Willie Price's love for sports leads to serving youth

Intermountain Catholic

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Willie Price has been the Parish Athletic Recreation Association (PARA) League commissioner for more than 40 years. He is currently working on ?Run for Shoes,? a track meet to raise funds to buy 1,000 pair of shoes for youth in need. They will receive a voucher to buy a pair of shoes from Payless Shoes.IC photo by Christine Young

SALT LAKE CITY — Willie Price has been the Parish Athletic Recreation Association (PARA) League commissioner for more than 40 years.

Price, 79, and a member of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, will be honored as a 2008 Silver Bowl of Caring Award recipient to represent Salt Lake County at a recognition luncheon at the Provo Marriott April 29.

"I started out in the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) in the 1950s with Jay Caputo," said Price. "Caputo was a member of the Knights of Columbus in Council 602, and we ran the CYO basketball program for years. At that time there were only about 12 teams, and we played all of our games at Judge Memorial Catholic High School.

"After Caputo retired, I took over as the commissioner. We voted in a president, and we have been running the league as PARA ever since," said Price. "Now we have a PARA board and at least 2,000 kids playing basketball. We also have kids playing volleyball, running track, and families playing softball."

Price said he has also invited students from the Greek Orthodox church, Christ United Methodist church, and this coming year Rowland Hall-St. Mark’s students will also join PARA.

"The PARA board of directors want this to be an ecumenical program," said Price. "It has been really successful. We hire young people in their late teens to be our scorekeepers and timers. We have gym coordinators who help out when there is a problem. We really appreciate what these people do. They do a good job."

Price and his wife Frankie have been married 60 years. They have nine children, and a family of 56 counting all the grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

"We are working on a family tree so everybody will know everybody," said Price.

"I love sports, but boxing is my favorite and is what led me to want to work with the youth. I started boxing in the 1940s after World War II had started," said Price. "I was a member of the Rotary Boys Club where I trained. We put on shows for the USO (United Service Organization) at the hospital in Brigham City where they brought all the military amputees from the war. We would go up there to try to cheer them up."

By the time Price was 16 he had traveled to New York, California, Colorado, Washington state, and Washington D. C., as an amateur boxer.

"To be able to come from a small community like Salt Lake City, and it was back then, I did not realize there were so many people in the world," said Price. "Most facilities where the fights were held packed in 3,000 to 4,000 people a show.

"That was one of the things that motivated me to spend the rest of my life working with the youth," said Price. "I knew I would never reach all the youth, but if I could turn one of them around, it would be well worth my time and effort. If we, through PARA, can reach the youth and keep them living with good Christian values, then it is well worth our while."

Price said he meets some of the students now who are in their 50s and they still recognize him and still call him Mr. Price. They go over to his house once in a while to visit.

"To see them grow up and be responsible people and remember the times we played ball, trained in boxing, ran track, or played basketball, and they’ve carried that with them throughout their lives is well worth all the hours I’ve put into PARA," said Price.

"I did amateur boxing for about 10 years or so, then I turned professional," said Price. "I fought about seven professional fights when I got hit behind the ear. It perforated my eardrum and the doctor said I could continue to fight and really have problems, or I could quit. So I quit and started training boxers.

"When I was an amateur boxer it was called the AAU, or Amateur Athletic Union," said Price. "As an amateur boxer, I won the State Championship Golden Gloves. But I could never get past the state tournament to win the regional championship. At least I had the opportunity to represent our state in the regional championship. It was held in Denver, Colo.

"That is the first time I really ran into discrimination," said Price. "I did not really pay much attention to it in Utah, but when I went to Denver, the Black fighters had to stay in one part of town and the white fighters stayed in another part of town. That was a shock to me.

"When I look back on it now, I get angry," said Price. "I think about how come it had to be that way. I shouldn’t get angry, I should let it go. But it bothers me.

"As I look back, there were only certain parts of Salt Lake City that we could even rent or buy a home," said Price. "This was during the 1940s and 1950s. My wife, and I decided we were not going to let that get us down. We were going to do the best we could. I dropped out of high school to help my sister get through nursing school. My sister graduated from the Holy Cross School of Nursing.

"I went to work for the U.S. Air Force at Hill Air Force Base, and they required me to have a high school diploma and beyond if I wanted to get a promotion. So I earned my high school diploma and then they paid for me to go to Utah State University to get my management degree. I also went to Weber State College and Dayton Ohio University for more management training. I went to a college in Florida for courses in race relations."

Price was the supervisor for race relations training at Hill Air Force Base for seven years. He said people would come into his office to argue with him that Black people had an extra bone in their body and that is why they could run faster. Price told them, no, it was just good training.

"There was an 18-hour race-relations course they had to attend, and by the end of the course, they would calm down," said Price. "They grew up believing that kind of thing.

"In class, I would write my name on the board and they would try to guess what religion I was," said Price. "They always guessed I was Baptist because I was Black. I told them I was Catholic.

"I really felt comfortable when I walked into the Catholic Church as a little kid at the old mission, now Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, and Father James E. Collins was there. He made us all feel as one," said Price. "There was no difference in race. He welcomed all of us. I felt so comfortable and I knew this was the place for me. Fr. Collins would play baseball with us and do different activities. I just loved him, and I loved what the Catholic Church has done for me in terms of teaching me what it is to be kind to others, to help others, and not be so self-centered that I am the only one in the world. I still feel very comfortable in the Catholic Church."

Price also worked for many years for the Bureau of Land Management as an equal opportunity officer.

Price is still involved in boxing as the registration chairman for all amateur boxers, referees, doctors, and judges for the state of Utah.