On Wednesday, June 27, Cranston Mayor Allan Fung was joined by friends and family of the late Richard “Dick” Ernst, a legendary Rhode Island coach and teacher, to unveil a new sign to honor his legacy and officially named the tennis courts at Cranston Stadium “The Richard ‘Dick’ Ernst Tennis Complex.”

The unveiling comes after the City Council passed a Mayor-sponsored resolution last year to rename the courts after the coach, who died in 2010.

Mayor Fung, who was coached by Ernst while attending Rhode Island College, said Ernst “above all else, truly cared about the generations of kids he taught and coached during his extraordinary career that began in the early 1960’s.”

“Dick cared about making sure we not only cared about tennis, but to be good people. He cared about the next generation, pushing all of us to continue to not only play tennis, but play what we wanted and do well in school,” said Fung during a brief ceremony to unveil the new sign. “We wanted, as a city, to remember his legacy and to teach it to the next generations.”

Ernst coached 115 boys’ and girls’ hockey and tennis teams over 54 years and ran Cranston’s summer tennis program at Cranston Stadium for 27 years. As a coach, he led his teams to countless wins and championships.