It all started in 1995 as an unusual backyard basketball tournament. A bunch of Jewish kids got together and played two-on-two games, then hopped on their bikes and rode to several other locations in Pikesville, and went at it some more.
Slowly, the details and purpose of what came to be known as the Tour de Court changed. The guys and girls played three-on-three and, as tournament commissioner Sam Minkove says, it grew into a bit of a community reunion.
A few years ago, though, the event took on a whole new meaning when Minkove’s sister, Rachel, became ill with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and passed away in 2012. Minkove, his brother, Jon, and others turned the Tour de Court into a fund-raising vehicle.
Players still come to Pikesville to play annually — and then ride their bikes – to various courts each year. The most recent (and 23rd) Tour de Court took place on July 9 with 66 people — 48 men, 18 women — participating. They raised approximately $35,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, pushing their overall total to beyond $180,000.
“I’m so proud of them [because] I never imagined it could morph into something so big and so powerful,” said Judy Minkove, mother of Sam, Jon and Rachel. “The silver lining is it’s like a love-fest. It’s almost like a big block party.”
That certainly is what it looked like last Sunday. The Marder family hosted the men’s semifinals and championship game in their Dumbarton backyard, while food was cooked behind their home. Many people ringed the court, often with little children racing right by.
The men’s team of Eitan Hariri, Eli Pottash and Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer won the championship in their division, scoring the final six baskets of their game for a surprise victory. For the women, Aviva Vogelstein, Yael May and Shevy Friedman took the championship.
At age 19, Hariri was one of the youngest players in the tournament. The UMBC student earned “Most Valuable Player” honors and loved the competition. “It was just great,” Hariri said. “It was a great feeling to win … and a hard-fought game.”
The games went on all day. Everything began at 8 a.m., and there were appearances by Mayor Catherine E. Pugh, Baltimore Sun sports columnist Peter Schmuck and others. Basketball was played – with the bikes again taking players to the various sites – until the men’s championship ended after 5 p.m.
Many of the players went to Beth Tfiloh Community Day School back in the day, and the basketball grew pretty intense at times, with lots of physical play on the court. But never lost on everyone was the reason why they were there. It was all about raising money and enjoying some quality time with a bunch of old friends, and not just showing off how well you can shoot. Sam Minkove noted that they raised some money from an event at the Nickel Taphouse in Mount Washington a few days earlier.
Tour de Court donates money to the Jewish Caring Network, a Baltimore-based nonprofit that provides support to families facing life-threatening, lifelong, or serious illnesses.
People often adjust their summer schedules to ensure that they will make the Tour de Court. Jon Minkove is a lawyer who lives in New York, but he returned to town three days earlier and enjoyed seeing what so many people were doing to honor his sister’s memory.
“It’s like the ultimate reunion party,” he said. “It’s a good excuse [to] trash talk, beat each other [around the court]. It’s just a good old time in Pikesville. What more can you ask for?”
The Tour de Court serves two important purposes — raising money for a good cause and bringing old friends back into one place. The winning teams get their names written on to a beloved gold helmet, but that is not what this is all about, say the organizers.
“The big thing about it is that it’s a lot of fun,” said Sam Minkove, a doctor in residency in Baltimore. “It’s just getting everybody back together again.”
Top photo: Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer, Eli Pottash and Eitan Hariri (left to right) at the Tour de Court by Jeff Seidel
Jeff Seidel is a Baltimore-based freelance writer.
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