Two Naperville golf programs honored fallen teammates Michael Gustafson and Connor Hunt on Tuesday, Sept. 22, teeing off at White Eagle Golf Club to raise money for pediatric cancer research.

The annual District 203 Mikey Gustafson/Connor Hunt Match Play Cup sent JV and varsity squads from Naperville Central and Naperville North to the course at 3:30 p.m. The event benefits the Swifty Foundation and the Connor Hunt Memorial Foundation, two Illinois-based nonprofits funding pediatric cancer research.

The 2025 match raised a combined $9,195 for the two organizations, according to the Naperville Central boys golf team's Instagram page in October 2025. A 2026 fundraising total has not been announced.

The event began in 2014, when the Naperville North golf program created the match to honor teammate Michael Gustafson, who died at 15 from brain cancer. Gustafson started the Swifty Foundation before his death, recruiting friends to raise money by selling golf balls they found on a nearby course. Every dollar donated goes to pediatric brain cancer research. The Gustafson family covers all administrative costs, according to the foundation's GuideStar profile.

The match expanded in 2018 after Naperville Central lost its own team member, Connor Hunt, to Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma. Hunt was diagnosed in sixth grade at Lincoln Junior High School and battled the disease for more than five years before passing away Feb. 13, 2018, at age 17. During his illness, he joined the golf team and fell in love with the sport, according to a Connor Hunt Memorial Foundation document.

The foundation he inspired supports pediatric cancer clinical research at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago. As of a 2022 filing, the organization had donated $200,000 to Lurie Children's.

The Gustafson family bridges both sides of the rivalry. Patti Gustafson, Michael's mother and the Swifty Foundation's chief operating officer, graduated from Naperville Central. Her husband, Al, is a Naperville North graduate, according to the Swifty Foundation's event page.

"Most importantly, we play in memory of Mikey Gustafson and Connor Hunt, and their battle against pediatric cancer," read a message sent to both golf teams and their families, as shared in a 2020 Swifty Foundation blog post about the annual event.

The DVC Conference Tournament is scheduled for Sept. 24, giving both programs one final tune-up before postseason play begins.