Famous Kickball Tournament returns July 12 to honor Colt Connelly

The Famous Kickball Tournament returned July 12 at the CCBC Dundalk Athletic Complex as a memorial for Colt Connelly, with proceeds directed to Torrey Smith’s Level 82 Youth Program. The event was built around remembrance first and competition second, turning a summer kickball field into a place where players and spectators could honor Connelly while backing a youth program with deep Baltimore-area roots.

The tournament carried the feel of a full-day fundraiser rather than a casual pickup run. Teams were guaranteed three round-robin games, while the event package also included food, beverages, a DJ, a home run derby, celebrity guests, custom jerseys and an after-party at Jimmy’s Famous Seafood. Space was limited to 16 teams, and individual player sign-ups were available, a structure that gave the day the urgency of a bracketed event and the atmosphere of a neighborhood gathering.

Colt Connelly was Anthony Colt Connelly, who died March 31, 2025, in Sparrows Point, Maryland, at age 65. He was born Nov. 17, 1959, and his obituary remembered him as a devoted husband, father, grandfather and cherished friend. Connelly Funeral Home of Dundalk said he assumed sole ownership of the family funeral home in 1996, underscoring the long local ties that made a memorial tournament in his name feel like an extension of his life in Baltimore County.

The benefit for Level 82 linked that remembrance to a broader youth mission. LEVEL82 was co-founded by Torrey and Chanel Smith and says its aim is to create safe spaces and provide resources that empower families. Its programs serve people of all ages through academic support, athletics, enrichment activities and social services, and the organization says it played a central role in reopening the Baltimore Ravens Boys & Girls Club at Hilton Recreation Center in West Baltimore. That made the tournament more than a tribute: it became a way to move grief into support for young people.

The Famous Kickball Tournament also arrived with history behind it. A previous version of the event was staged as a fundraiser for Best Buddies Maryland, suggesting the name has already become part of the area’s charitable calendar. On July 12, that familiar format returned with a different beneficiary and the same basic purpose, using kickball to gather people, raise money and keep Colt Connelly’s name attached to something that gives back.