Kings Bowl in Lincoln Park was filled with some notable athletes, including Josh Bellamy (Chicago Bears) Robert Griffin III aka RGIII (Cleveland Browns), Johnny Knox, Rashied Davis, Anthony “Spice” Adams, Jarrett Payton, Nick Roach and Deonte Thompson, in attendance for the fourth Charles Tillman Celebrity Pro BOWLer Tournament on Thursday July 14.
Charles Tillman autographs a football for a fan
Charles and Jackie Tillman
The tournament, hosted by Charles “Peanut” Tillman himself, was a fundraiser to support the Charles Tillman Cornerstone Foundation, which provides financial aid to chronically and critically ill children in the Chicago area. To date the foundation has raised more than $430,000 and Tillman’s goal was to raise as much money as possible at this year’s event, which he continues to hold in Chicago alongside his wife Jackie, even after the soon-to-be-retired NFL star left the Chicago Bears to play for the Carolina Panthers, the 2016 NFC champions. “Chicago is home, it’s where I started my career and Chicago’s been very good to me. More than that, King’s Bowl, they’ve been a huge contributor to the Cornerstone Foundation,” Tillman said.
Kapron Lewis-Moore, Nate Palmer, Zena Malak and Darius Fleming.
Zena Malak and Brittany Middlebrooks
Chicago Sky’s Cappie Poindexter and Tamera Young were also in attendance for the fundraising event. Joining the athletes was Zena Malak, the reigning Miss Illinois USA, who bowled a few frames, tiara, sash and all.
Cappie Pondexter, Charles Tillman and Tamera Young
“I’m excited to have them here–I’m a big basketball fan so I’m really trying to ask them a whole bunch of basketball questions because my daughter’s playing basketball so I’m trying to get some good coaching tips,” Tillman said.
In years past the event has been held at the Kings Bowl Rosemont, which also has a lane named in honor of Charles Tillman, but moved this year’s to their new Lincoln Park which opened in November 2015 with Till noting “We’ve done the last five in Rosemont so we figure let’s try Lincoln Park and see what happens.” Doug Warner, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Kings, even flew in to Chicago from Boston where Kings is headquartered to support the event. “I wouldn’t miss this event for the world. I think we’ll be working with Charles until he says stop” Warner said. Warner, who had nothing but wonderful things to say about working with Charles and his wife Jackie, was also excited to show off the amenities such as the as the longest bar in Chicago, at the new Lincoln Park location. “It’s always great to do business with friends and they’ve done me right,” he said.
Laurence Holmes and Johnny Knox
Johnny-Knox
Anthony Adams
Kapron Lewis-Moore, Robert Griffin III and Darius Fleming
Nick Mandera, Danny Pinelli, Jack Molitor, Brian O’Brien and Jack Hartman
Photo credit: Sonya Martin/Kings Bowl
