By Neto Baptiste
President of the King George V Restoration Society and former Empire and national footballer, Paul Davis, has revealed that efforts are being made to have the famed community sporting venue, the King George V Ground, renamed in honour of former national and Empire striker Keithley “KS” Sheppard.
Davis made the disclosure while sitting alongside Sheppard on the Good Morning Jojo sports show this week, adding that it is only for the petition to be taken to the proper authorities for approval.
“We already have enough names [signatures] and I already have his bio, so it is just for the representative to get it, take it to Parliament and then we change the name.
“Who is King George? What has he done for Gray’s Farm? I want in the next 100 years that after me and the great one has gone and at Greenbay School or any other school and someone asks a question; who is Keithley Sheppard and what did he do? Tell them write a paper on Keithley Sheppard so they would go and do their research and realize that this man was something special,” he said.
Davis said that a number of other names were submitted by individuals for consideration but the support for Sheppard was overwhelming.
“I think it’s time and it’s fitting to recognise our hero and so I put out a petition with a couple of different names and KS was way above everybody else. Some people believe that Jerome Tittle should be in it and Veron Edwards [Sr] and Scout [Alfred Christian], but in a lot of people’s opinion, sports guys from different teams who don’t come from Grays Farm, they all think that Keithley Sheppard is the one who we should honour and that’s why I am pushing that initiative,” the former player said.
Sheppard, who spoke of his time as a player while on the show, said one of his fondest memories came when he represented Empire for the first time.
“First time I started playing and the first ball I kicked — when I was first on the team I was nervous as a youth man — but the first ball I kicked and it hit the crossbar, I said ‘ah ha, they can’t stop me’. My favourite position was striking or center forward because I liked to score goals,” he said.
There is no clear indicated as to when the name change could take place. Empire have won 13 Premier Division championships spanning 1969 to 2000/01.