Our History

Harry and Dennis Wilson founded the Boston Raiders Youth Football and Cheerleading Club in 1975, as a vehicle to reach and positively influence the lives of community youth before their attitudes and beliefs about life became permanently distorted. He saw the need for a complete Youth Development program to engage youth in a mental and physical activity that required them to be disciplined, to learn how to respect each other and to work as a team. They also believed that by promoting a basic, family-centered value system, they could help to counteract the negative effects of the violence, guns, crime and jail to which the young people were constantly being exposed. Using his own funds and contributions from parents, the Mr. Wilson recruited youth in Boston's inner-cities who then as now had limited activities in which they could participate after school, on weekends and during school vacations. Since these early days the Boston Raiders Inc. has sustained its tradition of being a family centered program that focuses on the needs of inner-city youth, while involving and providing support for the oftentimes stressed families from which many of the youth come.