M-A High alumnus seeks honor for local legend, Coach Ben Parks M-A High alumnus seeks honor for local legend, Coach Ben Parks (May 05, 2004)

** Football field may be named after him.

By David Boyce
Almanac Staff Writer

A campaign is under way to name the new football field at Menlo-Atherton High School after Ben Parks, the popular and longtime football and wrestling coach who retired in 1999 after a 31-year career. During the off seasons, Coach Parks was a strength-and-conditioning coach for several San Francisco 49er star players, including Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Roger Craig and Ronnie Lott.

M-A alumnus Marc F. Rogers, of the M-A class of 1975 and now a first vice president of Morgan Stanley in Palo Alto, is leading the campaign to petition the school district to name the field. Mr. Lott is already on-board as a volunteer, Mr. Rogers said.

"It seems like a pretty wonderful idea," said M-A principal Eric Hartwig. "Coach Parks has had a long and distinguished career with our school and has made an indelible impact on our community."

The petition would go to the school's site council for discussion, then to the five-member board of trustees of the Sequoia Union High School District for discussion and a vote, Mr. Hartwig said.

"The coach turned 70 this year and to many of us some major recognition of his life's efforts are long overdue," said Mr. Rogers. "I know he changed my life, and he continues to touch it."

For more information, contact Mr. Rogers at 853-4062 or buckrog@ix.netcom.com.

About Coach Parks

Ben Parks has had his share of tough times, according to a biography on a Menlo-Atherton High School Sports Hall of Fame Web site. His grandmother brought him up in Hollister among poor migrant field workers, the biography says. He went on to graduate from the College of the Pacific.

He began his career at M-A in 1968 as head football coach and wrestling coach. He taught physical education and was a vice principal for two years.

He's been an active fundraiser for needy families, using such vehicles as a celebrity golf tournament and an annual birthday event in which he ran a mile for each year of his age.

He leads group visits to tenant housing, migrant worker camps, and inner-city neighborhoods to deliver food, clothing, blankets, furniture, and Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys, the biography says.

Coach Parks has served on a presidential council for character-building through sports, and sits on the board of the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula. He lectures for the Fifty-Plus program and is an honorary member of the M-A PTA.

October 4 is "Coach Parks Day" and he is the subject of a film documentary "Coach Parks," written by producer-director and M-A graduate David Mueller in association with Wakan Films.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.