CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (WHDH) - For the 25th consecutive year, Cambridge’s Men’s Health League and Men of Color Task Force hosted the Hoops ‘N’ Health sports tournament on Saturday, an annual event aimed at promoting healthy lifestyle choices and encouraging people of color to seek out routine health care services.
The tournament, which drew more than 300 men and boys to Hoyt Field on Gilmore Street, featured a series of basketball and flag football tournaments, an appearance from Boston Red Sox mascot Wally the Green Monster, live music, dancing, Zumba, cooking demonstrations, kids’ games, a free healthy lunch, and the chance for participants to get their picture taken with a World Series trophy.
Launched in 1994 by Cambridge Hospital’s Men of Color Health Program, the tournament was meant to be a way of addressing health issues facing the black community.
“In the early 1990s, public health and civic leaders in Cambridge saw that black men were in a silent health crisis and they mobilized to take action,” Cambridge Public Health Department Director Claude Jacob said in a statement. “When Hoops ‘N’ Health started, black males in America, on average, were not expected to live to their 65th birthday.”
But despite progress in men’s health in the 25 years since the first Hoops ‘N’ Health tournament, Jacob pointed out that black men and women continue to have the lowest life expectancy in the United States, and the highest death rate for heart disease, stroke, cancer, homicide, and firearm-related injury.
“Hoops ‘N’ Health is the only event of its kind in Cambridge,” Jacob said. “We want to show that we — public health, other city departments, the hospitals, nonprofits — care about and are invested in the black community and other groups that aren’t on a level playing field when it comes to health.”
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