George Gracie Jr. Basketball Courts

The George Gracie Jr. Basketball Courts are the four lighted outdoor basketball courts of the Peggy Hannon-Rizza Recreation Complex off Campbell Road and Ed Hayes Way, between the tennis courts and the playground. They are named for George S. Gracie Jr. (1931-2016), physical education teacher, coach and selectman, who helped build the first tennis courts and softball field on the grounds in 1975. Like the rest of the complex they stand on the old Mitchell Boys' School land that the town accepted in 1950 as the Memorial Athletic Field.

The first outdoor court here was finished by the Park Department in 1982, when the department reported "a new basketball court at the Lampson Field which for the first time in ten years was used for an outdoor mens' League." In 1983 the Recreation Commission set out to make the Lampson Field Complex "a multi-sport facility (softball, tennis, basketball, football, lacross and soccer)". The town's capital funds paid to refurbish "the Basketball Courts at the Lampson Recreation Complex" in 1997 and 1998. The first phase of the Lampson Recreation Complex master plan, built from 2006 with a $500,000 state Urban Self Help grant and finished in 2009, gave the complex improved parking, utilities and "4 basketball courts with lights", and by 2014 outdoor players were using them under the lights "from April until the end of November." In 2023 the town meeting voted $80,000 of Community Preservation funds to repair, resurface and repaint the courts, mend the fences and replace the backboards on each hoop.

George Stanley Gracie Jr. was born in Lowell on September 23, 1931, the son of Selectman George S. Gracie, and lived in Billerica all his life. He was a three-sport athlete at Howe High School, class of 1949, played football at Boston University, where he took bachelor's and master's degrees in education, and served as a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps. He joined the Billerica schools in 1955 as a physical education teacher, coached the high school basketball team, became the town's physical education coordinator and retired in 1991 as an administrator after 36 years. He helped start the PAL basketball program and Pop Warner football in town and was in the first group named to the Howe and Billerica Memorial High School athletic hall of fame. He chaired the Study Committee for Family Recreation and the Gilson Hill Committee, served on the Permanent School Building Committee, and sat on the Board of Selectmen for twelve years, from 1972 until he chose not to run again in 1984, as vice chairman for much of that time. The Recreation Commission thanked him again and again in the 1970s for his work on the town's fields. He died at his home in Billerica on April 4, 2016.

Deed References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.

References

1. Annual Report 1982: Park Department finished a new basketball court at the Lampson Field, used for an outdoor men's league
2. Annual Report 1983: Recreation Commission plan to make the Lampson Field Complex a multi-sport facility
3. Annual Report 1998: capital funds refurbish the basketball courts at the Lampson Recreation Complex
4. Annual Report 2009: phase one of the Lampson Recreation Complex project, parking, 4 basketball courts with lights, utilities
5. Annual Report 1984: George Gracie, a twelve-year member of the Board of Selectmen, chose not to run for re-election
6. Community Preservation Coalition: Billerica, PHR Basketball Court Improvements (2023), resurfacing, fences and backboards
7. Lowell Sun obituary of George S. Gracie Jr. (1931-2016), Billerica teacher, coach, administrator and selectman