Reardon agrees, and points out that Ohiri was an anomaly in the world of Harvard athletics in the early 1960s.

“He was not in the usual form of recruited athlete. But he arrived here, and he could kick a soccer ball like you can’t believe,” he says. “He scored a ton of goals, and you would not like to be on the other side of the ball coming at you.”

LEGACY TODAY

The Harvard Crimson wrote a feature about Ohiri on Oct. 18, 1961, early in his sophomore year. Three games into his varsity career, the title of the article reads, “Ohiri Leads Varsity, May Surpass Present Individual Soccer Records.” Bruce Monro, the coach at the time, said Ohiri was, “probably the greatest college soccer player in the U.S.”

Women’s soccer coach Ray Leone says that he does what he can to educate his team and honor Ohiri’s legacy.

“Our team kind of gives tribute to him and touches that rock [memorializing Ohiri] before we go onto the field when we play [home] games,” he says. “It started a few years ago to just give a quiet tribute to him and appreciate that we even have the opportunity to do what we do.”

But both Reardon and Malin agree that the community is generally unaware of the history of the field’s namesake. When he can, Malin says he tries to tell Ohiri’s story to the soccer teams.

“I don’t think really today people know much about Ohiri at all except that he’s a legendary player from the 60s,” Malin says. “But that’s understandable. To a lot of students today, it’s just another name.”

Reardon comments that keeping the community informed about the origins of facility and building names is a challenge.

“Time does things,” Reardon says. “You die, and no matter what you do, people forget you, unless somebody writes a book about you. I think alumni at that time knew a lot about [Ohiri], but I think over the years…people [have forgotten] about him.”

—Staff writer E. Benjamin Samuels can be reached at samuels@college.harvard.edu.