Equipment Manager

CFL: 53rd season
Stampeders: 53rd season

Hopkins enters his 53rd season with the Red and White. On Aug. 5, 2022, Hopkins celebrated a major milestone with his 1,000th game – including pre-season, regular season and playoffs –working the Stampeders sideline.

He has worked 885 regular-season games, 48 playoff contests and 12 Grey Cups – including six championships – with the Red and White through the 2023 campaign.

Hopkins was the 2023 winner of the CFL’s Hugh Campbell Distinguished Leadership Award, which honours an individual who has demonstrated great leadership and made significant contributions to the CFL. He was added to the Stampeders Wall of Fame in the builders’ category in 2014.

Hopkins’ foremost responsibility is the safety of players by fitting each team member with a customized array of equipment designed to provide maximum protection. He orders and issues all equipment — everything from chewing gum to shoes and cleats — and also coordinates the transport of the club’s equipment to and from each road site.

Each off-season, Hopkins helps coordinate an equipment inspection program for amateur football in the province. Run under the auspices of Football Alberta, Hopkins visually inspects equipment and gives recommendations on storing, cleaning, reconditioning and disposal to Peewee, Bantam, Midget and high school teams. Hopkins also sits on the board of directors for the Calgary and Area Midget Football Association.

In 1995, Hopkins was honoured at the Stamps’ annual dinner as the recipient of the Art Evans Memorial Award for perseverance, contribution and dedication to the football club.

A graduate of the Mount Royal College (now University) Business Administration program, Hopkins worked as assistant press chief at Canada Olympic Park for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

In 2012, Hopkins missed a two-game eastern road trip following surgery for a torn rotator cuff. Hopkins had previously only missed one game during his 40 years with the team — when his wife Cathy delivered their first child, daughter Jorde, in 1992. Hopkins, a native Calgarian, also has a son Hunter and three grandchildren – Malcolm, Harlow and Luna.