Background Information:
Phillip (Chip) McAllister

Phillip L. McAllister, Jr. was born on October 2, 1957 to Phillip L. McAllister, who was a Navy musician at the time, and Willie Mae McAllister in St. Louis, Missouri. Two days later his grandfather, Louis McKay gave him the nickname “Chip” because he was a “Chip off of the old block”. A few years after his dad’s return from the navy, Chip’s mother divorced him and took Chip to Los Angeles, California where Chip grew up.

In order to get on their feet, Chip and his mom stayed with several relatives after they arrived in Los Angeles. In 1965 Chip remembers seeing tanks going down the streets and gun shots being fired every night while staying with a relative in Watts during The Watts Riots. Later in 1965, Chip’s mother had earned enough money from working as a Keypunch Operator for Gulf Oil to rent their first apartment. In 1967 Chip’s mother got a better job with Hughes Tool Company, so they moved into their first two bedroom apartment.

The year 1969 was a very special year for Willie and Chip McAllister. When Chip was 12 his mom bought their first house. That house happened to be located on the best block in the world, the 3800 block of West 60th Street in South Central Los Angeles. 60th street was more of a family than just a block. Everybody took care of each other on 60th street. Chip had attended 13 elementary schools before moving to 60th Street. Once there, Chip attended one Junior High School, Audubon and one High School, which was the crown jewel of South Central Los Angeles, Dorsey High School. At Dorsey Chip was a pretty good student but he flourished socially. He was voted Senior Class Vice President without even campaigning.

After graduating from Dorsey at 17 years of age, Chip dabbled in Junior college for the next year. Chip loved the social aspect of college. However, the studying, homework and testing aspects of college were not to Chip’s cup of tea. Later that year Chip also realized that his life as a box boy at the Ralph’s Grocery Store was pretty much dead-end. During this time Chip felt tremendous pressure to do something with his life. Ever since he was a little boy, Chip felt that he was put on this earth to do something good for a multitude of people.

One day while Chip was conferring with his mother, she mentioned to him that she had seen a segment on the news where Columbia Pictures was performing a world wide search for a young man to portray Muhammad Ali in his life story. Initially Chip dismissed the idea as being ridiculous. He felt that he had no acting or boxing experience. A few weeks later Chip attempted to once again complain to his mother about how meaningless his life was turning out. She abruptly stopped him and reminded him that she had given him information about the Ali movie, and that he had not taken action on that. She went on to tell him not to bother her any more about his “terrible life” if he was not going to take the advice that she gave him. Well, Chip was livid when his mother took this stance. So, to spite her, he asked her for the number that she had copied from the television segment and called Columbia Pictures right in front of her. He was sure that he was going to be able to laugh at her after they had laughed at him.

To Chip’s utter surprise, the casting person at Columbia Pictures immediately gave Chip an interview for the very next morning. When Chip got off the phone, his mother, who had heard the whole conversation just smiled and walked off. The next morning Chip arrived on the Columbia Pictures lot and saw hundreds of teenagers vying for the coveted role. He even saw Levar Burton from “Roots” and Freddy “Boom Boom” Washington form “Welcome Back Kotter”. All of the actors seemed to go into the audition and come out within 5 minutes or so. When Chip’s turn to audition was nearing, he remembered that his Uncle Ted had told him that he did a great impersonation of his idol, Muhammad Ali. So, Chip should go into the audition and impersonate Ali without ever breaking character. When Chip went into the audition, he met several people who all wanted him to stop with the impersonation. Chip never broke character for 45 minutes, when he gave them his real name and phone number.

After several weeks of auditioning, Chip was flown to New York (his first time in New York). He was then taken to Muhammad Ali’s good friend, Hal Conrad’s apartment. While Chip was talking to Hal, he heard this booming thunder coming down a long hallway “Who is this chump that thinks he can play me?” “I am the greatest of all time!!!” “Can’t nobody play me in my movie!!!” He kept going on and on. Then finally he rounded the corner and Chip jumped up from his seat and started in “I am The Greatest!!!” “I float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!!!” “They All fall in the round I call!!!” Then, out of nowhere, dozens of cameras poured into the apartment. Ali hugged Chip and informed him that he was the chosen one.

Chip traveled for 3 months to 7 states and worked with the likes of Muhammad Ali, James Earl Jones, Robert Duval and Ernest Borgnine on the movie, “The Greatest”. Once the movie came out, Chip was treated like a superstar in South Central Los Angeles. His life was forever changed because he took a shot at something “impossible”, thanks to his mother.

