By Rodney Haas 

605 sports 

LAS VEGAS — It was a dream that dates back to 2005. A dream that Ernie Kuyper shared with his longtime friend, John Paul “Jack” Jones. 

The two men’s dream was simple, to put on a nationally televised college basketball event. 

It was a dream that came true for Kuyper earlier this month when he honored his friend, who passed away in Dec. 2020 at the age of 100, with the Jack Jones Hoopfest at the Mandalay Bay. 

“I know he was looking down from heaven and his family was there and supportive,” said Kuyper of his late friend. “We worked our butts off through relationships and one thing led to another and we had the Jack Jones Hoopfest. It was great.” 

The event featured nine college basketball teams including at the time No. 21 Creighton taking on BYU and Arizona State in a pair of nationally televised games on Fox Sports 1. 

A dream that was 17 years in the making was finally fulfilled in a place where people come to dream big, only to watch the house win. 

“He (Jones) changed my life, he’s one of the best people I’ve ever met next to my family. He’s just one the best people I’ve ever known,” Kuyper said. “He gives back and helps so many people. He was blessed and fortunate where he and his family could help several people out. He helped kids out all over the country, but really in the city of Memphis where he grew up, he wanted to give back and through our program he really helped out through M33M and then Hoop City.” 

BYU’s Dallin Hall (30) celebrates his team’s win over Creighton on Saturday, Dec. 10 at the Jack Jones Hoopfest at the Michelob Ultra Arena at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. (Rodney Haas/605sports)
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Jones was known in the Memphis community for his philanthropy and his love of basketball. A graduate from the University of Virginia Law School, Jones would later return to his alma mater in 2006 when the basketball arena was named after him. 

He was the first season ticket holder for the Memphis Grizzlies after the Grizzlies moved from Vancouver following the 2000-01 NBA season. 

It was there when Kuyper’s cousin Mike Miller played for the Grizzlies, that Jones and Kuyper forged a friendship that would have a lasting impact on the Mitchell native. 

“I was so blessed to meet him in my early 20’s,” Kuyper said. “He was just a huge influence on me. I always looked up to him because he was a successful business guy but not only a successful business guy, but he was a gentleman that would give back and take care of people and I respected the hell out of that. I always wanted to be like him.” 

Mitchell native Ernie Kuyper sits with Jack Jones (photo provided by Ernie Kuyper)
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Kuyper graduated from Mitchell High in 1998 and was part of the Kernels’ Class AA championships teams in 1996 and 1997 along with Miller. After graduation, Kuyper went on to play college basketball at Dakota Wesleyan before making his way to Memphis, where he’s been involved in numerous basketball ventures including the Youth Athletic Foundation and the M33M, an AAU program. M33M was later renamed Hoop City after Miller took a coaching job with the University of Memphis and had to disassociate his name and likeness due to NCAA rules.

“Basketball has been in our family,” Kuyper said. “I started running my basketball programs and we were running clinics and camps and events and we started the Hoop City Classic, and then worked our way up and ran events in Memphis.”

Kuyper’s first venture on the big stage came in 2010 when he, along with Miller started at the time the Mike Miller Classic, later known as the Hoop City Classic, an annual high school basketball holiday classic in Mitchell in Sioux Falls. Over the years, the event has become nationally recognized for featuring some of the biggest recruits in the country, and has been ranked as one of the Top 10 holiday classics according to MaxPreps, a national website devoted to high school sports.  

In addition to the basketball games, the event has evolved into a youth basketball tournament that takes place alongside the games and clinics. The tournament is part of Kuyper’s Youth Athletic Foundation. 

“Memphis has the lead, but it’s all over in South Dakota,” Kuyper said of the Youth Athletic Foundation. “We help youth sports all over the country, but it’s heavily based in Memphis and the inner-city.”

Back in Las Vegas, Kuyper’s foundation sponsored the Vegas Showtime, a youth basketball league in Las Vegas which played games during halftime of the Jack Jones Hoopfest.    

“That is another thing Jack stood for. Jack just wanted to help kids to become the best they could,” Kuyper said. “It’s what we would call the three “C’s. The three “C’s in our mission statement is the court, be the best you can be on the basketball court. Classroom, be the best you can be in the classroom and the community, be the best you can be in the community. Handle those three “C’s.”

A member of the Vegas showtime participates in a basketball game during halftime of the Southern Utah-Cal State Fullerton game at the Jack Jones Hoopfest on Saturday, Dec. 10 at the Michelob Ultra Arena at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. (Rodney Haas/605sports)
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While Kuyper has oversaw the success of the Hoop City Classic, the Jack Jones Hoopfest took him to a new level of major college athletics where corporate sponsors and national television tend to rule the day.  

“When you’re in the position where everything falls back on you, you just want to make sure everything is done right,” Kuyper said “I had a lot of good people around me and I knew it would go good, but you are still nervous because you want these coaches and teams to have a great experience. That’s what it’s all about. But also being on national television and having a half a million people watching at home, you want to make sure that everything is right.” 

Part of the team Kuyper trusted included a lot of South Dakota connections, including his college teammate Kelly Pfeifer, who officiated the BYU-Creighton game, and a high school classmate as his official event photographer. 

“It’s where I’m from,” said Kuyper of his South Dakota roots. “It’s where I grew up and you know you are going to get hard workers and reliable workers and that’s all I can ask — getting a team around you that is going to give you everything they got. 

“Having Kelly Pfeifer there, he was my college teammate and you, yourself as a classmate, it was awesome to see that. Being on the big stage like that and having coach (Ryan) Miller on the sidelines, my nephew (Mason Miller) playing out there and all the South Dakota ties, it was great to see. It was fun. It was fun to be a part of it.”

Kuyper is already planning for next year’s Jack Jones Hoopfest, but said it may not necessarily be in Las Vegas and opened the possibility of it being in South Dakota or in Memphis. 

“Who knows where it will be, we just want to get another college event and honor Jack’s name,” he said. 

South Dakota native Kelly Pfeifer tips the ball off to start the Creighton-BYU game on Saturday, Dec. 10 at the Jack Jones Hoopfest at the Michelob Ultra Arena at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. (Rodney Haas/605sports)
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In the meantime, Kuyper is following in Jones’ footsteps, a man who he said was a grandfather to him and helped build the program. It’s Jones’ commitment to the youth that keeps Kuyper moving forward to honor his friend, along with the success stories and the lives that he and Jones have touched over the last 17 years. 

Kuyper recently recalled the story of Laurence Bowers, who grew up in Memphis. Kuyper talked about how Bowers came from nothing and went through the M33M club and then went on to earn a basketball scholarship to Missouri where Bowers later graduated with a master’s degree.  

“As they say, when he (Jones) went to heaven, the baton got passed and hopefully I can carry it as well as he did,” Kuyper said. “I’m trying to get the next generation ready for when the good Lord calls me home.  I’m just trying to help as much as I can while I’m on Earth. I just want the next generation to be able to take it over.”