{"id":8358,"date":"2021-11-20T17:39:45","date_gmt":"2021-11-21T01:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/?p=50000002956"},"modified":"2021-11-20T17:39:45","modified_gmt":"2021-11-21T01:39:45","slug":"dee-andrews-sports-complex-dedicated-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/news\/dee-andrews-sports-complex-dedicated-saturday","title":{"rendered":"Dee Andrews Sports Complex dedicated Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Befitting the man who was being honored, Saturday\u2019s dedication of the Dee Andrews Sports Complex at Chittick Park turned into a Long Beach Poly reunion of sorts.<\/p>\n

The school\u2019s football team and cheerleaders were on hand to celebrate Andrews, the Poly\/LBCC\/Long Beach State sports legend and longtime 6th District councilman. So were the school\u2019s athletic directors, Rob Shock and Crystal Irving (Shock is Andrews\u2019 son-in-law) and prominent alums including Willie McGinest and Ron Allice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something that I never ever will forget,\u201d said Andrews during his speech, after being celebrated by mayor Robert Garcia, councilman Al Austin (who championed the renaming), and others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have named so many different monuments and parks in the city after great people, and few have had the accomplishments that Dee Andrews has in this city,\u201d said Austin. \u201cHe\u2019s more than an athlete. He\u2019s a sports legend but he went on to do great things in civic life, as well as a community leader and a public elected official. And this piece right here is among his signature legacy work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrews was critical in transforming what was once known as the Hamilton Bowl (or the Dust Bowl for how little vegetation there was) into a well used sports complex that\u2019s constantly occupied by track and field, football and soccer athletes.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Former Councilman Dee Andrews and wife Maxine Waters Willard admire the newly unveiled sign at the Dee Andrews Sports Complex after Saturday’s ceremony. Photo by Mike Guardabascio.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since the grass was put in at what is now Chittick Park, along with the lights and all-weather track, it\u2019s become a community hub in Central Long Beach, and is frequently used by athletes from all over the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cDee went above and beyond to make that happen,\u201d said McGinest. \u201cLike he\u2019s always done with everything in our community\u2014he goes hard for people. This park being named after Dee is…I don\u2019t know who else we could have named it after, out of respect for what he\u2019s done. And he deserves so much more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrews was in rare form at his celebration, and his signature sense of humor was on display. He began his remarks by waving at the spectators sitting along Walnut Ave watching from the other side of the fence.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can come in guys, it\u2019s free, we\u2019re not charging anyone at my event,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Andrews also welcomed his family up during his remarks, and offered sincere comments about the central place of sports in Long Beach\u2019s diverse social scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen this was the Hamilton Bowl I called this the Ambassador Bowl, because every nationality comes here and participates,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is what I loved about Long Beach, because that\u2019s the kind of person I am.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrews was critical in transforming what was once known as the Hamilton Bowl (or the Dust Bowl for how little vegetation there was) into a well used sports complex that\u2019s constantly occupied by track and field, football and soccer athletes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":17236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[223],"tags":[2714,2715],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[2096],"class_list":["post-8358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-dee-andrews","tag-dee-andrews-sports-complex","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8358"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=8358"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}