A Johns Hopkins football player started a cookie business. His late father would be happy.

When Johns Hopkins football player Claude Strnad and his family gathered this summer to honor his father Bill after his death, they feasted on all of his favorite foods.

During an emotional night of tears, laughter and prayer, they enjoyed Italian food, sliders, Dave’s Hot Chicken and Portillo’s, a Chicago staple near the family’s home in Wilmette, Illinois.

There was also something that didn’t come from a restaurant: Claude’s homemade brownies and cookies.

The cookies were the talk of the night. People liked them so much they said he should sell them.

Two months later, he did.

Born of an opportunity to honor his father while pursuing a recently developed hobby, Claude’s Cookies was launched. Both Claude and Bill shared an entrepreneurial spirit. And as Claude gets his company started, he knows his dad would love what he is doing.

“The most happy people in life are doing something they love,” Strnad said in a phone interview. “I think, for him, if I was happy, he’d be happy.”

Strnad runs his online cookie business through his Instagram handle @claudescookiesbaltimore and a website where people can purchase rotating flavors of New York-style cookies on Tuesdays while supplies last.

Strnad’s cookies look unique compared to a typical treat one would find in Baltimore. He makes New York-style cookies that are thicker and bigger than a traditional one. An average cookie is around 45 to 55 grams; Strnad’s are 170 to 200.

He sold his first batch of cookies on Sept. 27. Word spread quickly on campus and around Baltimore . Last week, a TikTok spotlighting his creations racked up 37,000 views and counting. Last Tuesday, his fourth cookie drop sold out in two minutes.

Dave Gotter, Bill’s best friend and a personal chef, was perhaps the most persuasive in getting him to take his cookies to market. He was awed by Strnad’s Oreo-inspired cookies and cream cookie.

“I’m just taking bite after bite and I’m like, ‘I really don’t think there’s anything you need to do to this,’” Gotter recalled.

Instead of offering more professional advice, he ate another cookie.

“Maybe this is just one of his side businesses or maybe it turns into something giant,” Gotter said. “I mean, with him, it’s definitely feasible that it could really take off ... He has the desire, he has the drive.”

Strnad’s dad often told him and his two brothers that life should include doing something they love. Strnad took that to heart.

Like his father, Strnad has many interests. He was often called a “mini version” of his father.

That’s why he switched from the sailing team to the football team as a junior in high school, then pursued a college football career as a long snapper. He spent one year each at Illinois State and Purdue before transferring to Johns Hopkins.

He’s always viewed himself as an artist, pursuing drawing and graphic design. Baking was another way to express himself.

Two years ago, Strnad taught himself to bake healthy protein cookies for his older brother Behr, who had just graduated from the Naval Academy, and his younger brother Bleu, a plebe on The Yard.

Eventually, Strnad started to make regular cookies and desserts for fun. He experimented until he found a base dough that worked for all of his cookies.

“I don’t want to give away my base dough secrets,” Strnad said before laughing. “There are some techniques I use, which definitely make mine different.”

Every week, Strnad announces a “cookie drop” when connoisseurs can pick up the cookies. But his work begins on Monday. He has football practice most mornings, then classes later, but always finds time to research a new weekly flavor .

He tests the flavors on Monday . So far, Strnad has made six varieties available to the public: chocolate chip, cookies and cream, caramel coconut, pumpkin spice, chocolate lava and “Reese’s ghost,” a chocolate and peanut butter Halloween-themed cookie he introduced ahead of last week’s drop.

Tuesday nights are when buyers canpre-order cookies they’ll get onSunday.

Thursday nights are typically reserved for preparing the dough, since Fridays are for football walkthroughs or games.

He wakes up around 5 a.m. on Sunday to make the cookies. He makes 30 cookies a week to sell — five boxes of four cookies and five boxes of two cookies.

Strnad isn’t sure how much he’ll grow the business. He still has a year of eligibility left on the football team and other responsibilities and interests.

Still, Strnad has been blown away by the reception of his business.

He hopes to ramp up production soon to meet demand. Once football season is over, he’ll have more time to bake.

“Making something for others is such a gratifying act,” Strnad said. “It just feels great to obviously give something that you put effort into to others for them to enjoy.”