The COVID-19 pandemic may have delayed Cody’s first-ever celebrity softball game this year, but the inaugural event is back on the schedule for 2021.

Celebrities Against Cancer has been reset for June 18-19 and it will feature not only a softball game, concert, banquet and athletic clinics for youth, but also a newly added celebrity golf tournament at Olive Glenn Country Club.

As things currently stand, the golf tournament and banquet are set for Friday, June 18, with three celebrity softball games and a home run derby staged before as many as 2,000 spectators on Saturday, June 19 at the Cody American Legion Field. The games will be followed by a concert at the Babe Ruth Field, put on by a pair of country stars: Cody’s own Bobby Chitwood and platinum artist Jamie O’Neal. Proceeds from the events are earmarked to go to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Big Horn Basin Cancer Treatment Center in Cody.

Leading organizer Ryan Brown has again convinced a long and ever-expanding list of celebrities to commit to participating.

They include multiple NFL, MLB and NBA players — such as Powell native and former Washington Football Team All Pro tight end Chris Cooley, former University of Wyoming Cowboy and current Philadelphia Eagles defensive back Marcus Epps, former All Star pitcher Denny Neagle and former Sacramento Kings center Scot Pollard. Then there are celebrities like Animal Planet star Coyote Peterson and Storage Wars auctioneer Emily Kroul, former WCW/WWE executive Eric Bischoff of Cody and actress Hannah Barefoot of Cody. Brendan Mcdonough — the lone survivor out of a group of firefighters who were caught in the deadly Yarnell Hill fire — is also slated to attend.

In addition to participating in the festivities, former Atlanta Braves closer John Rocker is set to host a pitching clinic in Powell, former Boston Red Sox utility man Jeff Frye will host a hitting clinic for area youth, former NBA player Jumaine Jones will put on a basketball clinic and former Dallas Cowboy QB Quincy Carter will conduct a one-day quarterback clinic in Cody.

There’s no word yet as to whether the two biggest names who’d been scheduled to attend in 2020 — actor Harrison Ford and musician/entrepreneur Kanye West — will recommit to next year’s event.

At its Oct. 6 meeting, the Cody City Council agreed to allow the ball fields and nearby Hugh Smith Park to be used for the events and OK’d a partial street closure in the area and the use of a city shuttle. The approval came with several conditions that city staff and Brown worked out.

“Thank you for all the work on that; it seems like there’s a lot to it, but I think it will be a good event,” said Cody Mayor Matt Hall. “Thank you for hanging in there, Ryan.”

Before COVID-19 forced the postponement of this year’s event, more than 1,100 tickets had been sold and more than $44,000 raised, but Brown has said the delay would give him “another year to make it even better.”