Mike Matros '07 founded The Hero's Cup Foundation in 2016 which organizes and runs an annual hockey tournament in partnership with The Boston Bruins. Each year, The Hero's Cup tournament attracts thousands of players and fans with 110 teams coming to Massachusetts from 27 states and 3 countries to play over 3 days. The tournament raises over $1 million each year for fire, police and military first responders. Mike joins us to explain how he started this nationally known tournament, it's importance to the first responder community and his plans to expand the tournament nationally. He has already signed on with The Nashville Predators and Tampa Bay Lightening to do Hero's Cup tournaments in those cities. Mike also talks about his time at Nichols as a student, what it is like to skate with his childhood heroes and how, as someone who hates running, he began running in the Boston Marathon each year. Mike came back to campus to enlist Nichols marketing classes to help him promote the Bruins 50/50 raffle for The Hero's Cup and his new business venture, RedLine Gear Cleaning. Since the episode aired, a Nichols marketing class helped The Hero's Cup Foundation raise over $49,000 in a 50/50 raffle at a Bruins game. You won't want to miss a minute of this inspirational episode where you'll see that not all heroes wear capes ... some wear skates. (Show note: Since this episode was recorded, this year's Hero's Cup tournament was cancelled due to covid-19, however Mike and his team are looking forward to next year's tournament and are hopeful the tournaments in other cities this year will be able to once again raise money for good causes through hockey.

Find out more about Hero's Cup Hockey at: www.heroscuphockey.com

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