Papa Hops Softball Tournament Draws Record 7,500 Fans to Morgan Park, Raises Six Figures for Cancer Fight

MORGAN PARK — Kennedy Park had never seen a crowd quite like this one.

An estimated 7,500 people packed the park at 11320 S. Western Ave. on Friday night for the 12th annual Papa Hops 16-inch Softball Tournament, what organizers are calling the biggest turnout in the event's history. By the time the championship game wrapped up, the tournament had raised more than $100,000 for a foundation that supports cancer patients and youth athletic programs on the South Side.

"This is probably the biggest turnout we've ever had," said Tommy Hopkins, one of the tournament's main organizers and one of four children of the late Tom "Papa Hops" Hopkins, the Morgan Park resident and St. Cajetan parishioner the event honors. Hopkins died of melanoma in 2014 at age 58.

The tournament started that year as a way for neighbors to remember him. It has since grown into the Tom Hopkins Foundation, which raises money to help families battling cancer and to fund local youth sports programs, many of them tied to St. Cajetan, the Hopkins family's home parish.

"We're very fortunate for the people in this community for sticking together," Hopkins said. "Whenever there's a need or a special event going on, they come together to have a good time. This is a very special place."

This year's honorees, who threw out the first pitch of the championship game, were Mary Kate Newman, a St. Cajetan Elementary School teacher and breast cancer survivor, and Matt Knight, a Chicago firefighter fighting bone cancer. A portion of Friday's proceeds will go directly to support them.

The foundation has helped dozens of local families over the years, funding medical bills, youth league equipment and scholarships for kids at Catholic schools across the South Side. Hopkins said Friday's total, pulled together from sponsorships, merchandise sales, food and drink vendors and raffles, would top the $100,000 mark once every dollar is counted.

The pregame ceremony brought out some local star power. Pat Coogan, who won the NCAA Division I football national championship with Indiana University this year before being drafted by the Tennessee Titans, and Abbey Murphy, a Mother McAuley graduate who won Olympic gold with the USA Women's Hockey team and was recently drafted by the Seattle Torrent, caught the ceremonial first pitches behind home plate.

Fireworks went off before the championship game, and Dan "Big Cat" Katz of Barstool Sports sang the National Anthem. Organizers said Barstool has sponsored the tournament for years.

At the merchandise tent, a group of Tom Hopkins' nieces known around the neighborhood as the "Hoppy Girls" sold out of shirts, hats and other gear before the championship game even started. The group has become a fixture of the tournament, and their merchandise shows up around Morgan Park year-round, not just during tournament week.

"What started as just an annual softball tournament has turned into the epitome of what the South Side is all about," said Mary Ellen Schiavone, one of the cousins working the tent alongside Kelly Vandenberg. "That's about giving back for a good cause, which is exactly what our uncle was all about."

"We're keeping his memory and legend alive," Vandenberg said.

On the field, 32 teams competed in single-elimination play that organizers said produced some of the closest games and biggest upsets the tournament has seen. The final came down to Mint against Wally's, and Mint won its third tournament title, its first since 2016.

Jimmy Topps, a member of the Mint roster, said about 70 to 80 percent of the team's 20 players were part of the 2015 and 2016 championship squads. The win, more than a decade after their last title, felt like a return to form for a group that had stuck together through the years while the tournament around them grew from a small neighborhood gathering into one of the largest charity events on the South Side.

Organizers haven't announced a date for next year's tournament, but Hopkins said the foundation will begin planning almost immediately, with proceeds from this year's event going toward families and programs identified in the coming months.