Dapper Dan was founded in 1936 by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sports editor AI Abrams as a businessman's sports club that produced sports events and gave the money to Pittsburgh charities. The annual Dapper Dan Dinner was formed that year and became the preeminent event on Western Pennsylvania's sports calendar. In the decades. that followed the group staged golf tournaments, championship prizefights, the Roundball Classic high school basketball games and a wrestling tournament. In the 1990s, the club was re-christened as Dapper Dan Charities and The Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania was designated as the primary beneficiary. The money given to the Boys & Girls Clubs was earmarked for youth sports programs that would attract under-served urban youth into ! highly organized flag football, basketball, hockey, field hockey, golf and wrestling leagues. The leagues currently serve more than 7,000 youth annually and that number will grow this year as the Boys & Girls Clubs add RBI youth baseball to their programs. The mission of Dapper Dan has expanded far beyond what Abrams might have envisioned but the philosophy has remained unchanged: Give the ticket-buying public the biggest names in sports and entertainment. "The rest," Abrams said, "comes easy."
