Purdy Tournament grows as teams vie to play

In past years, as the third weekend in August approached, Doug and Laurie Richards at the Wheel Inn would call businesses around town and the surrounding area to find out if they planned to sponsor a team in the annual Bob Purdy Co-ed Softball Tournament.

Every year the Richards' sponsor the tournament, but this year finding the normal slate of 16 teams for the tournament was far from difficult. In fact, the tournament added teams for the first time.

"This year we ended up adding two more slots because of the overwhelming demand," said Laurie Richards. Doug said teams started calling as early as March to sign up.

"We had a very long waiting list and thought we could just add two more teams and start playing at 7 o'clock in the morning," Laurie said.

The tourney's round-robin play kicked off Saturday morning amid cold and rainy weather that created puddles around home plate on one of the fields and made for "some pretty muddy players." But Laurie said they took it in stride and played through the weather. "It's all part of the game,"

By the time Sunday's two-division, single-elimination play got underway, the weather had cleared for a comfortable and dry day of softball.

Due to the unexpected interest, the Richards decided to make it a 'first come, first serve' sign up, with teams from as far away as Idaho signing up to play. On the flip side, it also meant some of the businesses that normally sponsored teams in the past missed out on their chance.

Nevertheless, Lincoln business fielded four teams: Doug and Laurie's Wheel Inn, the Wilderness Bar, the Bootlegger Inn and On the Rocks Liquor.

For Andrew Zwicker of Elliston it was his first time playing at the Purdy Tournament, thanks to some misfortune for another team he plays on.

"I liked it. It's fun," he said. "I was going to go to one in Bozeman, but the team I'm on, everyone got hurt and I heard this one was pretty fun, so I wanted to come."

Zwicker played for the Wilderness Bar team and said he expects to come back again.

Nikolle SkunkCap, playing for KS Hydroseed oif Great Falls was another Purdy first timer who enjoyed the tournament.

"I like it. I put one over (the fence) my first game yesterday," she said Sunday.

Doug believes part of the reason for the increased interest in the Purdy Tournament stems from last year, when it was one of the only softball tournaments held in the state. He also suspects some of the teams that signed up opted out of the state tournament, which is held on the same weekend, due to restrictions on bad language and drinking that some might argue are hallmarks of the tournament here.

Doug also pointed out this is also the first year the Sitch family has fielded two teams, with the Wheel sponsoring Dave Sitch's team, while the Bootlegger sponsored younger brother Denny Sitch's team. The Sitch family has a long history in Lincoln athletics, including the Pete Sitch Co-ed Basketball Tournament, which is expected to return next March after a two-year COVID-related hiatus.

With 18 team in Lincoln for the tournament, each with between 12 and 16 players as well as various family members and friends, Laurie feels the tournament provided a "huge economic boost" for the entire business community in Lincoln as the summer winds down.

The Bob Purdy Co-ed Slow-Pitch Softball Tournament has been a fixture in Lincoln since 1983, when Alene PURDY started it in honor of her husband Bob, who was killed in a logging accident that May. Purdy was well known in the community for his support of both kids and sports. Proceeds from the tournament originally went toward projects – especially kid-related projects – that needed support in the community. Today the tournament supports an annual $500 scholarship for a graduating Lincoln High School senior.