The Cubs era, 2015–present

2014 – present

The affiliation: On September 18, 2014, the club signed a four-year player-development contract with the Chicago Cubs. A week later, on September 25, 2014, with Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein in South Bend for the announcement, Berlin declared that the team would take the parent club's name as well: the South Bend Cubs, from 2015.

The name fight, in brief: Some local fans pushed back on trading "Hawks" — and its Studebaker lineage — for the parent club's brand. The franchise answered in kind: Swoop the Silver Hawk was kept on as a mascot alongside the new Stu the Cub, and the new logo was drawn in Studebaker's own lettering style. By the measure the club cares about, the argument settled quickly: merchandise sales rose by some 700 percent, and in 2015 the club set a franchise attendance record of 347,678. Swoop's long goodbye came a decade later — on February 22, 2024, the club announced the hawk would retire at the end of the 2024 season.

The honors: In 2015 the South Bend Cubs received the John H. Johnson President's Award, the highest honor a franchise can receive in Minor League Baseball, and Ballpark Digest named the club its Team of the Year. In June 2016 the Cubs affiliation was extended early, through 2020; in August 2017 the millionth fan of the Cubs era passed through the gates, three seasons in.

The titles: The Cubs era produced two more Midwest League championships. In 2019 South Bend swept through the playoffs without a loss, seven games to none, for the franchise's fourth league title; the club had hosted the Midwest League All-Star Game at Four Winds Field that June 18. In 2022 came the fifth title, won in a winner-take-all final game on the road at Lake County. The full league accounting for the modern club stands: championships in 1989, 1993, 2005, 2019 and 2022. Beneath the titles sit the split-season honors that feed the playoffs — the club's first-half championships came in 1989, 1990, 1995, 2001, 2008, 2016 and 2026.

The level: In the 2021 reorganization of the minor leagues, South Bend rose to High-A, remaining in the Midwest League. Ballpark Digest voted Four Winds Field the Best High-A Ballpark in 2022 and again in 2023.

Sources:

1. MiLB, "A Historical Look at the South Bend Cubs" — the September 2014 contract and name announcement; the Johnson Award; the 2016 extension; the millionth Cubs-era fan, 2017.
2. Notre Dame Magazine, "Take Us Out to the Ballgame" — the local pushback on the name, Swoop kept, the Studebaker lettering in the new logo.
3. South Bend Cubs record — the 2015 attendance record of 347,678; the 2019 and 2022 championships; Swoop's retirement announced February 22, 2024.
4. Ballpark Digest — Best High-A Ballpark, 2022 and 2023.