Before practices or games years ago, Coach Dennis Wilson and his late brother Harry Wilson III would often comb the playing fields at Harambee Park in Franklin Field to remove broken glass, rocks, and other sharp objects that could hurt the young players in their Boston Raiders Pop Warner youth football program.

Now, those very fields have been fully renovated and named for the Wilson Brothers during a touching ceremony at the field on Aug. 6.

“The naming was long overdue, and we are honored,” said Coach Wilson. “We had one field at Franklin Field, and we would use it for Saturday games, kick-offs, punts, and field goals, and we would use the open field for everything else, sharing it with the soccer and cricket teams. Now we have two brand new fields and we’re very pleased. We’re one of the most successful programs in New England.”

Boston Parks Commissioner Ryan Woods joined members of the Wilson family and local youth sports advocates and players for the dedication of “Wilson Field.”

The new facility is part of a series of improvements at the park. The $3.4 million project began in 2015, and the third and final phase included the construction of the new game field and practice field, extension of the pedestrian pathway network, a new scoreboard, exercise area, lighting, and entrance improvements.

“Harry and Dennis Wilson set examples for Boston’s youth not only on and off the field but also by creating a safe space where young men and women could learn and grow,” Woods said. “And now this space will proudly bear their name for present and future generations. The Boston Raiders motto is ‘Raiders for Life.’ We now honor the lives of Harry and Dennis Wilson by naming this field after these two leaders in youth sports.”

Coach Wilson said his brother Harry came up with the idea to start the Roxbury Raiders, and in 1974 they brought it to the community. Starting behind the Shelburne Center in Roxbury with two teams and one field, they built up the program and eventually had to change the name to the Boston Raiders and move to Franklin Field. That is still the home of the thriving program and still where they cultivate “Raider Family.”

“We wanted to use football and sports to provide the foundations where we not only teach them the game, but also impact their lives in a positive way,” Coach Wilson said.

“We got everyone to buy in and kept that going from 1974 to the 1980s to the 1990s and the 2000s and we’re still going,” he added. “We’ve sent players to high schools, prep school, and college, and then they come back and want to be coaches. We teach them how to be good role models for these kids and if they aren’t, they’re gone. We were no nonsense.”

The program’s most well-known player is Bill Brooks, who was drafted in the fourth round by the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts in 1986. Other players and cheerleaders in the “Raider Family” went on to be lawyers, and police officers, among other professions.

Wilson said some didn’t make the right decisions in life and “are no longer with us or are incarcerated.” But he estimated that 85 percent of the program’s participants have “turned out right,” noting that they were able to turn around some of the troublemakers that he said tried to bully him and his brother and disrupt the program. “They would tell their buddies making trouble to chill out because it was their team and their coaches,” he said. “Because they were part of the program, they protected the program.”

Coach Wilson, who was also a successful high school coach at Madison Park and won five Massachusetts Super Bowls, said the only regret is that his brother wasn’t there to see the honor of the naming. Harry Wilson, a Mattapan resident, passed away in July 2019.

“It’s a very fitting tribute, more so for my brother than myself, I feel,” Coach Wilson said. “We did it all together. Started it together, grinded it out together, and took our rent money at times and fed it into the program to support the kids. I just wish Harry was here and could see this and stand next to me physically. But I know he is looking down in spirit and beaming about his brand-new field.”

The Boston Raiders will host their annual Family Day and pre-season pep rally at Wilson Field in Harambee Park this Saturday, Aug. 20.