weighed 338 pounds at the time of his death, and the coroner described him as obese.

Just 17 days before he died, Ali posted a series of workout photos to Instagram with the caption, “Getting back in shape.”

After Ali’s collapse, the unnamed Till employee who allegedly opened the gym waited three hours to notify Till’s director at the time and “repeatedly mischaracterize” the recruiting event as a casual fetch game, according to the report of the Inspector General.

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The report noted that the employee approached Till on “multiple occasions” while it was being closed to COVID-19 and did not cooperate with the Inspector General’s investigation before retiring in September 2020. The employee did not respond to the Tribune’s requests for comment and the newspaper did not name him as he has not been charged with a crime. According to the Inspector General, his CPS personnel file has an indication ‘Do not hire’.

Two other CPS employees who reportedly attended the unsanctioned recruiting event — an assistant principal and a special education class assistant — resigned rather than be fired or disciplined, the inspector general’s report said.

Janet Ali gets help with her helmet as she and other family and friends set out on Sunday for a bike ride to Navy Pier in honor of her son, Te’Jaan Ali, from Ellis Park in Bronzeville during the 3rd annual Let’s Ride memorial event. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

All the while, Ali’s lovers continue to remember him with an annual bike ride. They gathered on the Ellis Park basketball court on Sunday afternoon, dressed in shirts with Ali’s likeness and basketball balloons released as a DJ played “What is This” by Bishop Walter Hawkins. The participants jumped on their bikes and rode north in a ride supported by the Major Taylor Cycling Club.

Audrey Lewis, one of Ali’s aunts, said he enjoyed cycling to keep in touch with his relatives, including her grandchildren in Indiana.

“He got on his bike and mapped out a route he would take so that he could visit several people in one day. That’s the kind of young man he was,” Lewis said. “I always had high ambitions to go to the NBA, and God gave him some great opportunities.”

tswartz@tribpub.com