Chris ‘Hup’ Hupfeldt, former business owner and Hall of Fame lacrosse player, coach, and general manager, has died at 69

Chris “Hup” Hupfeldt, 69, of Haverford, former owner of Competitive Edge Outfitters in Wayne and hall of fame lacrosse player, coach, team general manager, and league president, died Saturday, June 3, of acute kidney failure at Bryn Mawr Hospital.

A lifelong lacrosse enthusiast, Mr. Hupfeldt got his start as a ball boy in Baltimore for the Johns Hopkins University men’s team. He went on to become a star player in high school and college, championship coach in two local leagues, and general manger of the 2002 gold medal-winning U.S. men’s national team.

“He was everything and everywhere in Philly lacrosse all at once,” a colleague said in a tribute on phillylacrosse.com. “He’s been a giant of lacrosse.”

Over a colorful career than spanned more than three decades, Mr. Hupfeldt earned the 2006 International Lacrosse Federation Spirit Award, a Service Award from the Lower Merion Ashbee youth lacrosse program, and universal praise from countless players and coaches. In 2015, he was inducted into the Eastern Pennsylvania chapter of the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame for “long, dedicated, and exceptional service to the game of lacrosse in Pennsylvania.”

“I grew up loving lacrosse,” Mr. Hupfeldt said on a 2019 podcast for More Than a Club. “I had a great ride with my two sons and my wife. We loved it.”

Off the field, Mr. Hupfeldt and his wife, Carole, owned and operated Competitive Edge Outfitters, a lacrosse apparel and equipment company, on West Avenue in Wayne from 1998 to 2016. Before that, he owned clothing company Chup Inc. for five years and worked at Eagle’s Eye clothing for 10 years.

“We had an amazing marriage,” his wife said. “We were a team. He had the ideas. I did the execution. We made it happen.”

Mr. Hupfeldt arrived in the Philadelphia area a few years after graduating from Maryland’s Washington College in 1977 and took the local lacrosse scene by storm. He coached the boys’ team at Germantown Academy for a season, played for the Eagle’s Eye lacrosse club, and became an outstanding team and league executive for the rest of his career.

He was general manager for Eagle’s Eye and the MAB Philadelphia team in the U.S. Club Lacrosse Association for more than 15 years, and served as the league’s vice president and president from 1992 to 1998. He was named assistant general manager in 1998 on the men’s national team for U.S. Lacrosse, now USA Lacrosse, and was promoted to general manager for the national teams in 2002 and 2006.

Many of Mr. Hupfeldt’s former players went on to become coaches and league executives, and they credited him with much of their success. They noted his selflessness, loyalty, and authenticity in tributes, and called him a “lacrosse connoisseur” and key member of Philadelphia’s “Mount Rushmore of lacrosse.”

His U.S. national teams won gold medals in 1998 and 2002 and a silver medal in 2006. He also served on the U.S. Lacrosse international committee and board of directors, and was chair of the men’s national team committee for more than a decade.

Locally, he was a coach and board member for the Lower Merion Ashbee youth lacrosse program, and led teams to three championships in five years in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Youth Lacrosse Association.

Christopher Edward Hupfeldt was born Sept. 17, 1953, and grew up in Baltimore. His father was an avid lacrosse player, and Mr. Hupfeldt spent much of his youth playing high school lacrosse at Boys’ Latin in Maryland and Blue Ridge School in Virginia.

He played lacrosse and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Washington College. He met Carole Walker on a train through a mutual friend, and they married in 1990. They had sons Christopher Jr. and Reilly, and lived in Devon, Villanova, and Haverford.

Mr. Hupfeldt volunteered for countless charitable events connected to lacrosse and was a longtime board member of the Schluderberg Foundation, a philanthropic organization in Baltimore. Gregarious and friendly, he got special joy from playing Santa Claus for the Wayne Business Association, waving from a firetruck in parades through town and chatting with children on his lap at the Radnor Hotel.

» READ MORE: Writer Chris Goldberg pays tribute to Chris Hupfeldt

He collected antique toys and sports memorabilia, and was known for pranking friends and family whenever he could. His sons played lacrosse at the Haverford School and the University of Pennsylvania, and he was their biggest fan.

“He had a moral compass and was a genuine human being,” his wife said. “I am so grateful that we had 32 years of marriage with two beautiful boys. He was a good man.”

In addition to his wife and sons, Mr. Hupfeldt is survived by two sisters and other relatives. A brother died earlier.

A celebration of his life was held June 14.

Donations in his name may be made to the Philadelphia Lacrosse Association, 1209 Anderson Ave., Drexel Hill, Pa. 19026.