FARGO — For many years, the Roger Maris Celebrity Golf Tournament was all about the drives, chips and putts to support its beneficiaries, a tourney that was adored for its longevity even as long as 20 years ago. It’s still going strong.
Only instead of focusing on a one-day marathon golf outing with two different shotgun tee times that started early in the morning and didn’t finish until dinner time, a switch in philosophy five years ago is paying off. Roger Maris All-Star Week that runs Monday through Friday is more about the victories of the Roger Maris Cancer Center and participation of over 700 kids over the week than anything else.
Yes, there is still the 18-hole tourney Thursday at Rose Creek Golf Course in south Fargo, which is preceded by the Edith Sanford 9-hole scramble at the same facility. Both events are sold out. The 18-hole scramble is going on its 42nd year.
“It’s crazy to think that we’re doing this for the 42nd time,” said Roger Maris Jr., the son of Roger Maris. “It just blows me away to think that we’ve been doing this that long. You think back to when we teed off the first time, we really didn’t know what we were going to do. To get to this point, it’s taken everybody in Fargo to make it happen, I couldn’t be more proud of everything we’ve been able to accomplish.”
The All-Star week encompasses 24 events including 18 kids clinics and the Roger Maris Gala on Wednesday night, a fundraising dinner that celebrates victories over cancer and the message of hope.
“It takes a village to pull it off,” Maris Jr. said. “It’s the worker bees, the people willing to open their pocket books and get behind your cause, that’s what it takes.
Instead of the old way of bringing in multiple celebrities to play golf, the Maris golf event on Thursday has a handful of celebrities in former NFL players Chad Greenway and Phil Hansen, former North Dakota State athletic director Gene Taylor and football coach Chris Klieman and legendary figure skater Scott Hamilton. Student-athletes from NDSU and the University of North Dakota will also be on hand helping out.
Hamilton was diagnosed with testicular cancer and has battled brain tumors on three separate occasions. He founded the Scott Hamilton CARES Foundation to assist with cancer patient support.
He’ll be a roving supporter throughout Rose Creek.
“We’re very selective on who we bring in,” said Joel Vettel of Sanford Health. “When you look at Scott Hamilton, here’s a guy who not only has had an incredible career but also has an incredible cancer story. We want people to hear those success stories.”
Roger Maris Jr. speaks at the start of the Roger Maris Celebrity Golf Tournament on Thursday, June 19, 2025, at Rose Creek Golf Course in Fargo.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
Maris is a Fargo Shanley graduate who set the Major League record for home runs in a season with 61 in 1961. It’s a logo that continues to be highly recognizable and can be found at several points across the city.
It was Roger who largely designed the logo before he passed away in 1985. Son Kevin Maris put a tweak into it later.
“It’s really a great logo and we’re definitely proud of it,” Maris Jr. said. “Dad had it designed and he knew what he wanted and he got it done.”
It was the Maris family that approached Sanford five years ago on expanding the event to more than a golf tournament, turning the mission to be more about the cancer center.
“The Maris family is incredible and just the mission behind the ability to tell those wonderful stories,” said Vettel, who has been the local driver behind the week. “We have something for everybody.”
Said Maris Jr.: “The whole family is bought in. They’re all still heavily interested in what’s going on. Joel has been the boots on the ground and his team have been so important to this Roger Maris Week.”
Jeff Kolpack, the son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he’s covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995. He has covered all 10 of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written four books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough,” “Covid Kids” and “They Caught Them Sleeping: How Dot Reinvented the Pretzel.” He is also the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” April through August.