James ‘Little Howlin’ Wolf’ Pobiega, a Chicago street busker who played sax and performed on cruises, dead at 73

James “Little Howlin’ Wolf” Pobiega performing on the Michigan Avenue Bridge. (Provided)

At Argo High School in Summit, his football teammates called James Pobiega — who was also a theater kid who stood six and a half feet tall and wore size 18 cleats — Beowolf. 

Years later, to passersby who might toss a buck into the case of his saxophone as he played on the Michigan Avenue bridge, he was known as Little Howlin’ Wolf — in homage of the Chicago blues legend Howlin’ Wolf, also known as Chester Burnett.