The Harry Dallara Foundation Takes the Lead in Youth Baseball Advocacy and Development at Duncan Park

At four o’clock P.M. on Thursday, September fifth, a group of Spartanburg civic leaders, elected officials, and public benefactors gathered at the youth ballfields at historic Duncan Park for the groundbreaking of a comprehensive renovation project which will significantly improve this underutilized public facility and stimulate participation of youth from neighboring and center city communities in youth sports.

Among those participating in the groundbreaking ceremony were current and former mayors Jerome Rice and James Talley; Spartanburg County School District Seven Superintendent Jeff Stevens; Deputy City Manager Mitch Kennedy; City of Spartanburg Director of Parks, Recreation, and Special Events Kim Brown; Youth Sports Bureau Director Luther Norman; P. A. L. Spartanburg Executive Director Laura Ringo and Trails Development Director Ned Barrett; Harry Dallara Foundation Director Charles Dallara; and Foundation Board Members Bill Cummings and Sam Foster.

The Harry Dallara Foundation has a strong connection with both baseball and Spartanburg, South Carolina. Harry Dallara, its namesake, was born in New Jersey and trained in Spartanburg for military service during World War II. He met his future wife at a USO event in the Hub City and, having survived the war, married her and settled in to  a long and happy life on the northside of Spartanburg. Harry worked for many years in the tire department at Sears Roebuck and after retiring from Sears enjoyed a long second “career” as the volunteer attendant of the many rose bushes at Converse College.

Harry Dallara loved baseball and taught his sons to love the game as well. When they were growing up during the Jim Crow era, Harry also taught them that all of their classmates, teammates, and neighbors were equally worthy individuals no matter their race, ethnicity, or background. The Dallara kids took this lesson to heart and lived it on the ballfields of Spartanburg and Harmon Field just outside Tryon, North Carolina, and in their lives as successful businessmen and civic leaders..

Harry played and coached baseball well into his eighties, and after he passed away, it was only natural that his family establish a foundation in his memory to promote youth participation in baseball and to commemorate the Negro League teams who played in the Carolina piedmont. The first concrete realization of these goals was the renovation of Harmon Field, where today there is a life-sized bronze statue of Harry taking a swing at a ball as well as a bronze plaque honoring the Negro league Tryon Stars, an updated fan plaza, seating, and concession stand. The inaugural event of the new Harmon Field facility was a baseball tournament named after Stephen Dallara, Harry’s grandson who lost his life in an untimely motorcycle accident.

Next up for the foundation was a similar project at Duncan Park in Spartanburg, where plans included a large fan plaza, new restrooms, improved seating, a new concessions area, and a large bronze plaque commemorating the Negro League Spartanburg Sluggers, who played at Duncan Park in the first half of the twentieth century. To facilitate the realization of this undertaking, Harry’s son Charles and local Directors of the Harry Dallara Foundation worked hard to secure partnerships with the City of Spartanburg, School District Seven, the Spartanburg County Foundation, Major League Baseball’s Nike RBI program, P. A. L. Spartanburg, and others.

The Harry Dallara Foundation’s fundraising has been so successful that construction will begin almost immediately, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the opening of the newly improved and renovated youth fields is scheduled to take place in about six months.