The naming last week by the City Council of the basketball courts adjacent to Harry Della Russo Stadium in honor of the late Robert “Ace†McCarrick is a fitting tribute to a man who devoted his entire adult life to the youth of our city and in particular, Revere’s basketball community.
Ace not only was a star on the court for Immaculate Conception High in the mid-1950s, but he also was a superstar off the court, organizing local youth basketball programs for decades and serving as a mentor to hundreds of high school basketball players during his tenures as a coach at his alma mater, as well as at Revere High, Dom Savio High, and Pope John XXIII.
He was instrumental in creating the popular Revere Summer Basketball League, which was played on the courts that will bear his name, in the late 1970s and ‘80s, which proved incredibly popular not only for hoop players from this city, but which drew top-notch players from around the area.
For those of us who knew him from our playing days in the Revere summer basketball league, we recall Ace as a kind and warm-hearted man who truly loved what he was doing and who always had the youth of our city uppermost in his mind.
It is not an exaggeration to say that serving the young people of Revere was Ace McCarrick’s calling, a purpose that he fully embraced and that he performed exceedingly well.