A few months after “The Greatest” came out Chip went with his friend to a party in Marina Del Rey. There, in the recreation room is where his life really changed. He met his future wife, the extremely gorgeous Kim. After breaking through Kim’s initial “Cold Front”, they were inseparable. For the next few years, Chip pursued his acting career while Kim finished up at UCLA. Seven years after they met, Chip and Kim married in Las Vegas. Their first child CJ (for Chip Jr.) was born late in 1985 and their beautiful daughter Kristen was born shortly afterwards in 1986.

Chip’s acting career was pretty mundane after his initial breakout movie. Some of the shows in which he Guest Starred in were “Police Woman”, “Columbo”, “Paper Chase”, “Facts Of Life”, “Highway To Heaven”, “Tour Of Duty” and “The Young and The Restless”. He did over 50 commercials. He starred in two other movies, Weekend Pass and Hambuger, The Motion Picture (please forgive him) and was in several plays. In 1986 he was the second lead in the CBS television series “Better Days”, which was the first series to get cancelled that season. To Chip’s surprise, after the cancellation of “Better Days”, it was very hard for him to find acting work.

In 1987 Chip and his new family bought their first house in Diamond Bar which was in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Shortly after moving to Diamond Bar Chip’s acting career was so slow that he went to Kim and told her that he was thinking about giving up acting school to pursue college and business. Kim thanked him for coming to that decision and told him that she had been praying for that for 2 years. Surprised, Chip asked her why had she not even eluded to the fact that she wanted him to change careers. Kim told Chip that she would never even think of ever stopping Chip from going after his dreams. That support catapulted Chip through computer school, good jobs in the computer technology industry and to finally receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1995.

In 1998 Chip & Kim started their own computer consulting company. It was extremely successful. Due in part to the Y2K scare, Chip & Kim were able to amass enough money to move into their dream home in the beautiful Coto De Caza, California in 1999. Their business boomed until 2001 when the computer industry and the stock market took a dump.

Later in 2001, due to the computer industry being virtually “dried up”, Chip & Kim agreed to partner with another couple who also had a similar business. Chip, Kim and the other couple started a business together with each couple owning the company 50-50. The new partnership did not generate one dime for 14 months which forced many hardships on Chip & Kim, including the fact that they had to allow their dream house to go into foreclosure for 4 months. Though Chip & Kim worked together ever day with their partners to build the fledgling company into a multimillion dollar company, as soon as the company started to generate money based on Chip’s deal making ability and Kim’s superb placement skills, the partners stole the business from them. Looking back, Chip and Kim realize that this unscrupulous couple duped them from the beginning.

Broke, betrayed, immersed in a bitter lawsuit and backs against the wall, Chip went to Kim with a brilliant idea “Hey Kim, I know what can get us out of all of this negativity . . . Let’s go on The Amazing Race!!!” Needless to say, Kim was not instantly enamored with the idea. However, due to the fact that Chip had been praying for a miracle, he convinced Kim that the very circumstances that they were currently experiencing were ordained by God “for such a time as this”. He went on to explain to her that they had to go through the bad partnership in order to humble them, take everything away from them, get them closer to, and make them rely on God, trust, love and grow even closer to each other and have 6 weeks of time to be away from their jobs and family.

Chip had no idea whether they were going to win the race or not, he was just certain that once they got on the show, that God would give them favor in their lives to speak about what they are passionate - Happy, Healthy and Passionate Marriages.

However Chip & Kim traveled to 6 continents, over 75,000 miles, had the most amazing time that they could have ever imagined . . . AND . . . they won the race . . . and ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!! The best part of that was the fact that Chip & Kim never told any of their family members whether they had won or not. They flew with their family and friends to the Finale Party in New York. When their family and friends saw Chip & Kim’s van pull up near the finish line, a thunderous and joyous sound, louder than the Angel’s World Series win was heard. The many tears of joy that rained on that night revealed to Chip that it was a part of the Master’s plan that he had to go through, and have faith through the previous two roughest years of his life.

Chip never had any doubt that he and Kim were going to be chosen to be contestants on The Amazing Race. He trusted God through the whole audition process. Chip had hopes of, but no idea that he and his soul mate were going to win the race. Chip now places no limitations on what he and his soul mate can accomplish by merely taking the chance to pursue their impossible dreams . . . together.