Founder and longtime Redbird Raiders coach honored with dedication of new football field

The new football field outside Thurgood Marshall Recreation Center. Photo by Victoria Hernandez.

Dallas Park and Recreation held a dedication on Friday, Sept. 11 to officially name the newly renovated, regulation-size football field in memory of Earl “Coach” Thompson.

Thompson was the founder and a longtime coach of the Redbird Raiders, a youth football organization. The renovated field, located outside Thurgood Marshall Recreation Center, includes new sod and irrigation, LED lighting, aluminum bleachers, an announcer’s booth, two scoreboards, accessible walkways, restrooms and perimeter fencing.

City leaders, community members, and Thomson’s family gathered at the dedication ceremony for the proclamation reading from Sean Johnson. Photo by Victoria Hernandez.

“The City of Dallas has invested $2.4 billion to create this new space, but the real investment is in what happens when players take the field, cheerleaders rally the crowd and families come together to cheer them on,” said Sean Johnson, deputy director for Dallas Park and Recreation, at the dedication ceremony. 

Thompson, who died earlier this year, spent over four decades mentoring young athletes. He was also inducted into the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame and the Prairie View Interscholastic League Association Hall of Fame. 

State Rep. Yvonne Davis, who represents District 111, helped secure state funding for the project. She said that originally the city planned to create a soccer field with the renovation.

“We had a committee who met and continued to meet to talk about ‘We play football here. The Raiders play football. We don’t need a soccer field,’” she said, followed by applause from the audience. “Earl Thompson, his coaches, his committee, his wife, his family, everybody chimed in, saying, ‘Let’s do what we need for our folks.’ He has put this community on the map through all of his leadership and all of the championships and all the things that they’ve done over the 40 years he’s been here. So I am so pleased that we finally got everyone to recognize we play football over here.”