Former Liberty Saints Youth Players Say "Thank You" To Their Founder
By Cherri Gregg
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Scores of former players from a now defunct youth athletic team from North Philadelphia reunited this weekend to say thank you to the man who founded the group more than 45 years ago.
In the 1960s and early 70s, the city of Philadelphia was in the throws of bloody gang wars. And little boys and girls in North Philadelphia projects had two choices; join a gang or join a team.
"When you became a member of a solid team in the projects-- you had prestige," says Otho Boykin, 71. "You could walk through gangs and nobody would bother you because everybody knew who you were and we were the Saints."
Boykin was 29 years old when he founded the Liberty Saints Athletic Association in 1970 near 9th and Poplar Streets. The group included youth football, basketball and cheerleading teams. They wore purple and gold and sported Saint Bernards as mascots.
"The Saints were the sharpest team in North Philly," says Ron Day, a former youth player who organized the reunion. The players flew Boykin first class to Philadelphia from his home in Florida to attend the event.
"He did a lot for us players and want him to know how much his sacrifices meant to us," says Day.
"When he coached, the families brought the chairs out on the weekend to watch us play," says Kerry "Hollywood" Smith. He's one of the hundreds of players Boykin mentored between until he left the team in 1985.
"Through the grace of God and Mr. Boykin, he saved our lives," says Smith, who lost his father when he was 9-years-old. "He taught us there is no goal too big-- nothing that you can't learn if you take the time to figure it out."
Former Saints players have gone on to play professional sports, attend college at schools like Harvard, coach teams, work for the NCAA and on to other prestigious titles across the country. But no title was better than champion-- a feat players say the team achieved more than a half dozen times.
"We were Pop Warner champions," says Boykin, "when I look around and I see all these guys-- and they're old now-- it blows my mind."
Day says the Liberty Saints disbanded in the early 1990s, but the team will forever be connected.
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