Smead Arena at Blunt Park is named for the former Parks Department employee who starred in football at both Commerce and Fordham.
Ray Smead Jr., left, and Ray Smead Sr. attend the 1970 dedication of Smead Arena in Springfield.On winter nights in the 1960s, Ray Smead would be out in the cold, working on the outdoor skating rink at Springfield’s Blunt Park.
“Sometimes he’d be spraying it, hosing it down to keep the ice good. Other times, he might be out there scraping, if we had snow.”
That memory comes from Ray Smead Jr., a retired aerospace worker who now lives in Boulder, Colo.
Ray Smead Sr. spent 38 years working for the Springfield Parks Department – 34 as Blunt Park’s supervisor.
At Smead’s retirement party in 1970, State Rep. Anthony Scibelli announced the new indoor rink at Blunt Park would be dedicated to Ray. The rink opened later that year.
“My father tended so dutifully to that outdoor rink, and people loved skating and playing hockey on it so much, I’m sure that’s why they named the arena for him,” Ray’s son said.
Raymond C. Smead Arena, which still operates today, was the city’s first indoor skating facility.
As a schoolboy, Smead played football at Commerce, where he excelled as a guard.
He went on to Fordham University in New York, where he started for three years on teams coached by Frank Gargan. In 1924, Smead served as captain of a squad that went 9-2.
After college, he returned to his hometown for a succession of jobs – with the Longmeadow Police Dept., American Bosch and Milton Bradley – before settling in with the Springfield Parks Dept. in 1932.
He worked for two years at Calhoun Park in Springfield’s north end, then was assigned to supervise a Civilian Conservation Corps crew which built Blunt Park. When the work was completed, Smead became the park’s supervisor.
The Smead family home was on land adjacent to the park and now occupied by Central High School.
“It was a wonderful way to grow up, living right there at the park. The Central gym is where our house used to be,” Ray Jr. said.
Ray Smead Sr., football star, dedicated park worker and mentor to many a young Blunt Park athlete, died in 1983. He was 84.
Garry Brown can be reached at geeman1918@yahoo.com