Charlie Krupp arrived in Canada from Russia in 1915 at nine years of age. His career in softball, both as an athlete but mainly as a builder, gained legendary status culminating in the naming of the Charlie Krupp Memorial Stadium in his honour.

As an athlete, he was best known as a softball catcher with the championship YMHA teams during the 1920’s and early 1930’s. He was outstanding defensively and a team leader. Softballers still talk about the famous battery of Krupp and pitcher Shep Hershfield. He was an outstanding soccer player and also participated in basketball, football, hockey, lacrosse, ten pin bowling and curling.

But Charlie Krupp was an outstanding builder with a superb record as a coach, an executive member, a team operator, a sponsor and a liberal contributor to many sporting organizations. He coached several outstanding softball teams during the 1940’s and 1950’s; in the 20 Century Community Softball League out of Aberdeen School and Senior Men’s at Osborne Stadium. He also served as an executive member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Football Club, the Winnipeg Esquires Junior Hockey Club, a horse racing stable, and sponsored many teams, including the Winnipeg Dominoes women’s basketball team.

His generosity was legend, and Teeni-League baseball, women’s softball and Winnipeg Olympic basketball players were among the many groups that benefitted from his generosity. Charlie Krupp was a compassionate man whose participation in the development of sport in Manitoba was motivated by his sincere desire to provide young athletes with an opportunity to participate and develop through a range of athletic activities.