The Inner-City Games was founded by Daniel L. Hernandez, under the
umbrella
of the Hollenbeck Youth Center in 1991, as a means to service the
local East
Los Angeles area youth. In 1992, as a result of the Los Angeles
riots, Hernandez saw
a need to expand it to an annual citywide sports and academic competition. This,
in turn, would allow tens of thousands of
inner-city youth to participate in something positive, building self-confidence,
self-reliance and camaraderie.
The Games offer a variety of sports competitions in basketball, swimming,
boxing, softball and running, as well as academic achievement through art
and essay contests and scholarships. In the Los Angeles area alone, over
40,000
youth participate each year, making friends, learning sportsmanship
and
being mentored.
After 16 years, the games have now expanded to 15 cities across the United States and have gathered more than one million participants. We have also
been privileged to have Arnold Schwarzenegger join us as the Games
Executive Commissioner since its inception. In addition to Schwarzenegger,
other
celebrities and VIPS have shown their support of the Games and their
much needed services such as Tom Arnold, Danny Glover, Cardinal Roger Mahony,
Jay Leno, Muhammad Ali, Dax Shepard, Maria Shriver, Oscar
De La Hoya and many more.
