Orange Bowl renovates Miami Gardens park named in honor of legendary coach

The Orange blazers were out in full force on Tuesday afternoon.

With South Florida set to host the College Football Playoff National Championship Game on Monday night and with the added excitement of the hometown University of Miami Hurricanes in the game, the Orange Bowl Committee, the 2026 Miami Host Committee and Miami-Dade County officials held a very special event.

A real who’s who of Orange Bowl, South Florida and College Football dignitaries were on hand at Walt Frazier Park in Miami Gardens to formally cut the ribbon and unveil their newest legacy project, Orange Bowl Field at Walt Frazier Park, 3201 NW 185th Street. The park, located right next to Miami Carol City High School, underwent a $2.3 million renovation that includes a synthetic football field, an electronic scoreboard and other refurbishments.

With OB Committee Chief Executive Officer Eric Poms serving as Master of Ceremonies, guest speakers included Miami-Dade County Mayor Danielle Levine Cava, Miami-Dade County Commissioner (and former Miami Gardens Mayor) Oliver Gilbert, former Miami Dolphin great Nat Moore (now SVP of Special Projects & Alumni Relations) and Rich Clark, Executive Director of the College Football Playoff.

But the most important guest speaker on hand was Walt Frazier himself. Accompanied by his family, close friends and even a half dozen of his former players, all rose to their feet when Frazier was called up to the podium to say a few words.

“I was humbled and honored when I first heard the news,” said Frazier over first learning the field at the park would also have his name on it. “The objective as a coach for me has always been to reach down and help every young man get to a point in life where he can get in a position and do the same thing, to try and create a kind of butterfly effect. Hopefully to allow others to do what I did and carry on the same way.

“Having a park like this and now a field like this will only help that happen.”

Frazier took over as the head football coach at Carol City in 1985 and went on to coach the Chiefs for 22 consecutive seasons. He reached the state final in 1989 before settling for a runner-up finish, but enjoyed his highlight of success in the mid-90s. With the likes of Santana Moss and Ethnic Sands on his roster, Frazier led the Chiefs to back-to-back state titles in 1996-97. Six years later in 2003, Frazier, whose signature attire on the sidelines was always a train engineer’s cap, won a third state championship.

“Walt Frazier didn’t just invest in young men as football players, he invested in young men to become quality members of a community and that’s what he created,” Gilbert said. “His legacy, while this park and this field is named after him, it’s not just football. His legacy is the leadership that he produced by example. The character that he produced by example. It was special, it remains special and the butterfly effect of his leadership and his service will last forever.”

What started in 2009 with the refurbishment of Moore Park in Miami near Overtown, the renovation of Walt Frazier Park was the Orange Bowl’s seventh legacy project and fourth in Miami-Dade County, joining Moore Park, Ives Estates Park in North Miami Beach and Harris Field in Homestead. Totaling over $27 million in improvements, Carter Park in Fort Lauderdale and Mitchell Moore Park in Pompano Beach are the two legacy projects in Broward and an eighth installment at Kendall Boys & Girls Club in South Miami is a little more than a year away.

“Thank you Coach Walt Frazier for taking so many of these young men and women to the next level,” Clark said. “Thank you for your leadership and for developing our future.”

Legacy Programs are one of the four pillars of Orange Bowl Cares, its overarching community outreach program which also includes Community Engagement, Education and Youth Sports.

“This Legacy Program by the Orange Bowl, it’s not just what it does for the sport but what it does for the entire community,” Levine Cava said. “It is truly, just monumental. Such a great example for our country, something that has delivered more than 27 million in improvements to our parks and recreation spaces and something for which we give great honor and great sense to our Orange Bowl Committee. To the families of Miami Gardens, this park is yours.”

Said Frazier: “The objective as a coach for me was to always reach down and help every young man get to a point in life where he can get in a position and do the same thing. Continue to help somebody else to be somebody. One of the things that’s very important to me was not what we were paid as coaches, not being the top men in the neighborhood, but to be the guy that had an opportunity to get young boys to be young men. It’s all about sacrifice. Do those things that were necessary to get them from point A to point B.”

This story was originally published January 14, 2026 at 7:36 AM.