INDIANAPOLIS — A playing field at an Indianapolis park now honors a beloved youth football coach who was killed in a shooting earlier this year.
The multi-purpose field at Tarkington Park will be renamed the "Richard 'Coach Nell' Hamilton Field." Hamilton coached the Indy Steelers football program, which played on the field that now bears his name.
Indy Parks approved the naming proposal on Tuesday.
Hamilton, better known as "Coach Nell," was killed in a road rage shooting at Interstate 65 and County Line Road on Jan. 11.
Hamilton mentored children who played in the Indy Steelers program for two decades.
“It hit me hard because, to all of us, he was basically our father more than our coach,” said Miguel Downey, one of Hamilton’s Steelers players.
“When you mentor kids and you coach, you don’t know the impact you have until you are gone,” said Damon Lee, Hamilton’s cousin, said during a vigil in the week after the shooting.
