The 'go-betweener' bridges racial divide

It's late Wednesday and the Boston Celtics are winning again.

Here at Lew's Place, a bar above a hockey rink and indoor soccer fields at Tewksbury Sports World, a dozen or so recreational players enjoy beers and cheer on the Green. Lewis Reese, the bar's 73-year-old owner, looks on with his arms crossed and smiles.

"Last year, no one cared about the Celtics," he said. "Now, everyone is a fan."

As the surging Celtics make their run for the playoffs, Reese has used the renewed interest in the Green to point out a close friend - Celtic legend Bill Russell. To anyone who will listen, he will talk about how Russell led the Celtics to 11 NBA championships, how the towering center endured countless episodes of racial abuse while in Boston, and about the time he worked at Russell's restaurant and met many famous black athletes.

"Russell was the greatest basketball player ever," said Reese, who also roomed with former Red Sox pitcher Earl Wilson. "And hardly anybody here knows about him. It's sad."

But Reese doesn't stop at Russell. On the walls of his bar are photos of other great black athletes, like Wilt Chamberlain and Muhammad Ali. And notes from the athletes as well as sportswriters, not to mention a life-size cutout of Yankee great Reggie Jackson. (Yes, Reese is a Yankees fan.)

For nearly four decades, Reese has been like an ambassador for black America in this mostly white part of Massachusetts - someone who is able to introduce black culture to area residents by just being himself. Since 1972, he has been a fixture in Tewksbury as a tennis trainer, health club manager, and now a bar owner. Using sports as a venue, he says, he has tried to open up Tewksbury to black history and civil rights, while also bringing famous black athletes to the area to meet locals.

"It's just something I'm comfortable with," said Reese, who lived in Tewksbury until he moved to neighboring Lowell a few years ago. "I like being the go-betweener, so to speak. And people here have been very nice."

Born in Atlanta in 1934, the unlikely transplant came to attend Boston University. He had spent most of his youth in the segregated South and made occasional trips north with his mother. But after attending an all-black high school in North Carolina and attending two years at Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta, he wanted to go to a place where "there weren't a lot of black people everywhere" he went.

"So, I decided to come to Boston," he said. That was in the 1950s.

Soon he was working for Cecil and Lee Steen, a couple who were in the record business. Then, the Steens had an idea: What if they built a health club in Tewksbury and hired Reese, who had played tennis in high school, as an instructor? The health club craze had yet to begin and Merrimack Valley residents had to go all the way to Boston or New Hampshire to join a tennis club.

The Northmeadow Tennis Club became a hit when it opened in 1972, said Lee Steen, now 75. She remembers the place as always crowded and booming with activity. And Reese became a popular figure in town.

"When the club first opened, a lot of the members had never seen or they didn't know a black person," said Steen, who is white. "But he made them feel comfortable. He had a gift of getting along with people by playfully insulting them."

Steen said Reese's presence helped during a time when Boston was undergoing tremendous racial strife centered on school busing.

Reese observed the racial unrest in Boston from afar, tormented.

"What was going on bothered me a lot," he said in his bar, which is on the same site as the former tennis club, now called Tewksbury Sports World. "That was a time of a lot of change, and I wanted to do something."

He decided to start educating area residents about the struggles of black athletes and showcasing them whenever he could. He also started voting.

As the Northmeadow Tennis Club grew more popular, well-known members of the Celtics, Bruins, and Red Sox would trek up to the health center. Black athletes saw Reese and gravitated toward him as he introduced them to local residents.

Curiously, he remembers, Russell stayed away despite their friendship. "He just kept to himself," said Reese. "There was a lot of pain there."

Despite the racial problems in Boston, Reese said he has rarely felt out of place in the Merrimack Valley. Only a few times did he experience any direct racial discrimination. There have been some odd incidents, to be sure. Recently, he said, a local Dunkin' Donuts called the police when he made the mistake of asking for ice cream at its drive-through.

Reese said he feels it is his obligation to tell anyone who will listen about the history of black athletes in America. If anyone has questions about those who adorn his walls, he has stories about them to tell, he said.

"He knows a lot of people," said Joshua Reese, his 27-year-old son, who is also on the wall in a photo with Russell. "He's always talking about them."

Tewksbury's racial demographics haven't changed much in the time Reese has called the town his home. About 96 percent of its approximately 29,000 residents are white and less than 1 percent is black, according to the US Census. That's about the same makeup as about 30 years ago, said Reese.

Tewksbury Sports World is no longer the hot social spot in the Merrimack Valley because residents have more options. It's now a place for recreational hockey and indoor soccer organized by the Fun Sport and Social Group of Boston. People who use the facilities are younger and come from all over the state and country.

Reese said that doesn't matter. People still need to hear about what black athletes in the Boston area went through. Like Bill Russell.

"He's still the greatest," Reese said, pointing to a photo of the Celtic, who later coached the Green. "Even with [the Celtics] doing well now, he's still the greatest."

Russell Contreras can be reached at rcontreras@globe.com.