A Place to Play
A history of Joe McCabe and the Joseph McCabe Memorial Park
The Texas Avenue playground in Atlantic City bears the name of our father, Joseph McCabe. We created this website to spread awareness to the Atlantic City community who use the Joseph McCabe/Gary Clark Memorial Park of the man we knew as Dad. Although he has been gone since 1983, we are so happy to know that his spirit remains alive in Atlantic City — a place where he lived, worked and played. We hope you enjoy this brief glimpse into the life of Joseph McCabe.
Maureen “Merry” McCabe and Christine “Chrissy” McCabe Simms
The McCabe Family, c. 1940
On August 22, 1917, Mary (O'Donnell) and Joseph McCabe gave birth to their first child, Joseph (Joe) McCabe (pictured top left), in a South Philadelphia neighborhood close to Mary's siblings, the O'Donnell and O'Malley families. Joe was the oldest of six siblings; the seventh, Theresa, died as a toddler.
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By 1924 the family moved to Atlantic City where they put down strong roots. Even today, you will find countless McCabes, Owens and Walraths of the next generation scattered throughout the Atlantic City area.
Since Joe's death in 1983, we, as his daughters, assumed that everyone would know of the legend of this playground. Time has passed, Joe and his generation have died and the memories are fading. It is left to us — his daughters, with the help of his beloved grandchildren — to share the story of this ordinary man whose love for the people of Atlantic City, of sports and most of all, his love of children, made him larger than life to all who knew him.
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The first sign of this love for children showed up during his first year as a young student at Temple. His awareness of the financial distress of his family moved him to quit college, return home and get a job to help support his siblings. Joe had a brilliant mind with interests that ranged from sports to literature and music. His hope was to become a writer. Although his grief at leaving college must have been profound, we never saw this side of him. Instead, we heard the tales of love and hard work that were a natural response to his family's needs. There was no bitterness. The Irish have a way of turning loss into laughter. He was as Irish as they come.
Joe became a mailman and carried that heavy leather mailbag on his strong shoulder with great joy as his work afforded him the chance to talk with and help others. It was in the early years as a mailman that he began using the art of letter writing to heal broken relationships. Over time the Atlantic City community noticed that those in a conflict would frequently receive letters from each other that tried to mend the ongoing conflict. The fact that these letters were written by Joe was either unknown or accepted as his goodwill and a catalyst for relationship repair. His strategy generally worked!
Joe married the love of his life, Franny Garr, at the onset of WWII. After joining the Navy, Joe spent several years of the war in the South Pacific. He returned home to raise the two of us, his daughters along with our Mom. His siblings and family were now a major part of supporting our smaller family with their love and care.
It was inevitable that Joe's passion for sports and working with children would weave together. Soon enough he began coaching kids' baseball and football teams in the Inlet area. During the Korean Conflict in the 1950s, he covered for the two service enlisted coaches at Holy Spirit High School, coaching football, basketball and baseball.
His dear friend Sam Greenberg, our Uncle Sam, pulled him into helping run the kids summer camp, "Camp by the Sea," at the Jewish Community Center in Atlantic City. This was the extra summer job he treasured!
Soon the Catholic Youth Organization, CYO, noticed his impact on the citys youth and pulled him in to run multiple sports leagues over many years. Ultimately, he made his foray into girls sports, coaching girls basketball with our mom as his partner. As a scout for the Detroit Tigers, he supported the local athletes getting the attention they deserved from the pro teams.
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Beyond coaching, he played league basketball as a young man turning to tennis in his later years. Joe was determined to master tennis despite never having had one lesson. His star quality was fueled by his love of the game and pure hustle! His loves were diverse. On the old TV in our home sat a bust of Beethoven, a plaque of his favorite Irish playwright, Sean O'Casey, and the New York Glant great, Willy Mays. As he was dying, his favorite college football team of many years, Yale, sent a card and a football signed by coach Carmen Cozza and the team to “Yale's biggest fan.”
And last of all, it was his love of his grandchildren Christopher Ryan, Adam Ryan and Stefanie Ryan Claypoole that was amazing to watch. This crew of Pennsylvanians along with Christine, their mother, regularly showed up for a weekend or weeks in the summer. Their Poppy would come home after a full day's work to three faces eager to play. Exhaustion didn't stop him from the joy of a trip to the rides up on the boardwalk. He gave himself fully and lovingly.
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The Atlantic City Council made the decision to dedicate this playground after his death on February 10, 1983. The only reason given was, "he loved the children of this city so much."
We, his daughters, could never dream of a better or truer reason. Joe's whole life was one of love. We hope that through this website, his name on a playground sign will take on a meaning for all those who enter to play.
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Finally, we share our father's writing about a soft Sunday morning; we wish you all your own soft Sundays.
Merry and Chrissy
Joe McCabe Memorial Park
Texas Avenue Playground
Fairmont Ave. and N Texas Ave.
Atlantic City, NJ 08401