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Football and basketball player, tennis champ, ski school owner and instructor, avalanche expert, tennis court caretaker - Dean Williams has done it all. Even at the age of 91, the Juneau local finds time to pick up trash in Cope Park, once known as Evergreen Bowl, and shoo skateboarders off the park's tennis court, his namesake.

"I'm up here practically every day," Williams said. "Even on days when I don't play tennis, I walk to get my exercise."

Originally the scene for mining, Evergreen Bowl was the amphitheater on the southeast bank of Gold Creek that housed Wagner's Pond (likely named for Nick Wagner who operated a dairy in the area).

The bowl was later named after Bill Cope - owner of Foodland and 20th Century Market (where the downtown McDonald's is today), who also was a captain of the Juneau Volunteer Fire Department and baseball player.

As a boy, Williams remembers when Cope Park wasn't even a park.

"It used to be called Evergreen Bowl, kind of named after the miners who were around here," Williams said. "They always liked the fact that they had some nice spruce trees going down the mountain. So that was how it got it's name."

SWIMMING and SKIING

More than 80 years ago, the park was very primitive.

"The drainage was never established here," Williams said. "There was a lot of water that would come in. It's all piped underground now, but it would run off under here and fill this place up 20 feet deep."

In fact, Williams remembers coming to the park as a little boy to sail boats and build rafts with his friend, the late Judge Tom Stewart.

In a transcripted interview on the Juneau-Douglas City Museum's Web site, Stewart remembered the area:

"For me, my playground was Gold Creek and what was called 'The Pond,' known today as Cope Park or Evergreen Bowl. ... In the summertime, we would build rafts and float around on the lake, and in the wintertime, it would freeze over and we would ice skate."

Also during the winter seasons, the hill behind the tennis courts now was used for skiing (from about 1935 to 1970). The Alaska Emergency Relief Administration built a toboggan and ski slide in 1935, and the Juneau Ski Club installed a rope tow in 1948. Williams was one of the instructors who taught free skiing lessons there.

CHANGE and IMPROVEMENTS

According to the 1979 "The Centennial Gazetteer," which was published for the Juneau centennial by the Gastineau Channel Centennial Association, Evergreen Bowl was improved for recreation purposes by the U.S. Forest Service in 1934. In 1941, a pool was dedicated, and other facilities, including horseshoe and tennis courts and a field for baseball and softball, were established.

"But it wasn't kept up," Williams said. "It was a very meager type of a park. It didn't get too much use from anybody. The tennis courts were practically nothing. They were terrible. They didn't even have a fence around them; you had to go shagging the balls."

The Gazetteer also notes that Cope "was instrumental in persuading the city of Juneau to purchase the bowl from A.J. Industries," the successor to the Alaska-Juneau Gold Mining Co. The city eventually bought the bowl in 1960 for $20,000.

Around that time, Williams became chairman of an unofficial parks and recreation committee. The group, which met once or twice a week, was made up of six people.

"Our committee is pretty well gone," Williams said. "We didn't have much written record of it, but Jennie Renshaw and Kurt Bach - they were the two who were really most active with me.

Williams said most of his friends from those times have passed on.

COPE PARK

Thinking they should make something of the Evergreen Bowl, Williams and his parks and recreation group got organized.

"I said to them, 'Let's go down to the bowl some night and spend some time. We'll get the city Assembly to come down, spend an hour or two and tell them what we think should be done with it,'" Williams said. "They thought that was a great idea, but said, 'We need money.'"

According to Williams, the endeavor earned the support of then-Mayor Wayne Johnson (1961) and succeeding Mayor Larry Parker (1961-67). Also at the time, Cope had wanted to donate "$40,000 to $50,000 to a worthwhile project here in Juneau," Williams said.

"And I got a hold of him and said, 'The most worthwhile thing I can think of is down there at Evergreen Bowl,'" he said.

Cope died from a heart attack in 1975, leaving the park in the care of the fire department.

"So we got together with them, and one of my strongest points was, of all things, Cope was a athlete; he was a baseball player," Williams explained. "So this would be more appropriate if his money went for that, and they agreed and went ahead and did it."

Evergreen Bowl was officially renamed Cope Park on Nov. 8, 1977.

"So many people have come in since 1959, and they don't know anything about it. They just think it's a beautiful park, but they don't know how it got there. But now ... we've got thousands of people every year who use that park."

Parks & Recreation Director Marc Matsil agreed, saying Cope Park is a central gathering point for downtown recreational activity.

"From hiking, picnics and play equipment to pick-up ball and tennis, the park provides a diverse venue for active families and individuals," he said.

TODAY and TOMORROW

The Cope Park tennis courts were dedicated to Williams in 1993, and the city's Maintenance Department in Douglas has provided Williams with the necessary supplies and tools to keep the court maintained.

"They figured as long as Dean's alive, he's going to take care of these courts," Williams said of his role as caretaker of the Dean Williams Tennis Court. "And I'm still doing it."

Matsil called Williams a "great advocate for the park." He praised both Cope and Williams for their roles in making the park what it is today.

"Both were great advocates for Juneau youth and recreation programs and served as guardians and champions of the park," Matsil said. "Dean continues to advocate for the park and remains a fixture of Juneau's tennis scene."

As far as recent changes, the much-awaited construction of restrooms adjacent to the tennis courts was completed last year. Enhanced plantings also were installed at the entrance, a cooperative project of Parks and Rec and Juneau Urban Forestry Partnership.

"I hope that it continues and they make improvements as they can - take care of what we got," Williams said.

In the future, Williams will look to his son, Gordy Williams, 57, and possibly his friend, David Ottoson, to help continue as the courts' caretakers.

• Contact Neighbors editor Kim Andree at 523-2272 or kim.andree@juneauempire.com.