No name change to Twins tourney

The Glacier Twins’ biggest summer baseball tournament will once again be known as the Sapa-Johnsrud Memorial.

The Twins board voted May 13 to revert back to the event’s original title after a heated meeting where Sapa and Johnsrud family members and friends expressed their disappointment over the recent decision to change the tournament name.

The tournament began in 1985 to honor the memories of past Twins players Ray Johnsrud and Jimmy Sapa, who were killed in 1984 in a car-train accident at a railroad crossing in Columbia Falls.

After 28 years of calling the summer tournament the Sapa-Johnsrud Memorial Tournament, the board decided this year to rename it the Glacier Twins Memorial Tournament as a way to recognize other former players and program supporters who have passed.

The tournament was once considered one of the elite baseball events in the region. As many as 15 teams from all over the Pacific Northwest, Canada and California would play in Whitefish and Columbia Falls. In recent years, however, the event has struggled to draw teams. Last year just five clubs attended.