By Neto Baptiste
The historic King George V Ground, located in the Gray’s Farm community, has ‘officially’ been renamed in honour of former national and Empire footballer and cricketer, Keithley “KS” Sheppard.
This was revealed by Secretary for the KS Recreational Park committee, Micah Samuel, who added that an official unveiling and renaming ceremony will be held on January 14 next year.
“There will be a huge plaque on the wall but there will also be a statue as well of the gentleman similar to what Sir Viv Richards has at Ovals so we’re in the process of talking to someone to erect something like that. There will be a newly-erected pavilion as it relates to players and spectators. The pavilion will host a daycare center and it would have booths and stalls for people who are selling in the park. In addition to that, we will be resurfacing the playing field of the playing space on the grounds,” he said.
It was revealed in May that efforts were in motion to have the facility renamed in the former player’s honour. The news however sparked debate with consensus spilt down the middle as to whether or not the park should be named after a single individual.
Samuel said that although others like Jerome Tittle, Veron Edwards Sr., Veron Edwards Jr., Andy “Gantone” Nesbitt, Dale Jones and Janill Williams were considered, Sheppard was the obvious choice.
“In terms of discipline on the field of play, he never received a yellow card or a red card and that is huge in Empire in those days. In the 60s, Empire players were known for being the most rugged and some people say nasty players, and if he was part of that contingent and never received a yellow or red card, it speaks highly of his discipline. The quality of representation he gives every time he enters the field of play is always of a high quality, and I don’t think we could put that prestigious honour to anybody else with the exception of KS,” he said.
The former national coach and player said the committee has discussed and agreed on methods that will be used to recognise the contributions of others.
“The players’ pavilion will be called the Jerome Tittle stand, but there will be a two-part section to it where the entire stand will be named after Jerome, but you will have certain sections in it where we will allocate a part of it to Veron Edwards Sr., we will allocate another portion of it to a gentleman by the name of Dexter Warner, and these are some people who made tremendous contributions as it relates to sports within the community,” Samuel said.
The facility is now known as the Keithley Sheppard Recreational Park.
