Eighteen years have now gone by since that fateful Friday night in March of 1993 when the Adams family received word that sixteen year old Freddie was at Hahnemann Hospital in critical condition.  Freddie had been brutally beaten and was in a coma with severe brain damage.  Three days later the family was forced to make the very difficult decision to remove Freddie from life support and “let him go”.  The family donated Freddie’s heart, kidneys, and eyes so that someone else might have life.  Eventually three young men would be arrested; two would go to prison.

From this horrible tragedy and heartbreak the family made the decision not to let Freddie die in vain.  Something positive had to come from his senseless murder.  Following the model of the Daly family (i.e., Sean Daly) Sara Colville, Freddie’s aunt, came up with the idea to form an annual sports tournament in Freddie’s name so that Freddie’s life would be celebrated and money could be raised to support academic scholarships for local Catholic school children.

Sara Colville, who still runs the tournament, described Freddie as quiet, kind, and very much “the athlete”.  He loved to play cards, wiffleball, and even refereed hockey games for the younger kids (and also cut their hair!).   As a junior he played on North Catholic’s soccer and baseball teams.  He also played soccer for Fishtown AC and the Irish American Club.

The first annual Freddie Adams Sports Tournament was held in the summer of 1993 just six months after his death.  When the tournament started, it consisted only of men’s softball and basketball and a handful of teams. Today’s tournament includes softball, basketball as well as soccer and hockey.  There are divisions for men, women, and youth.  This year 144 teams participated in the tournament.  The tournament routinely brings out in excess of 5000 spectators each year.

Events are played at five local recreational venues including Cohox, the Fishtown Rec, Tip Top, Hetzell’s, and the Shissler Recreation Center over the course of three days.  Teams compete for trophies, t-shirts, and for bragging rights.

The money that is raised through the tournament goes towards scholarships for eighth grade students planning to attend a Catholic or private high school in the City of Philadelphia.  Scholarships are awarded based on academic achievement and a written essay on the subject of “keeping the peace in the community”.  Since the Freddie Adams Sports Tournament began in 1993, there have been 99 scholarships awarded totaling $106,000.

So for 18 years now the Adams family and the community in which they reside has taken a terrible tragedy and turned it into an annual celebration of one young man’s life and the opportunity for other young people to further their Catholic education.