Focus on Melrose: Fred Green

On November 19th, 1946, a Melrose High School sophomore was fatally injured during a Melrose-Beverly varsity football game at the Manning Bowl in Lynn and died two days later. His teammates from the class of 1948 later dedicated our athletic field in his name. The Tremont Street facility became known as the Fred Green Athletic Field, honoring a fallen boy who classmates described as “unassuming” and of “fine character.”  The complex has been used for more than 80 years by generations of Melrose athletes, students, city organizers, club members, band performers and annual high school graduation.

Decades ago, Green’s classmates came up with the idea of honoring the lost Red Raider. Richard Harlow, a teammate of Fred Green’s and a pallbearer at his funeral, recalled how the field came to be. “At our reunion we decided to create a monument to remember Freddy.” Harlow, a standout MHS athlete and member of the Melrose Athletic Hall of Fame, remembered Green’s injury. “We were playing on the road and we didn’t have home games that year. I remember Freddy came home on the bus. He died from a spleen injury just a few days later. It was a horrible loss.”

The team went on to beat Arlington to win the Div. 1 Class-A championship that season in what Harlow described as “an emotional win.” They qualified to go to Miami to play but officials opted not to because of Green’s death, sending Lynn Classical in their place. “It was such a shock,” said Green’s childhood friend and teammate Sid Field, also a pallbearer at his services. “Fred was a second-string player and it was because we were up by so much at the half that he got some playing time. And then it happened.”

Field, a long-time Melrose parks department head, grew up with Green on School Street and walked to school with him. “He was such a good kid, really hard working, he helped his mother because his father died the year before. He studied while I played; he was so focused and was strong as an ox. If this type of injury happened today he wouldn’t have died. And had he lived, he would have done well in life.” The class of 1948 did not forget their fallen teammate and after their 40th reunion they put together a permanent reminder: The Fred Green rock that sits at the entrance on Tremont Street.

Fred Green grew up at 35 School Street in Melrose, attended Winthrop Elementary before MHS, and left behind a mother and 10 year old brother. According to family years later, because his father had died the year before, and finances were tight, he stayed home longer than he should have for fear of incurring a medical bill. By the time he went to the hospital it was too late.

Special thanks to Jen Gentile, author of the original article that appeared in the Melrose Weekly News on Friday, November 26, 2010.