ONLY IN LAWRENCE-SPORTS
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10B Friday, April 29, 2011
L AWRENCE J OURNAL -WORLD
SPORTS HONOREE
Memorabilia for a mission ————
Hopkins tirelessly collects treasures to raise funds for fitness room By Ben Ward Journal-World Sports Writer
The office of Free State physical education teacher/volleyball coach Nancy Hopkins includes typical items for someone in her position: boxes stuffed with uniforms. Old team pictures. Binders, schedules, stacked cones, file cabinets, random athletic equipment. Open a cabinet here, a drawer there, and before long it’s obvious this isn’t just another P.E. office. The cramped room is loaded with memorabilia from sports standouts, Hollywood stars and best-selling authors. Hopkins beams as she shows off the collection she has acquired over the past few years, including autographed photographs of athletes Tiger Woods, Barry Sanders, Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gonzalez and from huge Hollywood names such as Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Duval, Denzel Washington and Jim Carrey. She has a football signed by Joe Namath, a die-cast race car signed by Clint Boyer, an iPod engraved with a greeting from Yoko Ono. No, Hopkins is not a celebrity stalker or a hoarding memorabilia collector. She’s a woman with a cause that has kept her busy writing world-famous people asking for their help. For her efforts, Hopkins is the first honoree of the Only in Lawrence Sports Award. Hopkins plans to auction the items at a site and time yet-to-be determined and use the funds to further upgrade Free State High’s fitness/cardio room. Some of those who have responded to her call for
and sandlot football games. make a difference in their That laid the foundation for own lives from a health an athletic career that standpoint,” West said. extended into her college Getting to that point will days as an outside hitter on require figuring out when, the volleyball team and the where and how to pull off starting shortstop on the the auction. softball team at Emporia ●●● State. According to Hopkins, “We didn’t have video the ideal format for the aucgames,” Hopkins said. tion will be a multiple day, Hopkins, who received open-to-the-public event, her master’s at Kansas Unipossibly with catering and versity, ran Lawrence’s junlive music by the FSHS ior volleyball program ensemble. All of the money before coming to Free State raised at the auction will go when it opened in 1997. directly into an account In addition to her Free that has been established State duties, specifically Hopkins for funding She wants to be able runs the the cardio to walk you in the door game clock room. and see 20 people during KU West said women’s bas- working hard to make a he would ketball like to host it difference in their own games and at FSHS, but lives from a health the shot the magnistandpoint.” clock at KU tude of the men’s games. collection “For the would make — Free State principal Ed West, on most part, it impossible Nancy Hopkins’ vision for the FSHS this is my to secure a cardio room life,” Hopbig enough kins said, location, like glancing round the room the main gymnasium, for that drips athletics. “I’ve multiple days. been doing this since I was The auction is still with20. I always knew I wanted out a date or venue, though to be a P.E. teacher and Hopkins hopes to have always immersed myself in most of the items sold by things athletic. I loved what the summer, so she can I do. I just didn’t think I’d be begin ordering the equipdoing it for 50-plus years.” ment and have the room Hopkins said she always refurbished for the fall 2011 dreamed of owning a small semester. gym or fitness club when “I saw a problem that I she retired, plans that since wanted to do something have changed. She may well about,” Hopkins says. “Basiend up running a fitness cally that’s all it is.” center of her own creation For any additional inforat Free State by the time her mation about the auction, efforts to upgrade the cardio contact Nancy Hopkins at room are finished. nhopkins@usd497.org or “She wants to be able to visit the official website: walk you in the door and see http://auctionfshs.schools.of 20 people working hard to ficelive.com/default.aspx
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Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
FREE STATE HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHER and volleyball coach Nancy Hopkins, left, talks with senior Owen Phariss during class at the school. help have included handwritten notes, even checks in support of the cause. “It’s crazy,” Hopkins said, while unwrapping another donation. “To think that all of these famous and important people think what we’re doing is important.” Hopkins said more than 400 books, many autographed by the authors, have been donated. ●●●
The fitness room already has come a long way. The shiny yellow stationary bikes, the handful of treadmills, new flooring and the freshly painted walls all are signs of the room’s renovation. Once used as a film room for Bob Lisher’s football team, the room became an over-stuffed utility closet
for surplus athletic gear, some of it broken. “The room ended up being a pit,” Hopkins said. Fortunately for Hopkins, principal Ed West, who came to the school in 2008, could relate to her desire to turn it into a place with more meaning, a place where students could become healthier. West was able to allocate what he estimated at $22,000 to $30,000 toward renovating the room. Former players, parents and other generous Lawrence residents have pitched in financial donations. “When she came to me with her vision, I was very excited because it was mine at my previous school,” West said.
Depending on how much money her auction can raise, Hopkins envisions adding cardio equipment, sets of dumbbells and corestrengthening balls, maybe even flat-screen TVs and computer access to track workout logs. “I can’t sleep at night because things just go through my head so much,” Hopkins said. “Like, what can I do next? How can I make this better?” ●●●
Tracing the source of her mission isn’t difficult for those familiar with Hopkins’ history with sports. Hopkins, 59, said her fondest memories of her Emporia childhood revolved around neighborhood Wiffle ball games, tennis matches
Eli Ditto, 6, left, and Daniel Rojo, 8, at the Lawrence Earth Day Celebration Saturday, April 16, 2011.
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