JACK’S GAME
Phelan’s basketball court in Hartford’s Elizabeth Park is coming back to life
Jack Phelan grew up on Oxford Street in Hartford, two blocks from Elizabeth Park. He and his older brother Ken spent their formative years playing basketball or baseball at the park or just playing with the other kids in the neighborhood.
Phelan, a basketball star at Northwest Catholic High and St. Francis (Pa.) and was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2019, always had a special spot in his heart for the court off Whitney Street. When he coached at the University of Hartford, he would bring his players there sometimes. He brought his grandchildren there.
Back in the day, in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, it was his court. Players would come from all parts of the city to play Jack Phelan and his friends.
The court is still there, a little worse for wear.
“He used to drive by and he would look and see who was playing out here,” his son, Jack, said. “He kind of always thought it would be nice if they fixed it up.”
Phelan died suddenly on July 20, 2020 at age 66. He had touched many lives as a college coach, and later, for 17 years as an
athletic director at Farmington High.
Eric Crawford was one of those lives. He played for Phelan for two years at Hartford before graduating in 1985 and then serving as his assistant coach. He calls Phelan a father figure. When Phelan died, Crawford wanted to do something special in his memory.
Maybe they could refurbish his favorite basketball court.
It was more complicated than Crawford thought. But with some help from Connecticut representative Matt Ritter, the Speaker of the House, whose family knew the Phelan family, and a local architectural firm who donated its time and expertise, Crawford is hoping that work will be started by Phelan’s birthday in June.
“I had no idea,” Crawford said. “Nobody was taking care of the court. I thought I’d raise a few dollars, put down some new asphalt, new lines. Some benches. Maybe raise $50-60,000.”
It turned out the architectural work alone would cost that much, Crawford said, and the total renovation would cost around $150,000. A local firm, Freeman Companies, donated its time and coordinated meetings with the zoning board, historical society and park and recreation department.
Crawford then turned to Ritter, who had gone to Phelan’s basketball camps when he was a kid, and whose family was close to the Phelans.
“[Jack] was a tremendous person,”
Ritter said. “When Eric talked about it, I said, ‘Look, let’s try to make it happen.’ The court needed some repair anyway. I think the original thought was to try to do some fundraising for the court individually, but that park needs other improvements as well and some of the neighbors approached me about some other renovations, so we decided to combine it and the state will pay for the upgrades.”
There will be benches for people to sit and watch games. Phrases Phelan used to say to his players: “Go hard or go home” and “Take care of your community” will be featured as part of the design.
“I think the courts in the city should have some kind of messaging around them,” Crawford said. “The kids spend so much time there, that’s another avenue, we can make it a learning experience, about equity, getting along, going to school. We need to utilize that space for a message board for these kids.”
Crawford, who is the director of CREC Family Resource Center at the WilsonGray YMCA in Hartford, came from Buffalo, N.Y., one of Phelan’s first Division I recruits when Hartford upgraded its
program from Division II. He didn’t know anyone when he came to Hartford and ended up staying with the Phelans until he could get into the dorms.
“That’s why I do so well working with these kids,” he said. “I was one of these kids. Jack knew if I had to go back to Buffalo, I was going to wind up somewhere I shouldn’t, so he made me stay here in the summer, got me summer jobs. I never had a father role model. The way he dressed, the way he talked, he didn’t take no [garbage]. I started imitating that.
“He told me, ‘Look, you’re not going to go to the NBA, because you wouldn’t be in this car with me. But I guarantee you, if you do right by this program in school and you stay in the Hartford area, you’ll do well.
I’m not about getting guys in the NBA. I’m about making sure they get an education and do something for this city.’ ”
This is the legacy Phelan left.
On Friday, Crawford looked around the park where the court is. The grass in the park hadn’t been mowed recently. There are no benches for people to sit on and watch games. The current court is a slab of asphalt with two baskets. An old fence near Whitney Avenue keeps the basketballs from rolling into the street.
“This place is going to look totally different,” Crawford said. “He’s too important to too many people to pass away and nothing be put in place.
“That court meant a lot to Jack. That’s what kept me going. He used to get pissed off when the city didn’t take care of that court. People don’t understand the history of this court and what it meant. He grew up on it. The Eddie Griffins and some of the legendary players in Hartford used to come to Elizabeth Park so they could play against Jack and his boys, Chuckie Harding, Packy Cosgrove and all them.
“There was very few interactions between [different] parts of the city. But Jack was at Elizabeth — that was his park. These guys knew of Jack because he was at Northwest — they said, ‘Let’s go up here and play this white dude.’ So they brought their guys from the North End there and Jack would beat them on the court. Those were some tough Irish guys.
“That was when Hartford had all the racial stuff going on. But that park was off limits to that. Those guys used to battle all the time. Jack Phelan used to go to Keney Park, which was unheard of back in the day, and get into these heated basketball games and there’d be crowds of people watching. He used to tell me about how they forged relationships and up until he died, he was very good friends with all those guys.”