By Brian P Wallace
On June 25th the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) will honor Ambassador and Mayor Raymond L. Flynn with the Lifetime Humanitarian Award at Gillette Stadium. Also being honored that night, along with Ray Flynn, will be Jerry Remy, Mike Eruzione, Tony Conigliaro, Dick Jauron, Matt Hasselbeck and Sarah Behn. They are some of the greatest athletes ever to grow up in Massachusetts and to leave their mark on the baseball diamond, the Olympic ice, women’s basketball, and the NFL.
Ray Flynn who was an All -American basketball player at Providence and was the last person cut by the Celtics in 1965, the MIAA stated in their press release, They went on, he then spent his life in support of youth, and youth at risk, all over the world. It is fitting that Ray Flynn is awarded by his peers not only for his basketball prowess but for those he helped along the way.
A lot of people don’t know just how much Ray Flynn has done, while he was in office and before he was elected, to help others of all races and socioeconomic levels. In 1965 Ray began the first summer league basketball program at M Street Park for those 18 and under. A few years later he took on the mantle of softball Commissioner on the other half of M Street Park. He did this while working full time as a Probation Officer. The summer basketball program caught the eye of an NBA ref from Boston named Kenny Hudson and the concept spread throughout the city and was called the BNBL. A few years later Ray introduced the Ray Flynn Basketball Tournament and teams from all over Boston competed. Ray knew the importance of sports in society and many of those players in the Ray Flynn Tourney became lifelong friends.
As an elected official he continued to advocate for boys and girls throughout the city. In 1974, the city was on edge, as the forced busing program was about to be implemented. In late August there were riots expected to take place on Carson Beach. Ray ran a program called Southie Day at Marine Park to keep the kids away from Carson Beach and maybe head off the violence that was predicted. It worked. It worked so well in fact that Southie Day became a summer staple for the next twenty years.
When Ray was elected Mayor, the city was a powderkeg ready to explode. The hottest spot was at a place called Wainwright Park where black kids and white kids were at each other’s throats, because there was only one basketball court that they both wanted to use. Ray went over to the park and met with both sides and hammered out a deal and set a celebrity basketball game at the park in which both black and white kids would play together on the same team against celebrities like Dave Cowens, Kevin Stacom, Carl Weathers, who played Apollo Creed in Rocky and many more. He also had a state of the art outdoor hockey rink built in the park and soon that flame that was about to ignite was put out.
In his second year as Mayor, he started the BHA Unity Days where his idea of bringing celebrities together for a game of basketball against an All-Star team from each BHA Development across the city. He added a free concert and a cookout after each basketball game. He did that, every Friday night, Saturday and Sunday, for eight straight years. He brought in name groups like the Platters, the Temptations, Herman’s Hermits and many more. I had a little black girl say to me, “I ain’t never had a Mayor cook me a cheeseburger before.” Those long, hot eight years made a difference in the city. It showed that somebody in authority cared and could score thirty points on any given night against them. It certainly made a difference with that little girl who got her cheeseburger directly from the Mayor of Boston.
I left the Flynn Administration for two years to help build a new Boys and Girls Club in South Boston in 1990. Ray called me and said, “can you use some tickets for the New Kids on the Block concert in Foxboro?” At that time they were one of, if not, the most popular groups in the world. Almost every kid who walked through those same Club doors that Ray and I walked through as kids, had on something that depicted the New Kids on their shirt or hat. “How many?” I asked. “Tommy McIntyre,” who was Joe’s father, “gave me a hundred. I was blown away. “I’ll take them,” I smiled. We got two buses and had shirts that read “Club Kids love the New Kids” and 100 kids went to the concert. For most it was their first concert and maybe their last, but again it showed them a different side of the world and that someone cared. Many tell me that they still have their shirts.
So, yeah, I think Ray Flynn deserves the MIAA Humanitarian Award and much more. He changed so many young kids lives it is unfathomable to count. And , oh yeah, he is the only Boston Mayor to run the Boston Marathon. Not a bad career, on and off the court. Thanks Ray.
